Fitness is always on New Year’s resolution lists. But very few people follow through—especially women who feel pretty enough, smart enough, and “not fat,” so why bother?
Chinweotuto Esther’s story challenges that thinking.
On October 1st, 2025, Esther hiked to the top of Wuye Mountain with friends. At the summit, she won a friendly competition by doing over 200 squats—wearing shorts and a crop top that showed off toned thighs and tight abs she’d worked six months to build.
If you can’t do 20 squats, you need to read this. Because what Esther discovered isn’t about bragging rights or Instagram posts. It’s about what “healthy” actually means, even when you think your body is “fine.”
Finding Your Fittest Self At The Gym: What It Takes To Make Fitness a Lifestyle
To get the most from the story of Chinweotuto Esther, we came up with a list of ten questions which she would answer by herself. And, of course, the comment section will be open in case you have any questions.
What follows are the questions and Esther’s responses:
What was life like before you started your fitness journey?
Chinweotuto Esther: Before I started my fitness journey, I was living a normal life like every other young adult: I was working as a Personal Assistant, and I also handled the duties of the Export Officer since we were in exportation. So, I woke up, went to work in the morning, came back in the evening, ate and then slept – the same routine every day.
At this point, I had never considered signing up for the gym, though I had always passed the gym every day on my way to work. I thought it really had nothing to do with me because I felt my body was okay, I felt like nothing was wrong, so there was really nothing to worry about.
However, early this year, I resigned because job satisfaction just wasn’t there, and the pay eventually stopped meeting my needs. This gave me a lot of free time, as I was more at home just doing little things.
What sparked or inspired the fitness journey?
Chinweotuto Esther: I have a friend who goes to the gym regularly, and over time, I couldn’t help but notice the changes in his body – his muscles were becoming more pronounced. I was like, “Okay, this is working for you. Good for you”. But I didn’t actually compare it to myself since he was a guy, and I was a lady.
Most times when I see ladies going to the gym, I’d think, “You’re in the gym, but nothing is changing in your body.” I didn’t get why they – ladies — were doing it.
Although I had folds – folds in my belly, and folds at my back – I didn’t see it as anything. I felt that as a woman grows older, that’s how their body turns out to be. I was even having cellulite on my thighs – those dimples that appear on the skin – but never worried about it. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with all that at all.
So the turning point was when I decided to spend some of my abundant free time at the gym with my friend. I didn’t go with the mindset of “I need to do this” or “I want my body to be like this.” I just went because I had time and my friend was going, so why don’t I tag along?
What was your experience like in the beginning?
Chinweotuto Esther: If I tell you I actually wanted to quit after the first day, I won’t be lying.
When I woke up the next day, I could barely walk. The pains I experienced, the muscle pull – I couldn’t leave the house. I couldn’t even use the toilet. To sit down was like a world of punishment. I had crazy pain for like three, four, five days. I had to give myself a one-week break before I visited the gym again.
What kept you going, especially during tough times?
Chinweotuto Esther: When I got to the gym again, I got to meet other people working out – other ladies like me – and I was like, okay, I can do this.
The pain and exhaustion had already proven to me that I was not fit, even though I looked fine. So, I thought to myself, “Other ladies are doing it. Why don’t I just keep up with this? At least I will get fit. At least if there’s nothing else, I know the importance of being healthy, and this is a way to stay healthy.”
At the gym, I did quite a lot of workouts:
For my leg days, I do lunges, step-ups, walking lunges, sumo squats, barbell squats, RDLs (Romanian deadlifts), regular deadlifts, hip thrusts, kickbacks, and clamshells. My main focus is on lunges (backwards, forward, and walking), leg press, Romanian deadlifts, sumo squats, and single-leg RDLs.
I don’t do these workouts all at once or every day. I rotate different exercises on different leg days with rest days for my body to heal and recover. I have two or three leg days per week, doing about five exercises per session.
For the upper body, I do pull-ups and dead hangs once a week. I’m not much of an upper-body girl.
For core and abs, I do crunches, leg raises, dead bugs, planks, and Russian twists. I do core and abs after every workout session—about 30 minutes of different exercises. We have like eight of them and rotate through based on what works well that day.
I don’t really have a trainer or follow a program. When I started, I went online to check what people with good bodies were doing—what exercises, what routines. I started with basic squats. Two or three weeks in, I connected with other girls at the gym, and we all started checking programs online together. By the second month, we had our programs figured out.
We basically built our program from the ground up through online research. No trainer—just trained until we got better with each workout.
There’s really no secret. I admire fitness, found workout partners at the gym, went online to learn, and added structure and determination. That was it.
Who or what played a big role in helping you?
Chinweotuto Esther: My friend played a big role because he would always say, “Oh, it’s time for gym. Come out. Let’s go.” The fact that he goes every day motivated me to tag along.
I’ve worked out for six months now. If I tell you that in the first, second, third, and fourth months, anything was showing, I’d be lying. Nothing was showing. But I kept going because I had people doing it. I had met people who were consistent with it. The community really helped me a lot.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced?
Chinweotuto Esther: My major challenge was the fact that I had to be paying for this thing.
I had quit my job, so going to the gym was an extra expense. Like I said, I wasn’t fat. Even the way my body looked, it wasn’t that bad in my eyes. I had these little folds here and there, little belly fat, but it wasn’t something that caught anyone’s eye.
So it felt like I was wasting money. The gym membership alone was twenty thousand naira monthly. And you still have to consider payment for transportation, water, yoghurt, and so on.
I kept thinking, “Maybe people who are fat should go for this, not me”. But I kept up. The pains were there, but I think maybe I got used to the pain to an extent.
However, the part that bothered me the most was having to pay for something when I felt like, “I don’t need this.”
What surprising things did you discover along the way?
Chinweotuto Esther: When it got to my sixth month, I noticed my belly was getting tighter. I told you I had a flabby belly – when I’d stand, you could feel it jiggle. I noticed my belly was tightening up. This is actually working.
Clothes that I thought I had abandoned fit me comfortably. There were clothes I bought that I couldn’t zip. One day, I was about to give them to a tailor to expand them, but I said, “Let me try them first”. I wore these clothes comfortably. If I didn’t tell someone there was a time these clothes couldn’t fit, nobody would believe.
Mind you, I didn’t lose weight. When I started, I was weighing 70, 71, or sometimes 69 kilograms. I’m still weighing 70 now. So it’s not like I lost weight – it’s that my body started reforming, giving itself a whole new shape. What needed to be tightened was tightening, and what needed a little expansion was expanding.
Now, when I look at my belly compared to when I started – I took pictures to track – there are changes I can notice. Remember I told you about the cellulite on my thighs? I can’t find any of them right now. These things were all over my thighs. Before, I hardly wore short stuff – skirts, shorts. I didn’t wear anything short so they wouldn’t show. But now I wear my shorts comfortably.
I didn’t use any cream. I didn’t take any medication. It was just workouts, and all these things disappeared.
Where are you now, and how has your life changed?
Chinweotuto Esther: Now, I can confidently say that working out does a lot. Before, I could only repeat it based on studies, hearsay, or other people’s experiences. Most times, I didn’t even believe those stories because I thought: ‘They aren’t telling us the whole truth. Maybe they took something they won’t mention, or maybe they had surgery.’
But now, looking at myself, I can see how this lifestyle works: It works over time. Your workout, your eating habits – these things cannot be underrated. You must take care of yourself. You must learn to lift those weights. At least not too heavy, but at least do something. Eat right. Take healthy stuff. Cut down on your sugar, on your carbs.
Talking about diet: I didn’t change my diet. I studied human nutrition and dietetics, so I think right from my school days, I had that awareness of the importance of eating well – you’d rarely find me eating junk food. I wasn’t bulking or even consuming much protein either. But anybody who is working out has to watch their diet, especially if they know they don’t eat right.
So that got me thinking, “What can I do to make myself healthier?” That’s how I came about my business, Juice Genie. I decided to start making healthy, natural fruit juice as an alternative to carbonated drinks.
I use fruits like watermelon, pineapple, beetroot, orange, carrot, coconut, cucumber, apple, and celery. You know, watermelon and pineapple are naturally sweet, coconut is creamy, beetroot and carrot give vibrant colours, and cucumber and celery add this refreshing, earthy flavour. I combine them in different ways to achieve different sensational tastes—so far, there are four flavours in total, each with its own colour and taste profile.
So not only me, but other people take it too. It’s a healthier choice than fizzy and carbonated drinks.
In a sense, going to the gym and adopting this lifestyle helped me bring my background in human nutrition and dietetics into practical use.
What do you wish you had known when you started?
Chinweotuto Esther: I’ll tell anyone to be patient with their body. Know that everybody has different body types. Don’t follow someone’s pace. Don’t say, “Because this person achieved their body goal in three months, four months, five months, I’m giving myself this timeline.”
If you do that, when the time you gave yourself comes and you don’t see anything, you’re going to quit because you programmed your mind that this is how it should be.
When you start this lifestyle journey – the workout, the dieting – make sure to be very patient with your body. Just put in the work, put in the effort, eat healthy, and with time, you’re going to see your dream body.
Just keep going. Don’t rush yourself. Don’t look at people. Don’t use people’s progress to track your own. Your own can be faster. Your own can be slower. You can never tell. But just keep up the work. One day, you’ll just wake up, stand in front of the mirror and be like, “Wow, how did I get here?”
What are you looking forward to next?
Chinweotuto Esther: I like where I am right now. When I see myself in the mirror, I’m like, “Wow, how did I get here?” This has motivated me to just keep going because I feel like, okay, if I got here, I can get more.
I’ve seen the result of what I put in. I’ve seen how, before, I easily got tired – the fatigue, I wouldn’t do anything without being tired. But now I feel more energised, unlike before. I’m in a healthier space, and I want to always be in this kind of space.
I’m looking forward to keeping up with this healthy lifestyle – making sure we’re not quitting, we’re not going back. I know people say, “All these things you’re doing now, by the time you give birth and have babies, it’ll all be gone.” My response is, “When I give birth and it’s gone, I’ll go back to the gym and gain it again.”
No stopping. We’re not going back at all.
Conclusion: Fitness Isn’t About Losing Fat; It Is About Gaining Your Best Self
Chinweotuto Esther’s story reminds us of the Region Beta Paradox, where being in the ‘just fine’ zone becomes an unconscious trap. The simple truth is, people who look healthy on the surface often need the discipline of the gym more than they know.
But, often, it’s the person who was shamed for being fat who works out and discovers unexpected benefits. While the average-weight person simply ignore it. They may even joke, “What am I going to do with all those muscles?” or “Where am I running to?” without realising fitness isn’t about looking cool.
From physiological to psychological – I mean, from cardiovascular health and preventing type 2 diabetes, to increased mental toughness and warding off depression – the benefits go far beyond aesthetics. Esther didn’t lose weight. She gained strength, energy, confidence, and a body that actually works for her instead of against her.
Sometimes the transformation you need has nothing to do with the number on the scale.
We hope Chinweotuto Esther’s story inspires you—man or woman—to adopt this lifestyle of sweating daily, eating healthy, natural meals, and moving your body the way our ancestors did (even if it means paying a little for it).
***
Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section. And share to family and friends you think might like this.
The Editorial Team of Pawns Digital Agency.