10/06/2026
LONG POST ALERTš¤ But if youāve ever struggled with your fitness journey, read this.š
I wanted to share these pictures because I think sometimes when you see a coach or someone in the fitness industry, you only see where they are right now. You donāt see everything it took to get there, and you definitely donāt see all the times they had to start again. These pictures are from completely different phases of my life and my fitness journey, and looking through them reminded me why I started Lifted by Lizzy in the first place.
I am the coach who has been in your shoes. I grew up being naturally skinny. I was underweight for most of my younger years and never really had to think about what I ate. Then I became an adult. I went to college and moved out. Life changed. I became pregnant young. I gained a LOT of weight.
At my heaviest, I was over 220 pounds. I gained even more weight postpartum. I struggled with postpartum depression, my mental health, my relationship with food, eating disorders, and just genuinely not feeling like myself anymore. Eventually, I decided I had to start taking care of me, and thatās when I found the gym. At first, my nutrition wasnāt perfect. I didnāt know everything I know now. I was simply learning how to move my body, learning how to lift weights, and realizing how GOOD it felt to have an hour that was mine.
Then I fell completely in love with itš¤ Over time, I lost around 80 pounds. I built muscle. I learned about nutrition. I learned portions. I tracked my food. I learned what my body needed. I worked my ASS off, and during one of the hardest periods of my entire life, the gym became so much more than somewhere I went to change my body.
The gym truly saved me.
When life was falling apart around me, I could have turned toward partying. I could have completely self-sabotaged. I could have gone down a very different road. Instead, I put my head down and went to work. Some days the gym was the ONLY place my brain was quiet. Eventually, I reached a physique I never imagined Iād have. I was the leanest, strongest and most muscular Iād ever been.
But hereās the part of a fitness journey people donāt post about as often: Life kept happening.
For a while, I maintained pretty effortlessly. I wasnāt tracking every calorie anymore. I wasnāt even going to the gym nearly as much. After years of learning about food and portions, so much of it had simply become second nature. Then this past year happened. Grief happened. Stress happened. Life happened, and slowly, I found myself reverting back to habits I genuinely thought I had overcome. Stress eating. Binge eating. Choosing convenience constantly. Putting myself last. Losing consistency in the gym. Saying Iād get back on track tomorrow, and then tomorrow turning into another tomorrow.
Then I looked at myself and realized: I have to take care of me again.
So thatās where I am in the last picture. Iām not at my leanest right now. Iām not at my lowest weight. Iām not pretending Iāve got everything figured out simply because Iām a coach. Iām rebuilding too. Iām falling in love with the gym again. Iām focusing on my nutrition again. Iām working on portion sizes, balance, binge eating, my mental health and learning how to take care of myself through life instead of only when life is easy.
Thatās exactly what makes me the coach I am.
Iām a mom. I work full time. I have responsibilities. I have stress. Iāve dealt with grief. Iāve dealt with depression and anxiety. Iāve struggled with food. Iāve gained weight. Iāve lost weight. Iāve built muscle. Iāve maintained. Iāve fallen off. Iāve started over. I donāt have unlimited time to spend two hours in the gym whenever I feel like it. Right now, I wake up at 4:00 in the freaking morning because thatās the time I have available to take care of myself.
I understand when someone tells me theyāre exhausted. I understand when someone tells me they donāt recognize themselves anymore. I understand when someone says they know what theyāre supposed to do but canāt seem to make themselves do it. I understand starting at a weight youāre uncomfortable with. I understand being terrified of walking into a gym. I understand losing weight and still struggling with the person you see in the mirror, and I understand having made incredible progress once before and feeling embarrassed that you somehow ended up struggling again.
There is no straight line in a fitness journey. Youāre going to have seasons where youāre killing it. Youāre going to have seasons where youāre surviving. There will be pregnancies. Babies. New jobs. Breakups. Marriages. Grief. Stress. Financial problems. Injuries. Illness. Mental-health struggles. Vacations. Holidays.
Life does not stop happening so that you can conveniently work on yourself. The important part isnāt never falling off. Itās learning how to pick yourself back up, and thatās what Iām doing right now.
Thatās also why creating programs for other people means so much more to me than putting exercises into a spreadsheet or numbers onto a nutrition guide.
When someone tells me theyāre excited to go to the gym againā¦
When someone tells me they broke through a plateauā¦
When someone says they wish theyād taken a before picture because they can already see the differenceā¦
When someone tells me their nutrition guide made them excited to meal prep and make healthy meals againā¦
THAT is what makes me happy, because I know what it feels like when that little glimmer comes back. When you start feeling stronger. When your confidence starts coming back. When you realize youāre capable of doing hard things again. When you start recognizing yourself again.
That is why Lifted by Lizzy exists.
My programs arenāt built from the perspective of someone whoās only ever known fitness while life was easy. Theyāre built by someone who has had to fight her way back to herself more than once, and if youāre currently in one of those seasons where you donāt recognize yourself, I hope these pictures remind you of something:
Your current chapter doesnāt have to be your final one.
You donāt need January 1st.
You donāt need Monday.
You donāt need to hate yourself into changing.
You just have to decide that youāre worth taking care of again.
Iām still working on me too.
Strong. Confident. Unstoppable.š¤
