How I Lost 10kg And Changed My Relationship With Fitness

If you had told me a few years ago that I would one day create workout videos and genuinely enjoy strength training,

I probably would have laughed.

For the longest time, I didn’t think workouts were for me.

I admired people who were active, but I never really understood fitness culture. To me, gyms were full of people training muscles for no real purpose other than looking good. Running, cycling and swimming made sense. Fitness training didn’t.

Ironically, it was one of the things I was most skeptical about that ended up changing my life.

For years, I struggled with my weight and my relationship with my body.

I wasn’t unhappy every day, but there was always a quiet voice in the background telling me that I didn’t quite feel comfortable in my own skin. Every now and then, I would try to lose weight, but my strategy was always the same: run more.

I believed running was the answer because running burned calories.

So I ran.

And ran.

And ran some more.

The problem was that my body didn’t always agree.

Over the years, I developed recurring knee problems. Different doctors gave me different explanations. Some thought it was overtraining, others had different theories, but the result was always the same: I couldn’t run the way I wanted to.

That frustrated me more than anything.

Whenever my knees hurt, I felt stuck. I couldn’t train the way I wanted, I couldn’t make progress the way I wanted, and I felt like I was losing control over something that mattered deeply to me.

Then came a moment during the pandemic when I stepped on the scale and realized something had to change.

I remember looking at the number and thinking:

“This can’t continue.”

At that point, I realized running alone wasn't going to get me where I wanted to be.

So I started with what I could do.

Long walks.

Short jogs whenever my knees allowed it.

And eventually, a few workout videos after my runs.

Not because I believed in them.

Not because I loved them.

Honestly, I mostly did them because I felt like I had run out of alternatives.

I still remember following workout challenges and having to modify half the exercises because they felt too difficult. I often chose low-impact versions and sometimes wondered whether any of it was making a difference at all.

But I kept showing up. One workout. One walk. One day at a time.

Slowly, things started to change.

At first, the progress was almost invisible.

Then one day, it wasn’t.

The weight started coming off.

My body started changing.

And within about six months, I had lost 10kg.

At first, I thought that was the biggest victory.

Looking back, I don’t think it was. The weight loss was what got my attention.

But what happened afterwards changed my life even more.

Because even after losing the weight, I still had to learn how to feel comfortable in my own body.

I still had to learn confidence.

I still had to learn self-acceptance.

I still had to learn that my worth wasn’t attached to a number on the scale.

That part took much longer than six months.

In many ways, it took years.

Today, I weigh more than I did during my leanest phase, and I’m happier because of it.

Back then, I was obsessed with reaching a certain number.

Now, I care much more about how I feel.

Strong.

Healthy.

Capable.

Happy.

And perhaps the most surprising part of all is that I genuinely enjoy the type of training I once dismissed.

Not every exercise, of course. There are still movements I love and movements I would happily skip. But I no longer see exercise as punishment.

I see it as something that supports my life.

Something that helps me take care of myself.

Something that allows me to build a body that can carry me through life for many years to come.

The funny thing is that I originally started workouts with a very simple question:

“What if they actually work?”

I never expected where that question would lead me.

But I’m grateful I gave it a chance.

Because those first workouts didn’t just help me lose 10kg.

They completely changed my relationship with fitness.

And, over time, they taught me self-acceptance, self-trust and a level of confidence I never thought I would have.

The lessons I learned along the way became the foundation of how I train today.

→ Read: What I Wish I Knew Before I Started My Fitness Journey