Team Beachbody ¡preestreno!Español Guest

I grew up eating all the wrong things and living a lethargic lifestyle. I began getting fat in the 5th grade. By the time I was 16 I hit 200 lbs and literally had NO muscle whatsoever. I hated exercise and anything having to do with sweating. I remember looking at a picture of myself and thinking how fat and ugly I was. At that time I literally hated myself. Not only was I fat, but I had no self-control to help me diet. I felt that I was literally hopeless.

I became so desperate that I asked my parents to help me lose weight by taking me to a diet doctor. I heard from a friend that prescription diet pills had been the reason she lost a lot of weight the year before and I felt that every time I tried to diet I just gained more weight. My parents agreed to help me because they saw how miserable I was and how large I had become.

I went to the doctor and he gave me some blue and white speckled pills (Phentermine 37.5). He told me to take 1 pill 3X a day and follow the diet plan he gave me. I was very determined to follow the diet at all costs. I immediately noticed after starting to take the pills that I was no longer hungry AT ALL.

It was the beginning of the summer before my senior year (1996) and I began dropping weight like crazy. Some days I would only have a banana and some grilled chicken as it literally made me sick to eat while taking these pills.

Long story short, by the end of the summer I had lost almost 40 pounds and was still losing weight. I was so happy and began to actually like myself. I finally had some self-confidence. The problem was, when I later got off the pills, my metabolism slowed and my hunger returned full force if not worse. I would work out sometimes for 3 hours a day just to maintain my weight loss. I was also hungrier and had to offset the fact I was eating more by exercising more as well. I didn't have any understanding of building muscle. All I did was cardio and had the mentality that if I lifted weights I would become a bulky body builder, which I didn't want due to already being very thick by nature.

Time went by, I went into the military and still always did my daily hour of cardio. While I maintained my weight through watching my fat intake and sugar intake, I still looked flabby and didn't have a "tight" body like I wanted.

After I got out of active duty, I had my first baby in which I ballooned up to 185 from 140. I was still 180 AFTER the birth and very depressed. I went on wieght watchers and began to lose weight, but still lie the problem that it was becoming increasingly hard to lose weight and keep it off with just doing cardio alone.

I would then meet Pam Sisco (a personal trainer) that would finally explain to me why building muscle would keep me in shape for life and the more muscle I had, the more fat I would burn THROUGHOUT the day instead of only while I was exercising like when I did cardio all the time. Plus, I wasn't building any muscle while doing cardio.

It finally clicked... I entered into the Body for Life Challenge in 2004 and ended up losing approximately 35 lbs and more importantly going from 32% body fat to 16% body fat in only 90 days. I stayed in shape for about a year until my body had gotten used to the workout and was no longer changing. At that point I had two more children and was right back to square one.

I came accross P90X and Insanity while watching TV one day and it hit me so hard WHY I hadn't stayed successful. It was because my body was used to the work outs I was doing and wasn't being challenged.

I was now 200 lbs again, but still retain more muscle since I didn't have any as a teenager. In reality I am more healthy than I was back then, yet I know I still eat too much and have developed a diet plan for myself that I will be following while doing the P90X over the next 3 months. I then plan to do Insanity for 2 months thereafter.

I hope to meet people that are motivated for positive physical and mental change for good just like me!

Good Luck to All of You...

Jennifer Campbell