3 Years of Fitness
This post is sponsored by Vie Active. All opinions are my own. Thanks to you, I have the amazing opportunity to work with brands that I love, and in turn, collaborations like this make Living the Gray Life possible!
Three years ago, I was a depressed college student who had finished up her freshman year. It was by far the most mentally and emotionally challenging year of my life. I moved 300 miles away to a college where I knew absolutely no one. I did not get along with my roommate, suitemates, or fellow dorm floor residents. Everyone wanted to go out and party all the time, and I was not into that lifestyle. I focused all of my efforts on classes, had zero friends, and was eating Chick-fil-a and grilled cheese with french fries every day to make myself feel better. I felt so extremely lost and confused. After all, those were supposed to be some of the best years of my life. And there I was eating away my pain. I couldn’t wait to move back home for the summer.
RELATED: Moving Out of College Vlog
My parents know me best, and no matter how hard I try to hide my emotions in front of others, my parents can always tell when something is bothering me. My dad knew that I was extremely unhappy, and it didn’t help that I’d gained the “freshman 15”. He’d be harping on me to start lifting weights and doing stuff other than walking on the treadmill for an hour. He saw me being home for the summer as an opportunity to introduce me to the world of fitness and weight training. So, he took me to a personal training studio in Knoxville and signed me up for 8 weeks of training. I went every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 6 AM. Those early mornings filled with so much sweat truly changed my life.
Fast forward three years, and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life. Of course, there have been ups and downs over the past three years. There were spans of inconsistency and lack of motivation, but there were also months of time where all I wanted to do was be the fittest I’ve ever been.
2016 
2017 
2018 
2019
Consistency
If I could sum up my fitness journey thus far in one word, that word would be consistency. I’m not talking about consistency from day to day or even week to week sometimes. Heck, there were months where I was extremely inconsistent. But, what does count is the consistency over weeks, months, and years that has gotten me to where I am today.
I’m physically stronger than I’ve ever been, I love my body more than I ever have before, and I’m the happiest I’ve been probably in my entire life. Fitness has shown me that I can truly accomplish anything I set my mind to.
Where Am I Now?
Originally when I wrote this post two months ago (when it was closer to my 3 year fitness anniversary), I was pretty down on myself. The overall tone of the post was nothing but negative. Not exactly what I wanted to put out into the world.
I just graduated from college, I was kicked out of my campus gym, and I was home all day with no job. Definitely a depressing situation.
I was driving myself crazy and I knew I had to do something soon. I was tired of my usual gym routine… it was lonely, I felt like I wasn’t making much progress, and I no longer felt like I was being challenged. The last thing I wanted to do was start paying for a gym membership at one of the typical gyms and be back to being unmotivated.
I was craving community. I was craving a challenge. I was craving a change.
And that’s when I finally decided to pull the trigger and sign up for CrossFit. If you read my First Week of CrossFit Experience, you’ll know that I had my mind set on CrossFit for a while. It seemed like just the change I was looking for, and more importantly, there was a community to be apart of.
There are certain moments from my journey over the past three years where I sit back and think to myself, “This is where I’m supposed to be right now.” Starting with a trainer after my freshman year. Working at a gym the summer after my sophomore year. Signing up for CrossFit.
I’m two months in to CrossFit, and I’ve been going about 3x per week. I plan on upping my days in the near future because I genuinely miss it on the days where I don’t go.
In the past two months, I’ve seen my mentality towards what I think I can’t do change dramatically. I’m capable of doing a lot more than I thought I was. I love the community. I love the challenge. I love not having to plan out my own workouts. I love the popsicles after intense workouts. I love the encouraging nature of every single member. I love being yelled at if I’m being lazy or not pushing myself. I’ve loved watching my body transform in both strength and appearance. I truly love it all.
CrossFit is the start of another chapter of my fitness journey. I’m so excited to see how I progress over the next year. Who knows, maybe I’ll even start to enjoy running… Anyways, this is another chapter in my life that I can’t wait to share!
Because of your support through my fitness journey and allowing me to share my life online through this blog, I’m able to work with some pretty awesome brands. I only found it fitting to work with a brand for this post because working with brands like Vie Active was something I never thought was possible. But here I am living my dream, and it’s all thanks to you!
These pieces from Vie Active are some of my faves in my collection. The Rockell Dotty 7/8 leggings are perfect for those higher intensity workouts and heavy lifting thanks to their compressive nature. As for the sports bras, I’m an absolute sucker for anything with beautiful back details. These were no exception. The burgundy Sunny Bra is a bit more supportive and is great for jumping, running, and all sorts of activities. The black Lacey Bra is a bit less supportive but still gets the job done for my CrossFit workouts. All of the pieces I received were not only perfect photoshoot material, but they’ve also survived many a workouts! 10/10 would recommend the investment.
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Thank you for following along for the past four years of this blog and three years of my fitness journey! I want to give a HUGE shoutout to my gym, Cottontown Crossfit, for allowing me to come shoot one afternoon. An even bigger thank you goes to Eva from Eva Kathleen Photography for the stunning photos. She is one of my OG blogger friends is always down to take some photos and drink coffee.
~abigail gray
