Team Beachbody ¡preestreno!Español Guest

5'2" x 5'2". That's pretty much what I looked like. A cube with legs. A beach ball. A marshmallow. (mmm. marshmallows.) I had lived most of my life about 20-50 lbs overweight. It was an excuse for everything. It's so much easier to say "I was rejected because I'm fat" than to look inside and try to improve yourself.
In September of 1998, my father was diagnosed with cml; chronic myeloid leukemia. I started eating to medicate my fear. Once he (by a pure miracle) went into remission, I decided to start taking care of myself. I went on the Atkins diet. Now, the problem is, I had not been a fan of fatty foods prior to Atkins. I was a "carbo-terian;" pasta, crackers, bread, etc. I ate PILES of pretzels and wondered how I had gotten so large. Once I started Atkins, the weight fell off, but my taste for fat grew, and grew, and grew. I had lost about 40 lbs when I went off the diet, and instead of going back to carbs, I started incorporating my newly found taste for fats into my diet. For example, in the past I would have eaten penne w/plain sauce. Now? Penne a la vodka with parmesan sprinkled on top! Oh, and don't forget the loaf of bread I'd eat with it.
I grew.
And grew.
And grew.
And I could care less.
A friend of mine called me in 2006 and said, why don't you go in for "The Biggest Loser?" I said, "HELL NO!" She responded, "It would be great exposure!" I replied, "Who needs to be exposed to me in a jogger bra over 200 lbs?"
Needless to say, I wound up on the show. Only there was a catch; I was one of the "at home" players on my season. That translated into me going home and doing it on my own without a trainer.
Knowing that I had to do 2.5-4 hour workouts a day, I really was looking for something different to keep myself interested in exercise. A friend of mine gave me Turbo Jam. I had been doing tae boxing, kick-bo, 8 seconds to skinny, you name it. Each instructor annoyed me. When I tried Turbo Jam it was different. The music was actual DANCE music, not someone's nephew in playing a synthesizer in a basement studio. The moves were easy, and I actually continued to break a sweat even when I had whittled myself down to a size 2! I wound up winning my category on the show, and continue to use P90x, Turbo Jam, and am awaiting Hip Hop Abs in my maintenance mode. It has been one year since I lost 1/2 of me, and I continue to stay within 5-10 lbs of my goal weight and stay in the obnoxious size 2 jeans I bought last year.