Hey everyone! My name is Chelsey Novak and I am 22 years old. I am super excited to represent Athletic Xtreme! One of my biggest passions in life is staying healthy and active. Most people ask me “Chels, how did you become so involved in fitness” & when they hear my answer they never believe me. You see I wasn’t always into fitness. My high school years, my biggest passion was watching TV & eating delicious fried fatty foods. After months of doing that, the scale started to escalate. I was standing 5ft tall and 135lbs . Obviously, the number on the scale doesn’t DEFINE YOUR VALUE but it does define your health/fitness status in everyday life. I was out of shape. Just walking up the stairs & just by walking 5 minutes on the treadmill I was out of breath.
I needed to change
Being so young and out of shape scared me because my whole family was in shape but yet I wasn’t. I always turned to food to make me happy or used it as a “reward”. After seeing what bad fitness shape I was in, I decided enough is enough. It’s time to stop being lazy. Researching different nutrition plans online I decided to make a change from that day forward. Following a strict diet and intense workouts I started losing the weight. My body started changing for the better and my fitness status was increasing. I could jog 1 mile and still have energy to do other exercises! Being chunky and finally seeing results of your body changing with dedication and hard work was the most amazing thing to me. I felt like an artist because I was sculpting ( changing) art (my body). I became so obsessive and ocd with the diets and workouts & depriving myself from pretty much any “Carb” or “treat” that I wasn’t living my life anymore.
Compliments aren’t everything
Everything I thought about was how many calories or what workout should I do? I would get all these compliments how good I looked but internally I didn’t FEEL good. They say exercise produces serotonin to the brain and makes you happy but all I was doing was being depressed. Suddenly it all clicked… it wasn’t the “food” that made me overweight it was the portion size of it and how often I ate it. I never balanced anything out. To me life is all about balance. You can enjoy stuff in life just in balance. In order to be happy & healthy it all starts within. I know it sounds so cliché but it’s the truth. Being mentality happy is more important because if you are sad you’re not healthy. Once you reach that state of pure mental happiness your body will follow. Stay consistent, Drink your water, Eat for hunger not boredom, balance your workouts, appreciate your body because no one else has it & that’s how you will become mentally happy and healthy. Feeling good internally, every day, is way more satisfying than that cupcake you indulged for 20 seconds.
Chelsey’s Favorites
- Food: Sashimi & seafood
- Fruit: watermelon & apples
- Cardio: stair master
- Cheat meal: Pancakes & Cereal
- Workout: Lunges & shoulder press
- Body part to work out: Butt
- Protein shake flavor: cookies and cream
