My entire life, I’ve always been heavier than what was considered “healthy.” Only within the last few years have I been really getting into the health and fitness routine.

Pilates, yoga, running… I’ve done it all. Right now I’m doing cardio and high intensity circuit training. I can’t say I’m 100% into it because it requires me going to the gym and being accountable to my personal trainer, but oddly enough the results are beginning to show.

Last week after I took my morning shower, I was looking at myself in the mirror and I noticed something different about my upper body. I had unfamiliar curves in areas where I never had them before, like on the tops of my shoulders where they meet the base of my neck.

And they’re not the soft, pillowy curves that my body tends to have, but more like angular, sloping curves. The kinds of curves that muscles make.

My legs, my thighs, and my forearms all had similar sloping planes. And although I still have a lot of fat to shed, beneath them I can feel and sometimes see muscles forming.

By no means am I sporting six-pack abs, but it’s nice to not only feel results, but to see them take shape. It reminds me that despite all the times that I’ve cancelled or wanted to cancel my training appointments, or those times when I wanted to puke my guts out after a particularly gruesome workout, there is a reward in the end.