Skinny Girl To Fit Fabulous Woman

This website contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Some posts are in collaboration, guest, and partnered in efforts to bring YOU great information and inspiration to your life..

Hello Skinny Fit and FABulous Ladies!

It’s so nice that us skinny girls finally have a voice through this beautiful lady, Sybil Jones! I am honored that she invited me to share my Skinny Fit and FABulous story with you all!

Let me first start by saying, it has been a long journey for me and yes, the struggle is real.  You see it all day long on T.V., social media, magazines and billboards. Weight loss! Weight loss! Weight loss!  There must be over a million weight loss programs, companies, doctors, pills, gurus, etc, etc! But how often do you see anything for weight gain? It’s like we don’t even exist! I guess there’s just way more money to be made on weight loss.  Oh well, that’s fine because we got this on our own!

How it all started for me was not actually from day one, because I was a huge 10 lb baby (my poor mother). I was quite the little chunkster until I started to grow into a young lady. I guess underneath all the baby fat was a crazy metabolism just waiting to unleash.  I was always a skinny kid and teenager with toothpick arms, narrow shoulders and not one womanly curve anywhere! All of my young life my clothes kind of hung on me like they would on a hanger, which made me self conscious, withdrawn and shy. My mother always said “pull your shoulders back, you’ll fill out one day!†Well that day never came! So as a result of being round shouldered to hide myself from the world, I caused myself some postural problems.

One thing I can say for sure though, I was an athletic kid.  I have been riding horses since I was five years old. We always had a barn full of horses, chickens, dogs, cats, you name! So I was not without strenuous daily chores. I played softball, ran track, I was an avid cyclist in my late teens, twenties and thirties, so I didn’t just sit around feeling sorry for myself.  And I always ate, (to quote my grandmother) like a truck driver! But the curves never came until I started weight training in my late twenties. Ah ah! I found the answer and it works! No more scrawny arms and shoulders attached to a bony back! I am no longer embarrassed to wear a tank top ad nice fitting jeans! Still no boobs, but hey, I still was able to build a rockin set of pecs for a girl!     Boobs no longer necessary! It’s funny how your mindset can change when you start seeing your body change because of the hard work you put in everyday!

 I also was extremely lucky to have the mother I had too! She always made sure my brother and I ate the best food there was available. Thankfully that put me slightly ahead of the game when it came to nutrition because my mom was pretty high on eating foods that fueled your body. I was raised on organic gardens and natural pasture raised chickens with their bright orange nutritious eggs, grass fed, organic meats and wild caught fish. Everything was homemade and fresh from mom’s kitchen. We were not brought up on junk food or sugary treats and neither one of us ever had a cavity in our teeth. That is a gift I have been able to share with my family, friends and clients and have and will continue to take with me forever. God rest her soul, my mother taught me everything I know and I thank God for her everyday.

 Overcoming Your Body Image Struggle

As a young woman it did take me some time to fully appreciate the education my mother gave me on health and fitness, so I did go through some body image struggles and even some dysmorphia for a while. Like really hating what I saw in the mirror! If any of you are still going through a bit of this, one suggestion I have for you is to stop now, because it is so not worth it and life really is too short! I can say that now because I am not considered a young woman anymore, but oh girls, the wisdom I can share with you!

I have an exercise that I have some of my clients do for themselves when they start that self doubt talk or nit picking their bodies in the mirror.  If your feeling like this I want you to try something. On a piece of paper I want you to write a letter to yourself from the viewpoint of one of your closest and least non judgemental friends.  Your assignment is to focus on one of these three areas: self-compassion, compassion for your body or your body’s functionality. You might just be amazed at how much compassion you have for yourself. I know you show others lots of compassion, so save a little for yourself.

Anyway, back to the whole weight training thing!  As soon as I once again woke back up and realized I had been given a gift that I needed to share with anyone who would listen, I spent literally years learning, studying and trying new things with regards to weight training, I saw the magic happen and became addicted in the best way possible.  I knew I had to share what I was learning. So I studied long and hard again to become a fitness professional so I could teach other women (and men) what I was now an authority on.

What Is The Key To Building Lean Muscle – Skinny To Fit Woman 

I dove into all of the fitness stuff, but quickly learned that I had to learn more about nutrition. The key to building lean muscle is absolutely nutrition. Exercise is critical, but without nutrition, you won’t see much growth. These two are a true match made in heaven.  You simply cannot have one without the other. Here’s the deal, if you are trying to gain weight by just eating a bunch of food regardless of what it is, that’s a big mistake! The type of calories or macronutrients your feeding your body is just as important for weight gain as it is for weight loss.  Your focus needs to be on feeding your body what it needs to function optimally from a cellular level. Focusing on disease prevention, gut health and brain health should be first and foremost. Staying away from fast food, overly processed foods, foods full of ingredients you can’t pronounce and foods full of sugar.

That’s how I went from this

   To This   

I’ve Been Where You Are

I’ve been where you are. I have felt scrawny, weak and embarrassed by my lack of curves. But, with the right guidance, I was able to learn how to build a strong, healthy body without surgery, restricting or weird diets, or hour long cardio workouts. I want to help women who are where I used to be, do the same. That’s what Gigi Fit is all about. Life is a journey and doing and accomplishing the best possible things for our bodies is part of that journey.

There is one positive thing I can leave with you that I bet you haven’t thought about my skinny friends, and that is because you are of the skinny body type or ectomorph as we call it in the fitness biz, you have a muscle building advantage.  Meaning, as soon as your muscles start to grow, boom there they are! No fat to have to burn through before you get to see all your work come to fruition! Stay positive, stay focused, treat yourself and others with kindness and compassion, and most of all, remember your body is the only one you get! Love it!

Gigi Gregory NASM CPT CES FNS

GiGi Fit Now Blog

Follow GigiFit59 on Instagram

Follow GigiFit59 on Facebook

Contact GigiFit59

This article was originally posted on Skinny, Fit and Fabulousâ„¢ on Jan. 17, 2019. As I combine the sites, I’m republishing all articles here.

Did you enjoy this article? Useful? Entertaining? Your support is appreciated in helping us continue spreading our message and sharing content. The cup of coffee you buy is greatly appreciated. Do you want to join a fun, supportive group of women? Come on over to our supportive, loving and fun facebook group. Mamas and Coffee® is all about the REAL of womanhood. Join Us.