OMG Digital Magazine OMG Issue 269 27th July 2017 | Page 30

OMG Digital Magazine | 269 | Thursday 27 July 2017 • PAGE 30
This Woman
Will Inspire
You to Never
Give Up
on Your
Fitness Goals
Health
As told to Penny Wrenn
Cristin Wood, 29, thought
she’d always be “the
chubby girl.” Then she
decided to run a half
marathon for charity. And
try a new diet. And change
her attitude. fluke, or the beautiful weather, or maybe, after nearly a
year of running up to six times a week, I’d finally learned
to breathe properly. Whatever the reason, on this day, I
listened to the birds. I waved to other runners. It was the
farthest I’d ever run.
Here, an object lesson in how every journey is taken one
step at a time. March 2012 People started to notice a difference in me. I
was used to being the big girl, protective of my feelings.
I overcompensated with a super-tough persona—
friends called it my “beasty” behavior. One friend called
me Queenie, after the bully in the Berenstain Bears
books. But when one conversation turned to a woman
I’d normally say something negative about, I just moved
on to the next subject. My friend said, “Wait, where’s
Queenie?”
October 2010 I signed up for a half marathon to raise
money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I
weighed 210 pounds. I don’t know if you could even call
my first training session a run since mostly I walked. But
I’m not a quitter. And hey, I was still ahead of everybody
on the couch. In several months, I was jogging a
13-minute mile.
March 2011 While training, I had gained 25 pounds.
Working out more meant I was hungrier, and at work
there were always cookies to celebrate a retirement,
cake for a birthday. About a week before the race, I
started a 40-day vegan diet with a group from church.
Even though by day three I was tired, dizzy, and in
desperate need of a burger, soon I felt lighter, more
energetic. Yet when I saw a picture of myself from race
day, I couldn’t believe how big I was. So I decided to
continue running and stick with the diet for another
eight months.
September 2011 My first good run. Usually, I’d be
dreading each mile, noting every cramp and ache. But
this time, running didn’t feel like a chore. Maybe it was a
January 2012 I got licensed teaching Zumba, a fitness
class that uses dance, because I wanted to help people
like me, who were insecure and not sure how to improve
their health. Later I realized that an even better way to
help would be to become a health coach. (I received my
certification in June 2013.)
November 2012 Then I did something I never thought
I’d do: signed up for a bikini competition, the kind
where women pose onstage. I’d seen a friend compete
in one and thought, “I could do this.” I hadn’t become
some superathlete. But I craved the high of pushing
myself. I got to work lifting weights, doing cardio, and
eating mostly grilled chicken breasts and broccoli for six
months.
May 2013 I had been so busy serving as committee chair
for my sorority that I was cutting into my training time,
skipping exercise altogether, and stopping at Chick-
fil-A for a quick bite instead of doing meal prep at home.
So after I was elected treasurer, I stepped down to make
more time for fitness. It was a difficult decision, but my
priorities had to shift.
July 2013 I didn’t place in that bikini competition—
but over the course of my weight-loss journey, I shed
60 pounds and squeezed into size 4 jeans. When I first
laced up my running shoes in 2010, I didn’t know I
would come so far, but at every moment along the way,
I proved to myself that I could make the right choices,
keep pushing myself, and become the best version of
me.