Meet Paige

My name is Paige van Vugt, I am 23 years old, and I’m from Abbotsford, Canada.

 

 

Where and why did my journey begin?

 

At first glance, my journey began in February 2017. But that is not where it all started. I have struggled with being overweight my whole entire life, as long as I can remember. I remember struggling as a child through just about everything. I was the ‘bigger friend’, I was the friend-zoned best friend, I was the slowest one on the soccer team, I was the last picked in P.E class, I was always uncomfortable moving in any physical way.

A couple years ago, I was in my first year of University, (2017) and my weight had gone out of my control. I was the heaviest I had ever been, sitting at 272 pounds. I was involved with a boy that I really liked, and it got to a point in time where he wouldn’t be with me because of my body. Part of this was physical, and part of it was because I had absolutely no confidence in who I was or what I looked like, but most importantly, how I felt.

This was pretty much my breaking point. I was so tired of not having any confidence in myself and trying to seek happiness from other people.

I wish I had an eye-opening story about how I wanted to better myself, for myself, but that wasn’t the truth. It was because I wanted validation from other people.

 

So, I took a few progress pictures that I remember being absolutely miserable in, I went to the gym every single day, sometimes twice a day. I ate close to 1,200 calories a day thinking that less was better, and I lost 30 pounds in this first 2 months or so. After seeing some progress, I decided to make an Instagram account sharing my successes so far. There was something about relating to other people about my story that was extremely comforting to me, so I kept sharing everything I experienced, and thank goodness I did.

As time went on, I then got into some unhealthy habits of over working my body and not fuelling it properly. Of course this wasn’t my intention, but I kept trying to learn and figure out what my body needed to keep my progress going.

I got down to about 222 pounds (50 lost) by myself throughout the rest of the year. In August of 2017 I was getting so frustrated with hitting a plateau, I didn’t really know what I was doing, even though I kept going, I needed help.

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This is when I started working with my good friend and extremely knowledgeable coach,

                        . Through working with him, I’ve learned an unexplainable amount about nutrition and fitness.

I had managed to lose 10 more pounds working with him throughout 6 months or so, bringing me down to 60 pounds total lost. Then another 10 came off extremely slowly with another 4 months, bringing me to 70 pounds lost all together.

Great, right? 70 pounds gone, this was a huge accomplishment, from the outside at least. But what most people didn’t know, including myself, is that I was border-line giving myself an eating disorder. I went through a bit of a rough patch with some personal things that took over my emotions and my mental state. I got into a consistent cycle of overeating, then restricting, and then punishing my body with exercise. I completely fell out of love with fitness. I didn’t want to “diet” anymore, I just wanted to give up.

So I did. I let myself go, but I didn’t tell anybody how I was feeling, I didn’t even really know what I was doing to myself. I built such an unhealthy relationship with food, I didn’t know how to act normally around it.

I would say no to family and friend events, because I knew I would over eat to a point where I’d feel uncomfortably full because I could, and I made working out a chore.

After some “recovery” time had passed, I realized I needed to make some changes in my habits, and get to the root problems of these unhealthy habits.

This is where a new level of self-development came into play. I started practicing meditation, I started journaling my feelings throughout the day, and I started reflecting a lot about what I want to stand for.

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While I completely support making adjustments to your lifestyle to reach your goals, I believe that there are many other aspects that go into this than a black and white workout guide and meal plan.

 

I don't want to reflect back on my life and remember stressing about how many times I worked out that week, or how many calories I had left to eat that day.

I want to reflect back on my life and remember enjoying food, enjoying moving my body, and not only enjoying, but embracing my body.

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Sharing my journey has created a safe place for me to connect with those who understand these struggles, which is why I am where I am now, taking every day as an opportunity for growth, and constantly learning about creating balance in my life.

I love sharing my journey with others, as it has created a platform where I can connect with those who share my struggles.