About Kyra

Uncomfortable physically and mentally, I was barely able to squeeze into my jeans.  Alcohol and male attention were used to boost my confidence.  I felt terrible about myself but I was in denial.  I remember when I was getting out the backseat of a friend’s car and the inseam of my designer jeans ripped, which became a normal occurrence.  I had to get patches sewn into the inseam of my jeans all the time because I was in denial that I needed a larger size.

Every day I made absolutely sure that my outfits were put together perfectly, I stayed extremely tan year-round, my hair was perfectly blonde with no roots and every last detail in my appearance was perfect, because that was the easy part.  The hard part was to actually do something about what I was truly insecure about.

Despite my bulging belly, I took a break from the pool one summer day at my parents’ house and walked inside to get some chips and fruit juice.  The towel that was hiding my belly fell and in a very jovial way my dad poked at my belly and asked what “that” was.  He was kidding around with me, but it needed to be said.  All 160 pounds of me returned back to college, still in denial but things were starting to make sense.  By the end of that summer, there was one day I looked down while I was wearing my favorite pink mini-skirt and I saw cellulite above my knees.  It was no longer something that could go unnoticed – it was there, visible to my eyes.  I knew I had to take control and it was never going to change unless I did something about it.

My mom was my go-to fitness guru.  I saw her transform over the years where she went from a size 10/12 to a size 2/4.  She taught me that how to lose weight was through “calories out vs. calories in,” and she was always a phone call away wipe away the tears and remind me to be patient.

Looking back now I realize that I did not understand what I was doing and that it was not the healthiest way to lose weight.  I tracked calories daily, careful to only consume 1000 each day.  I began eating meat, but my meals consisted of pre-packaged frozen foods, fruit cups and portion controlled cookies or crackers.

The elliptical was my best friend because I was intimidated by machines, free weights and even classes at my gym. I dropped 20 pounds within six months, then allowed myself to eat more but I continued to count calories and watch my portions.  My daily workout plan was just doing steady state cardio, but it got boring and it was easy to slack off.