Fitness Fab: The Journey to a Healthier You, One Small Step at A Time

February 6, 2013 3:30 pm By Anjela Childs
fitness , well-being , work-out

My journey to a healthier and fitter me started after a health scare. For a while I was experiencing rapid heart beats that would take the wind out of me. The feelings also included dizzy spells and this overwhelming “sensation”. Often I felt like I wanted to pass out. One particular night, the feeling would not go away so I rushed over to the ER. Thinking they would just run some tests and send me home, I was horrified when the nurse came in to tell me that I was being admitted.

“Admitted? What do you mean? Like, I have to stay overnight?”

There I was, 34-years-old, in a hospital bed for the first time EVER with tubes, IV and monitors connected all over me. A woman who can count on her hands how many common colds she’s had in her life and still have fingers left over. I stayed in the hospital for 4 days while they tested me for everything under the sun.

Diagnosis?

“We’re not sure what’s wrong with you, all your tests have come back negative. But here’s some medicine we want you to take and call this cardiologist to make a follow-up appointment.”

Immediately I thought to myself – if they do not know what was happening to my body, then how do they know what medicine to prescribe? Scared, discouraged and defeated, I went home and crossed my fingers hoping I would just feel better. When I realized that the symptoms weren’t changing and a 2nd medical opinion still could not tell me what was happening to me, I decided to take my body and my health into my own hands. I took to Facebook/Twitter and created “Operation Fit Chick,” as a way to make my journey public so that my friends and family could see my progress.

Before my program, my fitness routine was non-existent. I never really watched what I ate, and the gym – forget it. The most I did was walk because I enjoyed the outdoors. This journey was completely new to me but I was determined to fix my heart and body NATURALLY.

I decided to walk everyday. Then after months of joining Black Girls RUN, an organization dedicated to “tackling the growing obesity epidemic in the African-American community”, I exchanged a couple of those walking days for jogging days. I also made conscious decisions on what food I put in my body.

I went hiking for the first time in my life and fell in love with it. I replaced juice with water. Everything I did I posted on Facebook and Twitter. My public journey as Operation Fit Chick began to evolve into a motivational page for the women I knew. As time went by, women around the country were coming together to support me and at the same time thank me for motivating them to get up and get moving. Within the first 2 months I lost 32 pounds! I did not have to join an expensive gym. I was not in a corner counting points or calories. There were no “lose weight fast” gimmicks. I did not starve myself or completely stop eating the things that I enjoy.