Jolanda Goldstein is committed to her journey

Jolanda Goldstein only started her fitness journey in 2019, but she’s already committed to a lifetime of fitness and focus. 

The Sarasota resident, 25, is originally from Germany and moved to the area when she was in elementary school. She’s been bigger than the typically socially acceptable body type her whole life, she said, and as a kid, she was bullied at her new school for the way she looked.

“Growing up, language was a barrier, and my weight was also a barrier,” Goldstein said. 

As she got older, she wanted to make a change to start eating healthier and exercising. Several diet programs were overly strict and designed to fail, but she started a program called Arbonne in 2019 with a group of friends. She focused on healthier foods, and when the 30-day program was up, she decided to keep going. 

It was tough. Her German heritage meant that heavy foods had always been a part of her life, and her mother owns a bakery. Bread and sweets were ever-present, but as Goldstein continued to make gradual lifestyle changes, she began seeing and feeling results. Slowly, it got easier. 

“At a certain point, I saw my lifestyle change and my weight [change] and all these other things,” Goldstein said. “I was like, ‘All right, let's continue.’”

When she first started her fitness journey, Goldstein began an Instagram account to keep herself accountable and make a space to find inspiration. It has kept her progress front and center because she can see it in time-lapse photos. For Goldstein, health and weight loss go hand in hand. She has developed healthier habits since starting her journey and is mentally feeling stronger as she sees her progress. 

“People stopped talking about weight, and that [had been] an issue,” Goldstein said. “You see, today, being bigger is not [easy]. … I've always struggled with weight and all of these other things, but it's also the healthy journey, like eating right.”

When quarantine started, she was nervous about keeping up her progress — she couldn’t get to the gym, and getting to the grocery store for healthy foods was a process — but found that as lockdown wore on, running was a natural gateway to a change of scenery. She started with walks at Marina Jacks just to get out of the house and then began running partway through the year. 

One of her proudest moments along her fitness journey was completing the Turkey Trot 5K at Nathan Benderson Park. She began running in mid-2020 and set the goal not long after. Once Goldstein began running regularly, she was bitten by the endorphin bug. 

“I felt accomplished, like, ‘Wow, I actually did it,’” Goldstein said. “The support of my family is one of the biggest things. My siblings were like, ‘Oh, we'll join you.’”

She doesn’t have a 5K race planned right now, so her objective for the time being is to just stay the course and build on her fitness. These days, she runs, usually at Celery Fields, four times a week. 

“The sunsets there are amazing — it's breathtaking,” Goldstein said. “But I also like Benderson. You get to run on concrete, … but I just like the feeling of [being] somewhere else — you're in a different place.”