The day I joined I lacked self-confidence, something I was never lacking when I was younger. Somewhere between getting married and having kids I lost myself. I lost who I was, and didn’t know how to find that person again. I had no clue what I liked, what music I liked, what types of movies I enjoyed, or even what made me happy. My life was consumed with changing diapers, raising kids, cleaning a house, cooking food, and running errands. It was my job as a stay at home mom to make sure everyone was taken care of. Well, that can really take its toll on a person after a while. I began to feel alone and lost. I fell into a really dark place of negativity and anger. Every day I put on a fake smile, pretending that I was happy and life was great, yet my family knew I was unhappy. I did everything I could to avoid social settings, since I was the biggest I had ever been physically, mentally I was a mess, and emotionally, I was shut off. My anxiety grew stronger and stronger, eventually causing me to not want to even leave my home. It took everything in me just to go to the grocery store.
Anyways, it’s not uncommon for this to happen to women that were once in the workforce. We begin to doubt our independence and who we are. We question if we made the right decisions and where we went wrong in life to cause this unhappiness. Now, don’t get me wrong, we still love our kids and family, but we are lacking something in ourselves, something that was always there before. It’s like losing your cell phone for a long period of time, knowing you are not able to replace it, trying to figure out how you are going to survive, yet it’s much more detrimental to your well-being than losing a cell phone. At this point in my life I thought that attending school online would be my fix. I began to attend, and it helped. I got to socialize more with new people. I even made a great friend that became like a sister to me, yet, I found that school just brought on more stress in my life. This was just one more thing I had to do and worry about. Now, I am still currently enrolled in school and have almost completed my BS in psychology, but not sure if I will continue onto my MA just yet! At this point, I was still the same miserable, negative, lost soul but with added stress.
So, let’s cut forward to the day I decided to be a coach. It wasn’t just out of the blue, by the way, it took me an entire year to make this decision. Like I said, I had no self-confidence. Having never truly been successful at anything in my life, I didn’t believe I had what it took to help others, to change someone else’s life. After all, I couldn’t even change my own, how was I supposed to help others change theirs? Well, I saved up Christmas and Birthday money and ordered 21 Day Fix the day it released. Immediately my coach, Mindy, had me in a training group and was getting me set up and on my way. I still had no clue what I was in for. I thought I would last a month, then cancel and go back to miserable Alina, looking for a fix.
Well, to my surprise, I followed what my coach was doing and what I was being taught. I hit the first level in about 2 weeks of being a coach, and began earning enough that was covering my out of pocket. This began to change how I saw myself. I was able to do it, on my own, with support from my husband and coach. At this point I began beginning relationships with other Beachbody Coaches on my team, which soon became like family. I was also doing personal development, you know, working on myself as a person, daily. These things combined helped me to pull myself out of that dark, ugly, lonely, and miserable place. My anxiety was slowly dissipating and I was beginning to feel like the old Alina again. This was such a breath of fresh air.
So, my journey has created a lot of change for me, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. Physically I have lost 20 lbs and 34 total inches. I went from wearing a size 12/14 to a size 2/4. Yes, I dropped 10 sizes!! Those changes were amazing and all, but the biggest change I have made was my how I perceived myself and my life. I would have to say that this has been my biggest accomplishment since becoming a coach for Beachbody. This company truly cares about their coaches, and my team truly cares about me as a person. Now, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t only my team that helped through this. My husband has been my biggest fan and has supported every choice I have made, even before Beachbody. Although, I could not see this before because of the dark shadow I had hanging over me, although I see it today. Through my personal development I have made my marriage stronger and better, my relationship with my kids is stronger, and I truly believe in myself. I know that I am capable of accomplishing anything I want to take on. What once seemed dark and lonely, I now see as light and full of love. I no longer focus on the bad or negative things that happen in my life, but on the good that continues to happen all around me. No matter what up and downs my life has I know that I will always have the love of my family (Beachbody family included) and friends. I am so thankful for my husband’s hard work to keep a roof over our heads, food in our house, and his drive to try to make our lives better each day. Due to this, I strive hard daily to get my business where I want it to be, no, need it to be, so that he can rest a bit and not carry the weight of our family on his shoulders. One day soon I will replace his income so he can focus on what he wants to focus on, just as he has allowed me to do for the past 7 years.
If anything, I hope that you were able to take something away from this story. I hope that if you are feeling the way I once was that you are able to reach out your hand and find someone or something that can help guide you to that place you deserve to be in. If you don’t know where to turn, please feel free to contact me. I would be more than happy to be that hand you grab to help guide you out of the darkness. We should never feel alone, or think that no one else has been there. I hope to find you all in a happy light place right alongside me!