Jacksonville, FL
My Road to Healthy Living
December of 2003 was the breaking point for me. I went shopping for a pretty new dress for New Years, in order to have my belly fit, I had to purchase a size 14; I am only 5’1”. On New Years Eve I wore this dress, my daughter took pictures of my then husband and I. Upon seeing the pictures and seeing how others looked at me that evening, I knew I had to make a change
My Road to Healthy Living
December of 2003 was the breaking point for me. I went shopping for a pretty new dress for New Years, in order to have my belly fit, I had to purchase a size 14; I am only 5’1”. On New Years Eve I wore this dress, my daughter took pictures of my then husband and I. Upon seeing the pictures and seeing how others looked at me that evening, I knew I had to make a change in my life.
I signed up for Discovery Health’s Weight Loss Challenge. I printed off meals and recipes, I starting walking around my neighborhood at night, and doing some crunches. It took me until February to go to the gym and sign up for a membership; I started to go to the gym 4 days per week. A few weeks later my husband got a flyer in the mail from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training; I decided that I wanted to do an event. I consulted my husband whom chose Triathlon as is was the closest event to us, and therefore would be easier to attend, little did he know how much it costs to outfit a new triathlete. Now I had to learn how to freestyle swim, learn to run and learn to bike, Phew what an undertaking. TNT provided us with a coach, I continued to go to the gym 4 days per week, but added a day per week of swimming with our group, a day of running or biking. I started riding my bike two days per week by myself on a secluded trail. I never realized the results I was getting as I still had that belly, but I got all the way down to a size 5 by the date of my Triathlon, I felt great!
I continued this lifestyle of running, biking, and swimming and going to the gym, I never turned my back. I entered the local community college and started working my way to a bachelor degree in Athletic Training. A few years later however my marriage went downhill, and even though I was still very active I started to pack on the pounds, I couldn’t understand why. As time passed I had gained the 20 pounds back but this time I was only at a size 9 – 11. During this time, I lost all my energies and was not able to keep up with all my exercising, I tried to do some sort of exercise everyday, but found it getting increasingly harder to do. Finally I moved out and eventually I got divorced; I hoped that I could get back some of my energy, and get back to exercising like I had in the past. I realized that I no longer ran; I still swam once a week, I still biked once or twice a week, and strength training was very sporadic. It has taken me a year to get back into the full swing of strength training again, and biking two or more days per week, I’m still working on getting back into running.
I had one of my best friends tell me about this new program she purchased, called P90X, She said it was kick … well hard-core. I did the Plyometrics and Kenpo X with her and loved the routines. Everyone kept saying that this is a “hard core” workout that was guaranteed to see results if “You Bring It”. Now all I really lacked at this point is motivation, I can procrastinate myself out of anything, but I watched the “How to Bring It” DVD and without hesitation I signed onto “beachbody.com”, I was assigned a coach, wow how awesome is that! It is December of 2008, and I am back where I was 5 years ago, venturing out into a new branch of exercise, and loving every minute of it. The pain I feel after a workout is phenomenal but so is the smile on my face. To Scott, my coach, you are awesome and I’m glad to have met you are a great motivator!
Bring it on Tony… I’m ready and willing!!
