Big Little Gains

Everyone’s journey is different. This is my journey.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a small girl. “Petite” as some call it. I’m okay being a small girl, but over the past few years, I haven’t felt like a healthy small girl.

I don’t like looking in the mirror. I don’t feel mentally and physically healthy. I’m not strong. I’m not completely happy with my body. And that’s why I’m starting this journey.

There are so many resources for weight loss. I’ve struggled to find quality content and tips related to weight gain or specific to how I feel about my body. I’m hoping to document this journey to keep myself accountable and apply my learnings to my new normal.

My Past Weight Gain Moments

2014

This was when I started taking birth control. They told me I would see some weight gain from taking the pill, but I didn’t believe it. Given I’ve been a skinny girl my entire life, I didn’t see how taking one birth control pill a day would put weight on my body. But it did.

I saw weight gain specifically in particular areas of my body. My arms, face, stomach and of course, my breasts.

This was the first time in my life where I saw an increase in my weight, visually. And it really wasn’t a lot of weight. But I noticed it because I had never gained weight prior to this.

I worked out a little bit. Mostly strength training at a very beginner level. Some bicep curls. Some pushups. Some planks. But I never felt strong by doing this. As expected.

Long story short… I stopped taking the pill (not because of the weight gain) in like 2015? 2016? I did notice that my body went back to how it was before birth control.

2020

The COVID year. Unfortunately (but also kind of fortunately for me), I got furloughed from my job. I was collecting unemployment checks. It was COVID so I was stuck at home. My dad was also furloughed (and he LOVES working out) so all we did was work out. My mom would cook me food (I’m a picky eater, I’ll do another article on that later). So overall, from April to Aug, I was probably the healthiest I’ve ever been.

I liked the way I looked. I felt strong. I felt healthy. I was happy.

But I also had time to work out. Time to focus on myself and my health. The rest of the world was crashing, but I was solely focused on my health and goals and it was a great feeling.

I went back to work in Aug, stopped working out daily with my Dad and ultimately lost all the gains.

Now, here I am, looking for how I looked and felt back in April – Aug 2020.

Current Weight Metrics

My current BMI:

I use this BMI calculator. I’m hoping to include more education in this journey. I have no idea what BMI is. I have no idea if it’s an important metric to follow during this weight gain journey. But according to this, I would like to be a ‘Normal weight’.

I calculated what weight I’d need to be to have a ‘Normal weight’ BMI and it’s 105 lbs.

Weight Gain Goals

My weight gain goal:

• Gain 11 lbs

Let’s Gain

I know it’s possible. I’ve gained weight before. I’ve been strong before. I’ve been healthy before. It’s now up to me to get to that point again.

You can expect to see a complete start to finish (no finish since this should be a life-long journey) process of how I’m approaching weight gain. I’ll document what works and what doesn’t, for me. From calorie consumption to exercise, we’re looking to gain 11 lbs this year. Follow along for the updates.