New Fit Girl In (Cyber)Town: Jasmine

Hi there! I'm Jasmine and in this post I'd like to introduce myself as one of the newest Fit girls! To start with the basics: I'm twenty six years old, am a cat lover, a Communications graduate and last September I started Law school. I know... you must think I'm crazy. But I guess I just like to study. Now that you know my name, how old I am and what I do in everyday life, we can jump to the interesting part. My background, my lowest 'fit-point' and my current situation.

Unfortunately, I've never been the type that is naturally very slim. Ever since I can remember it's been a struggle for me to not gain weight (because I loooove food). In my teens, I was already very occupied with my weight and body image. Always trying to get rid of one or two kilos. But the advantage I had back then was that I cycled at least an hour every day (to school and back), which really helped a lot to stay somewhat fit. Now I have a car... you do the math.

The black sheep
To be honest, I never really liked sports. Which is really strange because my parents were both (professional) athletes. So I was always kind of the black sheep of the family (being more interested in music, fashion, dance etc).

My mom had been training track and field with my grandfather since she was a little girl. When she was eighteen she moved to the US to go to college (where she studied Physical Health and Education. Duh, what else?). Of course she also remained a big track and field fanatic and she became US shot put champion. And she met my dad...

My dad (African-American) was studying at the same university and his goal was to become a professional American football player. And so he did. Eventually he played in the NFL (the largest professional American football league in the US) for twelve years and in his last season he even won the Super Bowl (the annual championship game).

So. Now you see how it's pretty strange that the only child of these two athletes has never really been interested in sports... Even my grandfather, who is eighty three, still participates fanatically in track and field competitions! Sports have never been, and probably never will be one of my favorite activities. But I have come to appreciate it more and more the past few months.

Enough is enough
Let's travel a bit back in time. It's spring 2012 and I'm on vacation in Bali with my mom and stepdad (cool!). Yes, super cool and fun and all. But on that vacation I was at my heaviest. My mom (who of course is always super fit) told me, "Jasmine, when we get back from this vacation, you really need to do something about your weight. " And she was right. I had been a little bit overweight for a while, but now I was really heading towards being unhealthy.

I just really love food, you know. And at that time I basically put anything and everything I liked in my mouth. This had to stop. Not only because of my appearance, but also concerning my health. I always say that I'm actually glad I can't eat anything I want without gaining weight. If that were the case I would probably eat and be super unhealthy. Because it wouldn't show anyway.

Pro-slow progress
Since we came back from that vacation in Bali in 2012, I really started to turn my lifestyle around. Not drastically and at once, but gradually. I started to really change my diet structurally (not without any struggle, of course) and since the beginning of this year I started working out three times a week (mostly strength training). Now, it's spring 2015 and I'm fifteen kilos lighter than in 2012 (thank god! no wait, thank me!).

Could I have done it faster? Absolutely. But in my opinion the number one priority is to get results and not necessarily to reach your goal as fast as possible. How often haven't we all experienced some kind of super strict diet, which made the kilos fly off? But once you stop they come back just as quick, and then some. That's why I'm pro-slow progress. When you really manage to change your lifestyle it's much more lasting than when you deprive yourself from everything for two months, only to fall back into your old eating habits afterwards. So, you might not get to where you want to be as fast as you want, so what? It's not like I'm less happy about my weight loss than if it had gone faster. But it is staying off now. Especially with the help and support of the #fitgirlcode community I'm glad to be a part of!

If you want to contact me about anything, you can always leave a comment and I will definitely respond!

I also just launched my own blog about fashion, (curly)hair and make-up. So don't forget to follow @jazzyjoyner on Instagram too!

Until the next post!

Love,

Jasmine