Meet Fit Girl Ily
Ola Fit Girls! Meet Fit Girl Ily. I'm really delighted to be part of la #FITGIRLCODE familia!
I am a theatremaker & director by day, a soy-no-water-chai-tea-latte - addict by night and a certified weightlifting fanatic all day, every day. On FITGIRLCODE I'll be writing a variety of fitness, lifting & workout articles for you, in which I hope to inspire you to (further) p unleash your inner Fit Girl! But first things first #inmyJayzvoice : please allow me to reintroduce myself :-) The name is I-L-Y : -)
I’m 28, hail from Utrecht, The Netherlands and have a bloodline that goes all the way back to the borders of Senegal & Gambia, as both my parents are from Creole - Indian - Surinamese descent and the Dutch and the Surinamese share a long history between one another.
Theatre is my middle name and when I am not making it, teaching theatre class or directing theatrical plays you can be sure to find me either in your nearest Starbucks, shopping mall or if you are really lucky, at your local gym. London & Jamaica are my favorite places, I love me some gangstarap and I have made it into a sport to workout anywhere, whenever I can so do not be surprised if you see me getting a workout in anywhere outside of my hometown.
My Fit Journey
I'd love to tell you I have been a sports fanatic my whole life but I would be flat out lying to you so let me be real. I grew up being the fat kid. I use the word fat on purpose because that is the best way for me to describe how I felt back then. Since the age of six I had always been obese and when I turned 16 this spiraled into the morbide version of that disease. Call it genes, call it nutrition, call it a combination of both but weight, body image and depression (because of it) controlled a big part of my childhood and adolescence. When I was in my last year before graduating high school and got my class picture, a picture where I was sitting on a chair, looking more like one of my classmates mothers or aunts, a lightbulb went off in my head. I stared at the picture and saw a person I didn't want to be anymore. From that day on I made a promise to myself to change my habits and be the best possible version of me, I possibly could be. This promise to myself did come at a price though. I had set backs, lost tons of weight, gained all of it back, lost it again, developed an eating disorder, went to therapy , trained with a personal trainer, lost the weight again, gained some of it back and at one point almost gave up. I say almost and I say it proudly because during these years of struggle there was one person who kept me going and never gave up on me ; my big sister and fellow #FITGIRLCODE blogger, Iris.
Iris, during all these years supported me, even when I was at my lowest point, emotionally not stable, tipping the scale at almost 250 LB's and barely hanging in there. When I was down she always picked me up, drove me to my appointments, sat on my couch, made me eat food even when I didn't want to and above all she never, ever judged me.
As of december 2014 I can proudly say that I have been able to maintain a stable and healthy lifestyle that allows me to live, enjoy life and be successful in all endeavors I take on. For the first time in my life I enjoy being active, feeling soar, putting my body to work, eating healthy and taking responsibility for my health all by myself. I take just as much pride in my work accomplishments as I do to the one regarding my sports activities and have come to the conclusion that I feel more comfortable being a 'strong' girl than I have ever felt while I was trying to be a 'slim' girl. I approach working out as taking care of my self and see it as an appointment I'm in control over, just like a boss. And you know this thing about bosses, they never cancel on themselves ;-)
Never giving up
Last year, following my sister I joined a small gym in Nieuwegein where I steadily grew to the level of fitness where I am now guided, by my personal trainer. At this gym there are a lot of kickboxers and while I am not a kickboxer myself ( I have a mean low kick though... don't get it twisted) , the sports mentality I picked up there has become something I now live by ; winners aren't people who never fail, winners are people who never give up.
At the gym, just like in life I can be found mostly doing that, not giving up. I love olympic weightlifting, CrossFit inspired excersises, circuits, routines, sprinting, bootcamp, and have a love for combining, shortlisting and performing the best YouTube-excercise-video's out there, right in my own living room.
For #FITGIRLCODE I'll write about all of that and then some and if all goes well I might just start making my own video's just for you all :-)
I am looking forward to this new online adventure and hope to connect with you guys, if you have any questions you can hit me up on Instagram @ily_fitgirl or send an e-mail to mailvoorily@gmail.com
Talk soon,
ILY
