I have body issues. There days I look in the mirror and feel “skinny fat.” That means I feel skinny and fat at the same time. It sucks!
But I’m lucky. I only feel this way from time to time. There was a time that I felt it all the time.
I was a skinny kid. I was shy and I didn’t have a lot of friends. I hated being skinny. I desperately wanted to be bigger. I thought it would solve all my problems.
Flash forward to university, playing football, and I was even worse. No matter how strong I got, it wasn’t enough. I worked out until I threw up, couldn’t walk, could hardly get out of bed.
It got even worse after university. I worked out harder, and lifted heavier. I ate like a demon. Nothing matter but fixing the skinny guy I saw in the mirror.
Then at about 30, it dawned on me this was completely crazy! I was sitting on the couch with my son who was two. He wanted something to drink and I thought, “I have to get up and go all the way to the kitchen! That stinks.”
As soon as I thought that I felt like a complete moron! I was a trainer. My job was to help people get fit, and here I was complaining in my own head about walking to the kitchen!
At the time I weighed 245 lbs. I was the strongest I had ever been in my life. I could dead lift 600 lbs, squat 550 lbs. Bench over 345 lbs. I was by most anyone accounts big and strong, but I was thinking it was hard to walk to the kitchen.
Since that day I have treated fitness completely differently. I still love the idea of being big and strong. It’s hard to give it up. Some times I feel skinny and weak. But when those times come, I remember how stupid I felt on the couch that day.
To change your life you need to change your mindset. I’m a lot happier overall now than I was then. I feel good everyday. I have lots energy and it all came from changing my mind, and doing something different.
Change your thoughts on what you want to look like, and how you want to be. Pick healthy and happy not whatever craziness you have dreamed up like I did. It’s well worth it!
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Devin Sherrington was named #2 trainer in Canada 2015, is 8 time Best Personal Fitness Trainer Halifax award winner, and owner the award winning fitness studio 360fit in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He lives in Fletcher’s Lake with his girlfriend Lauren and children Reign and Journey.