I was born in Dominican Republic, I moved to New York at the age of 12, which made my life change tremendously, as my lifestyle completely changed.

When I moved I never played any sports, and wasn’t interested in anything that would make me sweat even in the slightest. Being what you consider “skinny fat” all my life, I never payed attention to the way my body looked much. I was always a pretty self loving individual to a decent extent.

At the age of 18, right out of high school, I started going to the gym, not taking it seriously, I’d go for 2 weeks and not go for the next 3 weeks, as it was something I was doing just to kill time. I never saw much changes on my body since I wasn’t consistent at all. After couple of months, I stopped going completely.

At 20 years old, going through my first depression and life crisis, from dropping out of college and being fired from the retail job I had, I decided to join the National Guard (ARMY).

To go into basic training, I knew I had to be able to pass their physical test, but I couldn’t even do a push up at the time, so it was time to get back into the gym and build some strength. I went for around two to three months before it was time to ship out for basic training. In those months I was able to start doing push ups, and other things that made me really enjoy the feeling of working out and being stronger. Going to basic training was the most humbling, tough, lonely and mind/body strengthening experience I had ever been through and it changed my life completely. This experience made me fall in love with the feeling of being mentally and physically strong.

Due to our high activity level and food intake, I was able to go from 110 pounds to 130 pounds. When I got back home, I didn’t keep up with the lifestyle, so I lost the weight again. I loved the weight I gained, and wanted it back, so on December 13th of 2013, I decided I was going back to the gym and this time I’d stay consistent. Ever since that day, I started my fitness journey and never looked back.

My first year consistently training went pretty smooth, I gained a pretty good amount of muscle through weight training and nutrition. Right after my first year of training, I decided to compete in a NPC bodybuilding show in the bikini division.

I competed and placed 5th place, I was extremely proud of myself for having placed in my very first show ever, and the idea was actually to keep competing, but I was also in really bad state of mind nutrition wise post show. Competitions prep diets are really tough, and I had never in my life been in such a restrictive diet before, this really took a toll on my mind and body. I started binge eating every other night, and I gained 20 pounds in only 2 weeks and it continued for at least 2 months.

This was the first time I ever experienced dislike for my body, I used to feel disgusted at myself looking in the mirror. After doing a lot of research, I came across “IIFYM”, or “If It Fits Your Macros”. I started counting macros for the first time, and this was the way I was able to get into a healthy relationship with food.

A year later I suffered a back injury, I recovered from my injury and went back to the gym in January of 2017. I reached my goal of gaining my weight back, and also slowly gained strength again.

Now, I’m just trying to live a healthy balanced life, while obtaining more strength and the physical goals I set myself, without ever putting my mental health, internal health and relationship with food in danger.

Having a healthy relationship with myself, the image in the mirror, and who I am as a person will always be more important than anything else. My experiences have shown me so.