Competitive bodybuilding takes serious dedication: It's a lifestyle wrought with intense food restrictions and takes a ton of training to get that stage-ready look.
It's why former bodybuilder Jolene Jones, a 26-year-old from Kalispell, Montana, who lost 21 pounds for her first competition in 2015, according to Us Weekly, threw in the towel after her coach encouraged her to lose 30 pounds. (She'd put on about 20 pounds after her competition, and he advised her to lose that, plus 10 more pounds before returning to stage.)
In a recent Facebook post that's gone viral, Jolene posted side-by-side photos comparing her old bodybuilding figure with the body she has now, two years later.
"This isn't your typical transformation photo," she writes in her caption. It's because the stark contrast between the photos on the left and right show a weight gain rather than weight loss.
"Some people might say this is 'letting yourself go,'" she continues. "I call this finding myself and realizing I can have more than one passion in life."
In the photo on the right, which was taken most recently, Jolene is 25 pounds heavier than she was on the left (but who 👏 freaking 👏 cares?!). Ditching bodybuilding has given her the freedom to pursue other passions — after all, training is the ultimate time-suck. She also has a more satisfying and active social life: Instead of pounding out sets at the gym, she hikes and rafts with friends. "A six-pack didn't make me happy," she wrote in her post. "I was never enough and always needing to improve."
Now, there's no more OTT food-tracking or keeping protein shakes in her purse. "I realize now that was all pressure I was putting on myself, and it wasn’t healthy," Jolene told Us Weekly. "I feel at peace with the way I look."
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Elizabeth Narins is a Brooklyn, NY-based writer and a former senior editor at Cosmopolitan.com, where she wrote about fitness, health, and more. Follow her at @ejnarins.
