The Beginning...

Nicole (left) and Lauren (right)

Hello! This is us. And no, I don't mean the TV show, although we love it. We're Nicole and Lauren and we've created this blog to take you on our crazy fitness journey that began back in January. If your looking at our picture, you might be wondering, "Are these girls really fit?" One might not think so, but I'm here to tell you we've come a long way, but we're not done yet!

So lets start at the beginning...
Lauren and I have technically been working together for 3 years now. Our first encounter was actually a pretty brutal scavenger hunt which had me driving like a bat out of hell around our town. Crazy to think it would be another 2 years before we actually became friends (I'm pretty sure it was the driving that scared her away, although she denies it).

We started hanging out in September 2016 when I was in need of a ride to work, and well, she happens to live close. After talking for about 15 minutes I invited her to be BFF's. To be honest, after a couple of months I was questioning my mother on whether or not she had given up a daughter for adoption because I was pretty sure we were sisters from different misters.

Let's step back for a second and let me explain to you how "eerily similar" we actually are... Not only do we have similar physical features (hair, skin color, body shapes), but we have very similar humor and personalities. We are offended by very little and get asked if we are sisters almost daily.  Lauren grew up in Texas and I was a nomad traveling mainly between Florida and Georgia. We are both in our late twenties and are/were overweight but are changing our entire lives and we want to take you on this journey before we are too fabulously fit to recognize...Did I mention we're a little sassy?!

So back in December Lauren and I had been talking about how we were tired of living the unhealthy lifestyles that we had been living for so long. All of our close friends were skinny bitches that we adore, but could never trade clothes with and were always kind of on the sidelines. Let me tell you, we're not sideline girls, so we very hesitantly (especially Lauren) decided to start looking for a gym. We visited about 4-5 gyms before we landed on our local YMCA. We wanted to jump right in but of course we decided to wait for January 7th, when they had their annual open house (most of this was procrastination). We showed up, signed up, and even bought a personal training package that honestly, we thought we would never use.  We started with a tour from some guy showing us around and telling us what everything did. After getting our tour, where we did no physical activity, we decided to head home for the day...we would start tomorrow!

I know you're doubting at this point, but we really did go back the next day. We started with the elliptical...made it about 5 minutes before we were so out of breath that we couldn't keep going. At that point we decided to abandon the cardio train and head downstairs to see what all of the pretty people do with these weights. The next two weeks consisted of a little cardio and a lot of trying new things without a whole lot of rhyme or reason. Let me tell you, we really thought we were killing' it. We would get done, be sweaty and tired and super proud of ourselves. Although we look back now and laugh, it's amazing to think that we actually beat the odds, got off our asses, and were actually in a gym. We're proud of those girls, they got us started.

One of our first gym pictures (January 31st)

Around this time we realized that we had to use those personal training sessions we bought before March. We started our hunt for the perfect personal trainer. We had clear expectations and requirements. 1) They couldn't be easily offended. 2) They had to be able to handle a cuss word or two...or four...(We really don't like burpees) 3) They had to push us...We didn't want someone who would go easy, but also needed someone we could trust. We started with the wall of trainers...this is where all of the trainers pictures are hung with care. I also picked up a handy pamphlet with the trainers bios. After about a week...and talking with multiple people about different trainers we had narrowed it down to two...
Let me take a moment and explain how Lauren and I used and continue to do our strength training...in between reps we would dance, and I don't mean sway back forth, I mean go to town like no one was watching (even though I'm sure they were).

It finally happened on a Wednesday...we were on the leg and ab machine, dancing like normal between our reps...probably to a song like "Baby Got Back", when I saw one of the trainers we had been eyeing for a week. I hadn't actually seen him in person up until then and so to be sure, I asked one of the guys who had been talking to him if he was the personal trainer, in which he directed me towards a guy sitting at a desk... later to be named Mark the Trainer. We approached cautiously, Lauren trailing behind (I tend to jump head first) and I started with "Hi, are you a trainer?" and he replied something like "Sure am, I was just about to come talk to you girls and see what you were all about." At the time I thought he was full of it, but now I actually believe it. And so started one hell of a journey...

We met with Mark the Trainer the next week for a consultation. One of the first things he asked us was what we were there for and what we wanted to accomplish. So we told him...we didn't really want to focus on our diet, but more of just being physical and active. He immediately stopped me and told us that that was not how things work and that working out was just one slice of the pie and that diet and sleep were even more important than the actual physical part. Knowing sure well we didn't want to go back to where we had been, we agreed to everything. We were giving into the process 100%, and were ready to jump as high as we were asked to.

The first couple of sessions were meant to see what our ability and skill levels were. They were meant to be simple, but we thought we would die every time. Up until then we thought we had been killin' it and now we felt like we were literally being killed. He also started us with a food journal to see what our diet was currently like. We had already at this point cut quite a bit out of our diet, but did even better that first week knowing he would be seeing it.

Well...when we finally showed up with our first week of journaling, he pulled out a red pen and proceeded to tell us that whatever was marked out in red, we wouldn't be eating again. What a shocker. You can see my first journal page... it wasn't pretty. So we changed everything...we attempted to food prep on Sundays (we're teachers and had to be prepared for the week) and started a cardio routine when we were not with Mark the Trainer.

It been a whirlwind, but 3 months later and we are OBSESSED! I think we hit the obsession part around 1 1/2 months. We've learned to eat clean, go to the gym 6 days a week (cry on rest day), and at this point in our training we don't drink (but don't mistake...we still party like rockstars.) Most importantly, we have SO much fun doing this! The reason we decided to share our story with you was not only for pure entertainment, but to really show people that this lifestyle is possible. A year ago I would have laughed in your face if you would have told me that we would be where we are today, but it happened, and we're only getting started. We're going to be posting about what we do, what we eat, probably even a little about our lives outside of the gym, but if you want to know something specific or have questions, feel free to comment or email us.


Too Legit to Quit,
2 Fit Girls