Size 2 Was Not Even On Her Radar When She Weighed Over 200
For Yulanda Davis, it took breathing hard with no exertion while reading a book, barely rolling out of bed gracefully and the inability to tie her shoes before she realized she was at 214 pounds.
“I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God! What happened to me?’ and knew I had to make a change, and there would be no simple solutions,” she said.
She had to start exercising and change her diet. It wasn’t easy. She struggled in the gym, moving slowly because of her size. Her joints hurt and cardio activities were a killer.
“Moving slowly went along with the territory of being so big. I used to wonder what I would do if I had to move quickly. I thought I was moving fast but the reality is that my body was not.”
Her weight problem started at the age of 13 when she moved in with an aunt. At 5’3” tall back then, she weighed 150 pounds. The weight came on easily from a diet filled with pizza, cake, cookies, pasta, and plenty of snacking. Her favorite food was cheese pasta, and of course, brownies and sweets were the extra source of sweetness she found in life at that time.
“I didn’t have any good diet role models and had siblings who weighed up to 289 pounds. When we grew up, my parents couldn’t afford good food. Cookies cost $1 while fruit cost $5. We cooked with ham and ham hocks back then. I was eating high sodium foods and didn’t realize it,” Yulanda said.
The irony of food costs higher for a good diet is that clothes cost more when you wear the larger sizes.
“One day, I got on my knees and I said, ‘God, I need help. I can’t do it on my own. I need a mind reset to stop thinking about food and to consume the right food. I have to look at food not as my enemy but as a way to provide nutrients. Every day, I need your help,’ Yulanda confided.
“And at that point in time, I realized that being physical begins in the mind. If you keep your mind on God, He’ll keep you in perfect peace. If you receive it in your mind, it’s in your body. Your mind determines your goal.”
It took Yulanda 2 years to go from 214 pounds to 157 and then she plateaued. That’s when a teacher showed up – a friend of mine, Cinderella Richardson, who was 48 years old and a bodybuilder. She asked me, ‘Are you ready for me to train you?’”
Her trainer then rearranged her diet and set up a workout plan that included bodybuilding competitions. She ate a low carbohydrate diet, eating lean meat, fish, tuna, chicken breasts, plenty of broccoli, asparagus and green beans, 36+ eggs per week, grapefruit and granny smith apples, coconut oil, almonds and green tea.
She worked out three hours a day – 2 hours in the gym on weights and 1 hour of cardio before bed. And it was working. Her body fat fell to 10%, her musculature popped out, and she began thanking God for creating the human body to look so good.
At her first bodybuilding competition, Yulanda took 1st place in overall posing, 2nd place in the novice class and 4th place in the Master’s Over 35 class. She received two medals and a trophy, a feat that is unheard of for a first timer. Her photos speak for themselves.
“Weight training gives you a different shape. All the cellulite goes away. A size 2 with cellulite is a lot different than a size 2 without cellulite.”
“One piece of advice I have for people who are starting out where I was is to be a leader. Lead yourself. Lead, don’t ever follow. I didn’t have any family support or a trainer for the first 60+ pounds. I had to realize I will get the job done, no matter what…“
“And when friends come over, tell them you don’t want to hear that they don’t like your new weight or whatever objections they have to you doing something positive for yourself. Remember the devil comes to you in all forms. Your friends may look nice but when they open their mouth, you’ll know where they stand. Tell that devil to move on.”
If Yulanda transformed her body with God’s help, so can you. It all starts on your knees.
