My Story - Dusty Salyer
Early October, 2015. I woke up late for work after an evening of binge eating pizza, breadsticks, and Diet Coke, and was forced to realize I needed to make a major change. At that time, my joints hurt all of the time, I was swollen and bloated, and above all else I felt absolutely horrible about myself. I had no confidence left, and didn’t feel good in my own skin anymore. I felt weighed down, sick to my stomach, and most of my clothes must have shrunk in the washer again *shrug*. I was 235lbs, 5’6”, and my BMI was classified as significantly over the “obese” threshold. It was far past time to do something about it.
Embarrassment, shame, and jealousy of “fit” people’s metabolisms all contributed to my self-defeating mentality that set in as soon as I woke up the following Monday (‘Day One’ as I like to call it). Of course I’d done the same process a million times, starting a diet then a day or two later making one wrong food choice, leading to a cascade of 10 more bad food choices that day. That inevitably spiraled and led to rescheduling my diet start date for the following Monday. Let’s face it, we all do the “I’ve ruined the week already, I really need to start on a Monday” thing. This time was different though. I pushed through that feeling of piercing dread that came along with the words “limitation”, “calorie restriction”, and god-forbid… “exercise”, and made a decision inside myself.
The first couple weeks of dieting went just fine. Low carb life wasn’t so bad after all. I’d lost about 10lbs and I was definitely seeing some changes in my body, but not in the most important part to me, my energy levels. I was still feeling sluggish and sleeping funny, and my joints were still stiff and sore. This is just not how a 25 year old should feel. I eventually opened my phone, Googled my symptoms, and scoured the entire site to find the only non-terrifying diagnosis on WebMD. The general consensus after all my internet science… I was sedentary and ate badly, go figure. I was likely a victim of various nutrient deficiencies and dehydration leading to my low energy levels and terrible sleeping patterns.
Once I started to replace my (extremely limited) diet of pickles, various deli meats, cheeses, and the one meal I regularly made (Low Carb wraps stuffed with cheese, pepperoni, and pizza sauce) with a diet rich in natural fats, salads, and slowly introducing various vegetables, I really started to feel better overall. I was more optimistic, energetic, my skin was looking great, and I was sleeping much better (likely because I wasn’t eating all the way up to bedtime). I had to choke the new things down until I got used to it, but after a few months of shaking my addiction from sugar and processed foods, healthier options started to become more flavorful. Like quitting smoking and all of your senses comes back, when your pallet is used to these overly sweet options, anything that doesn’t live up to that deliciousness just doesn’t taste good.
After a couple of weeks, I started to take walks around my building during lunch, getting up to do some crunches here and there, and even dabbling in a website that offered beginner follow-along workouts once a week. I felt super uncomfortable, out of place, and fully believed that nothing good would come of it. Luckily, despite my stubborn mindset, I stuck with the online workouts for another few weeks, and actually started to feel and see the changes within myself. I began to walk more briskly, my back hurt less after hours sitting at my desk, and I even felt like I had some extra energy by the end of the day. I still had a long way to go, but I was getting there. From that point on, it was relatively easy to just slip in an extra workout each week, and mark off another day on the calendar. Before I knew it, I was exercising 4 days a week, and finally decided to join a gym.
I must say that transitioning from a mostly sedentary lifestyle to an active one was (to say the very least) a challenge for me. Being overweight all of my life, I was made fun of in gym class any time I would fail to do a pull up or roll in last place for the 1-mile test. Because of my lack of confidence in physical activity from a young age, as an adult I felt like anything I tried to do in a gym would be wrong, someone would humiliatingly walk up and correct me, or even worse I’d hurt myself and be stuck with a huge hospital bill. It was overwhelming, but looking back there are a few steps I’m very glad I took.
1. Remember that nobody in the gym is there to stare at you. They are there to get a workout and get out of there.
2. Buy yourself a set of comfortable, dry-fit workout clothes and tennis shoes.
3. Get a nice pair of wireless headphones. Drown everything else out, you’re there for your own fitness!
4. Everything gets better with time and practice. Having someone there to show you the ropes helps ease you in.
Just like everything else, getting comfortable in the gym is a slow process, but over time it becomes more natural and even enjoyable.
The moral of the story is, taking charge of my health was the most rewarding thing I have ever done. Digging myself out of my slump, deciding I wanted to feel better and do better has now led me down a path to want to help other people do the same thing for themselves. The reason I became a personal trainer was not because I wanted to make a ton of money, but because I wanted to help people to see that they have the power within themselves, not only to lose weight and get strong, but also to make good decisions in all aspects of their lives. It starts with Day 1, and you make progress from there.
