America Ferrera recalls her triathlete journey

— -- After completing two Olympic-distance triathlons, America Ferrera has gone from obsessing over how her body looks to marveling at what it's able to accomplish.

Appearing for the first time on the cover of Triathlete magazine, the 33-year-old actress opened up about the experience of training for her first triathlon and how it changed her.

Growing up, Ferrera said, "Nobody taught me to appreciate and love my body for what it’s capable of. It was always about what it wasn’t and couldn’t do, and what it could be."

But when her husband, actor/producer Ryan Piers Williams, decided to train for a triathlon while raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Ferrera wasn't about to let him show her up.

"I think my competitive nature kicked in, but along with that competitive nature was a real fear of 'Oh my gosh, am I that person. Could I actually do a triathlon?'" she recalled. "For a big part of my childhood, I was overweight and never thought of myself as really physically in touch with my body. I’d worked out to feel healthy or get fit but I’d never really loved it."

Ferrera didn't exactly love training for a triathlon either -- at least at first.

She recalled "literally weeping in the pool" at one point during her training and credits the team she trained with for helping her through.

"I just love that I could have that moment of fear and doubt and still keep going," she said. "And there I was on race day, swimming in the ocean for a whole mile. That is a transformative experience to go from being the person who can’t to the person who does. It changes you."

Competing in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon last September, Ferrera completed the nearly mile-long swim, nearly 25-mile bike ride and 6.2-mile run in three hours and 42 minutes.

Attending a pre-Emmys party that night in a strapless gown, Ferrera proudly displayed her race number on her arm.

"From Grind to Glam," she wrote on Instagram beside a photo of her and her husband. "We cleaned up to get to the Emmys #eveningbeforeparty, but left my Tri numbers on cuz I earned that s---!