(Picture: Jolene Nicole Jones)

A woman has explained how she went from being an obsessive bodybuilder to a body lover in an inspirational post to Facebook, which has so far received more than 83,000 likes.

What it feels like... to have two strokes

26-year-old Jolene Jones, from Montana, US, shared a side-by-side photo of herself, with the left featuring her as a bodybuilder, and the right showing herself after she’d quit the intense diet and training required for body building

Jolene described the photos as not being the ‘typical transformation photo’ – but she’s proud of them anyway.

In the post, Jolene explained that her days as a bodybuilder consisted of a ‘gruelling’ gym regimen and a strict diet. However, as soon as she decided to stop committing to the lifestyle, she felt as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.




‘I call this finding myself and realising I can have more than one passion in life, whether it’s hiking up in Glacier Park or enjoying beers with friends,’ she said.

(Picture: Jolene Nicole Jones)

‘A six pack didn’t make me happy. I was never enough and always needing to improve. Today I went rafting with friends and enjoyed food the old me would have drooled over and wouldn’t have dared to touch.

‘Your body is quite LITERALLY the only thing that gets you through this life, your worth and joy isn’t weighed by what you can lift or what the scale says.’

Jolene explained to Metro.co.uk that she wasn’t a bodybuilder for very long – telling us that gaining the muscle was a six month process.

Jolene told Metro.co.uk: ‘During “bulking season” you lift a lot and eat A LOT without any cardio because you are trying to gain muscle and in that process you do put on weight, but with the right coach it doesn’t tend to be a lot.

‘However, when you cut, you slowly start to cut your calories and increase cardio.

‘By the end of it, I was lifting 6x time a week and doing cardio 6 times a week for 45 minutes.

‘Body building was a large part of my life and something I look back on fondly, but don’t see myself doing again because I have other passions and don’t want to feel held back.’

(Picture: Jolene Nicole Jones)

While Jolene has no negative feelings about the exercise itself, she said that it made her get ‘stuck’ in her own head – and actually enforced a struggle with negative body image, making Jolene feel as though she was ‘fat’ if she didn’t have abs.

Because of this, Jolene felt tied to the gym.

One day, after another exhausting session, Jolene began to question why she was consistently working out.

She explained: ‘I realised it wasn’t my passion anymore when I despised being there and was just going through the motions. And for what?? What was I trying to improve? Who was I trying to impress?



‘It didn’t feed my happiness anymore. I have been on about a 3 month hiatus from the gym and that is the longest break I have had from lifting in 5 years and I am okay with it.

(Picture: Jolene Nicole Jones)

‘I haven’t really noticed any muscle loss yet. The way I feel about my body now is that it is quite literally the only thing that gets us through this life and when I pass I won’t remember the days I spent in the gym.’

Though she may have taken a break from the gym, Jolene doesn’t want anyone to take her post as a message to be unhealthy. She explained that while she still wants to be healthy, she just doesn’t want a negative mindset to run her life.

She said: ‘Self love is really hard, but I am the most comfortable in my skin I’ve ever been. Since the start of my break from the gym, I have not gained or lost a pound and I think it’s because this is my body’s happy place.

‘It’s like a pressure that I put on myself is gone. I’m right where my body wants to be and that makes me happy! I have absolutely zero regrets stopping. I had a goal, I completed that goal and I have moved on, and I feel really good about that.

‘My friends and loved ones continue to make a point to let me know I look good. A lot of my friends think I look better now than I did before and I seem a lot happier. Probably cause I’m eating carbs now and I can have wine.’

(Picture: Jolene Nicole Jones)

In terms of advice for anyone who may, like Jolene, have struggled with self-confidence issues, Jolene said: ‘My advice for people looking to love themselves is to get negativity out of your life, focus on what your body can do for you.


‘I have done some pretty awesome hikes here in Montana and at the end of them, all I can think is “Wow, look at what my body can do for me.” It’s pretty damn amazing and it gives you a lot to be thankful for.

‘Your body as I said before is LITERALLY the only thing that gets you through life.

‘I have been a size 2 before and am now a size 5/6 and my worth isn’t anymore or less because of my size. I just focus on the good and sometimes amazing things my body can do for me.’

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