2025 Health & Fitness update

I’ve been contemplating for months how to share my current health/fitness journey.

I noticed the biggest changes in my health in 2023 when I was almost 41 – started gaining weight rapidly which resulted in an ankle injury, brain fog, , tired, more anxiety…  honestly it’s been downhill since then.

This year, 2025, I have felt burnt out from my Fitness so I stopped posting regular pictures and updates on social media.  I’ve been doing a deep dive into my health with specialists and doctors trying to figure out my 45 pound weight gain in the last 5 years. More about that in a minute…

Back when I started my health/fitness journey and blogging back in 2011; I started at 250 pounds after the birth of my son in 2010. By 2014 I had lost almost 100  pounds naturally weighing in at my lowest of 153. I was so proud of myself! I worked extremely hard every day with logging my food, making my meals and exercising!

From the years 2015 to 2020 I weighed between 160 and 170 pounds. I got several certifications for health and fitness and started teaching more and more classes at the gym and online- upwards to 7 classes per week. I loved it and I felt great!

In 2023 I started gaining weight and weighed in at 195 pounds. I hadn’t changed anything with my fitness and eating routines. I was still logging my food, eating around the same kind of calories and doing a variety of workouts. Then in 2024 I had a lot of sickness which resulted in multiple antibiotics and doctors visits, along with moving and going through a divorce, which is still going on almost 2 years later.

As my weight continued to creep up, my teaching group exercise classes started to decrease as my body hurt and wasn’t recovering like it used to 45 pounds less ago.

This year I have read tons of books about perimenopause, continued to do intermittent fasting, logging macros and calories, food journaling, hours of food prep every week, marriage counseling, saw a registered dietitian for several months to dial in my nutrition, multiple blood tests every couple months, hormone and functional doctor, HRT. As you can imagine, it’s been extremely expensive and a very frustrating year because none of these things have given me the results I’m looking for: Weight loss, energy, less brain fog, better sleep.

I continue to meal plan, eat healthy, log my food, exercise, and walk almost every day; but I am so burnt out from not seeing the results. Ive been experiencing aches and pains almost on a daily basis, which is extremely frustrating and makes exercising/Movement hard some days.

From starting at 250 pounds down to 153 pounds back up to 215 pounds currently has been so hard on me emotionally and physically. I want to feel good and exercise and recover quickly, but this weight that I currently have makes it so hard to do. I feel insecure about teaching group fitness classes, almost like I’m a fraud because I haven’t been able to lose this weight despite doing all of the “textbook” things that typically work.

I’m not going to give up! I love moving my body and working out and will continue to do so despite the challenges. I know many of you are experiencing the same challenges with body limitations, pain, weight gain, health issues, etc. I pray that as a community we can encourage each other and help each other.

Thank you for being a part of my blogging community and Walk Strong Roanoke team! You bring me joy and purpose every day!