Say hello to Fit Girl Stephanie

From now on I may call myself a member of the #FITGIRLCODE crew and my name is Stephanie. Born and raised in the cheese city, Gouda, family roots in Colombia and now rocking the city of Rotterdam. I feel free to be me, and me is a Fit Girl, volunteer, employee at a university, dreamer, psychology student, loveable daughter ;), clown, “stupid” sister :p, motivator, girlfriend, sushi addict, friend and helper for those in need or just wanna have fun and do stuff we shouldn’t do.

Never in my 28 years on this planet I thought I would become a Fit Girl. As a child I was always active and playing outside, but needed to do that, to lose energy otherwise I would drive people crazy. My sport career started in Spain were my dad learned me to swim across the pool when I was four years old. If I succeeded I would get a children's sewing machine so that I could make clothes for my dolls. Good motivation skill. By the age of 5 I had my A and B swimming diploma and replaced my fashion career for a children’s play kitchen. HAHA - a girl's got to eat ;)

At school I also enjoyed the gym classes, I sucked in almost everything but I needed these exercise breaks, otherwise I couldn’t sit still in the classroom. My sport career during my childhood had some interesting combinations because I mixed gymnastics with swimming, karate with horseback-riding, street dance with working in a restaurant and I even had a one day career as a ballerina. After I graduated from secondary school I lost my interests in sports and needed more time to dream about life and boys, continued my fashion career at fashion school and trying to entertain people by making a complete fool out of myself. =) Back then I already figured out not to take life so seriously and lived by the quote: “SMILE while you still have teeth =)”.

[caption id="attachment_11265" align="alignnone" width="300"] “SMILE while you still have teeth =)”[/caption]

As almost every young woman going through puberty I also experienced my insecure moments were I found myself too fat or not beautiful. I always had curves and wasn’t a slender girl who fitted in cute small dresses. Back then we didn’t had Instagram filters or Kim Kardashian, so what you saw was what you got. But I know we all survived this through time, and what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, so….HIGH FIVE girls ;)

After I graduated from fashion school and figured out that I do have a creative mind but not enough to become the new Vivienne Westwood I decided to continue my study career. After four years I got by Bachelor of Economics, five different memberships at gyms, a cool collection of shoes and gained a lot of weight…

It felt like a kettlebell hit my head when after a few years I stood on the scales again… I became a curvaceous woman of 198lbs (90 kilograms). Pffff, what happened? When did it happen and because of what did it happen that I gained so much weight and was feeling like a wall ball?

And more important, “Why did nobody notify me?”. This was in 2010 and after I calmed down by watching a episode of Sex and the City and eating chocolate I decided that I needed to take responsibly for the state of my body, mind and health.

It took me three years to feel in balance again with body and mind but was still struggling to stay fit, change my lifestyle (food and physical health) and motivate myself to work out on a regular base. I managed to lose 33lbs (15 kilograms) with diets (WRONG), bootcamp workouts (GOOD), climbing mountains in New Zealand and Kenya and cycle up and down the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam (Damn… that Bridge is a pain in my cute ass ;) But after I managed to get myself in this Pink Supertrash dress for the wedding of my friend, I know I can rock anything.

[caption id="attachment_11258" align="alignleft" width="300"] July 2010 - August 2013[/caption]

Curious how I became a Fit Girl? Stay tuned as I will tell you all about my up’s and down’s, lack of knowledge about healthy food, the moment I decided to cut the crap and get off the couch, I didn’t had to trick myself anymore in believing that I actually love to work out and hope to continue my journey as a Fit Girl with YOU!

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going!

Stephanie