To understand how I became the person I am today, I think it's important to look at the person I was and how I changed.

 

When I was in highscool I was very insecure about myself. 

I didn't like the way I looked: I thought I was very skinny, with no shapes, I didn't like my hair, my eyebrows, my teeth, my nose...and the list can go on.

Later on, when I went to college I started going to the gym because I have gained weight - especially on the hips and butt (not muscle, but fat) due to the unorganized way of eating and hectic schedule. One day I tried on my bathing suit and I did not like what I saw. I decided to do something about it and I started going to group fitness classes. I just loved it. I loved exercising so much, that I wanted to become a group fitness instructor. Said and done. Afterwards, I started teaching at several gyms: step, dance aerobics, circuit training, HIIT, tabata, spinning, yoga, pilates, strength and conditioning.

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In 2017 I started going to the gym and train myself seriously. I was training quite hard, I didn't start at a beginner level and it was difficult for me. I didn't enjoy it. At this moment, I was still not happy with the way I looked. So I was trying to train harder, but not paying attention to what I ate. Then I started dieting, I tried extreme measures to look the way I thought I was supposed to, the way society and social media tell us to. It was a struggle and I was not happy. However, I continued like this for three more years, until the pandemic came and all the gyms were closed. For eight months, I didn't train at all. I ate a lot of junk food and didn't pay attention to anything. I was depresed and unhappy. I gained weight (5 kg / 11lbs) and even when the gyms opened again, I was terrified to start all over again.

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In October 2020 I told myself I cannot continue like this. It took some courage to decide to go to the gym. This time, I didn't want to suffer. This time, I didn't want to struggle. I only wanted it to be fun. I started small, with easy exercises. I had no training program, I only trained basd on how I felt. For me it worked. I wanted to push harder every time. When I started, my max weight for squats was 40kg. I could do maximum 8 reps. In eight months, I did squats with 70kg: 4 reps. My weight being 49kg. When I started,  I couldn't do any pullups. After eight months, my maximum number of reps was 9 pull-up. 

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My advice: start easy, have fun and the results will come. I know this from my experience.