Featured Fitale – Joy Jackson

Hello, my name is Joy Jackson. I’m a night auditor, and urban fiction author. I’m a homebody that loves good movies, and good laughs. I started my weight loss journey in January of 2018 at 222 lbs.

I was depressed and down at the time. I was always sad and in a negative space. I was disgusted at what I was looking at in the mirror daily. This wasn’t me. I had let myself go, and I needed to find myself quick. I was driving everyone around me crazy.

I handled my journey by doing one thing at a time. My biggest problem was sodas, juices and bread. First I cut juice, sodas and all bread except for  my fried foods. (Yes I kept fried foods for a while.)

I made sure to watch my serving size as well. No more just fixing a plate. I wanted to be mindful of the amount I was eating.
It took me nearly a month to get all these things under control.

I remember feeling defeated because a whole month had passed and I was just getting it right.

I got on the scale at the end of the month and, i had lost 15 lbs. regardless. I was motivated to really turn it up a notch then. I realized that small changes was key.

I had already started walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes/4 days a week. I add on another 20 minutes and cut fried foods.

I continued to make small adjustments and that is what led me to where I am now. I’m 167 lbs. Down 55 lbs. I’ve maintained that for 2 months now, and i’m currently on a new journey to lose 15/20 more lbs.

A typical meal day for me would be eggs cooked any kind of way and turkey bacon with a few strawberries for breakfast. Lunch is almost always a salad or a homemade low carb pizza. I love them both, so it’s easy to eat them both a lot.

Dinner is either chicken or some type of fish with green beans or broccoli or anything green.

I try to stay away from starchy foods like potatoes or rice on a day to day basis, but I don’t completely cut them out.

After days of not eating them, I may enjoy a very small serving.  A snack may be a Premiere protein shake.  Caramel is my favorite flavor.

Sugar free jello cups and sugar free drink mix for my water, have both been a life saver.

I love a good snack in bed and flavor in anything I drink.  My favorite fitness activity is weight lifting. Never thought that would be so. It has helped
me rebuild my body.

Cardio only gave me a skinnier version of the out of shape body that I had.

It’s easy to stay motivated, because you’re not huffing and puffing and jumping around for 50 minutes in order to lose weight. You kind of lose yourself in the workout and get it done.

Motivation alone will not get you there though. Some days you’re not going to be motivated to be bothered with eating right or working out.

You have to do it anyway. Just like work or school or chores, no one is motivated to do those things.

It’s understood that they have to be done, so you just do them. The same goes for this journey. It’s understood that it has to be done, so you
don’t think about it.

You just do it.

The biggest misconception about this journey is that you have to be super strict on your food choices and working out all of these hours. It’s not.

It’s about balancing everything out.  Increase on the good things and decrease on the bad ones. There is room for all the foods that
you love, as long as you eat right eighty percent of the time.

The best advice that I could give anyone looking to get started on their fit journey, is to do one thing at a time. Make small changes. Make a checklist of all the things that you need to do, then one by one, do them.

Also follow fitness influencers on social media. I love a good transformation, and just telling myself that one day that’s going to be me, has been a goal of mine.

Look, goal achieved. You can do this. Especially if I can. Follow me on Instagram @chasingbodygoals as I continue on my journey. I still have that last few lbs to lose.

Will get there?  Of course I will.

Hopefully this has encouraged some to just do it already.