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I joined the Beachbody community in August 2007. At that time, two years of inconsistent (mostly nonexistent) exercise and eating too many carryout meals left me heavier, flabbier, and less energetic than I had ever been in my life. My body parts were "jiggly", I was many pounds over my normal weight, my inner thighs touched (they never had before), my belly was puffy, and for the first time in my life I had small love handles -- I had become "SKINNY FAT" and was ready for a major overhaul.

Now, I have no more jiggles! And lots of muscle definition. In the spring of 2009, I completed my second round of P90X, this time making sure I was following the lean eating menu, which definitely contributed to great P90X results.

My neighbors are asking what I'm doing to stay in shape, telling me I look svelte, and my mom has informed my 10th-grade nephew that if he wants to bulk up he should ask his aunt Jody what she's doing because her biceps are bigger than his.

I continue to do the P90X program exercises (I look forward them!, even the upper-body push-up heavy workouts that previously weren't my favorites) and am also training for my first marathon on October 10th. Completing the P90X program increased my confidence to the point of deciding to sign up for the marathon, and continuing to perform the P90X workouts along with my marathon training has gotten me to a point of running my last long training run, 24 miles at an 8.5 minute/mile pace, which is terrific. I know I will be nervous the morning of the race, but my P90X and marathon training preparation will take over and get me through feeling strong.

My story:
In addition to the normal demands of family and work, my life had become crazy and chaotic after my husband and I decided to purchase, gut, and remodel a fixer-upper home in the summer of 2005 (a project that’s still ongoing) and the President of the company where I work died in an accident at the end of 2006, resulting in a significant number of extra hours at work from the time of his death through the fall of 2008. I had gone from a relatively fit person who exercised 5-6 times per week to someone who struggled to make a few dinners a week and was often too tired to start my day with exercise.

We haven't had a full kitchen since the fall of 2005, although we are down to needing countertops and installing our cooktop, which we plan to do by the end of 2009. It had become easy to pick up the phone and order delivery food instead of trying to make something in our make-shift kitchen. I don't get home from work until late and it's difficult to plan dinners that my husband (who hates to cook) can make so that we can eat something lean and healthy at a reasonable time on work nights.

In July 2007, I was lamenting about my physical state and lack of motivation to my sister-in-law. She mentioned the P90X program and told me she could see me as a P90X-er. That night, I looked P90X up on beachbody.com and I was sold. My only doubt was whether I could get rid of my lazy attitude and get my flabby self out of bed to do the daily workouts. After two weeks of mulling it over, I purchased the program, anxiously awaited receipt of my precious new P90X, and started P90X on August 6th, 2007.

I followed the program well for the first 6-8 weeks. After that, I found it difficult to stay with it consistently, primarily because of competing interests in my life and also negative thoughts resulting from my perfectionist attitude that I wasn't following the Program well enough because I couldn't follow the menu exactly since we didn't have a kitchen. I loved the Plyo, Yoga, and Legs & Back routines. I wasn't as fond of the Mon/Wed upper body workouts and found them to be a real challenge to wake up for.

Even still, I continued to exercise more regularly, and have benefitted from additional weight loss and improving fitness. A friend asked me to run in a 10K on Thanksgiving Day 2007, shortly after joining Beachbody. I did and loved it! It was the first race I had run since high school track. I ran another 10K on New Year's Day 2008, finishing in 54 minutes, and was starting to train for a marathon. I had gotten up to 12 mile training runs, then tripped on some shoes in my house and broke a bone in my foot. Oops! Six weeks in a stiff boot and a very gradual return to exercise. By the end of the summer 2008, I was back to full intensity exercise.

I know that if I just get up early and get my exercise done, it sets a positive tone for my day that keeps me more disciplined about what I eat, not to mention keeping my stress level in check. We have also cut our carryout and eating out down to rare occasions.

In November 08, I began to read more about lean eating and have been successful at eating smaller, leaner portions throughout the day. This has had a positive effect on my tone in that I’m starting to see more definition in my arms and abs. I have also limited the lattes I drink, and believe this has improved the quality of my sleep.

I ran the 10K Turkey Chase again this year, finishing in exactly 49.5 minutes, an 8-minute mile pace! It was a push, but not too bad. The sense of reward has been great.

Another sense of reward came unexpectedly when I took my measurements to update my Beachbody profile at the end of 2008. I knew I had lost weight, my body is now firm, and my inner thighs no longer touch. However, I had no idea that I had lost 2 inches from my waist! This is yet another great motivator to keep exercising, stay disciplined, and take my fitness to the next level.

My 2009 goals have been focused around a theme of staying disciplined and balanced in all aspects of my life, as I believe this will result in an even leaner me: (1) Exercise consistently, with progressive challenging of exercise intensity and ability. (2) Eat lean and drink my water, consistently and with rare exception. (3) Maintain balance of all of my life demands. I have had very positive fitness results to-date, but looking back at my WOWY logs makes it clear that I can achieve even better results if I consistently exercise 5-6 times per week, each and every week. I wanted to run in a couple races again this year, either increasing the distance or improving my time. I have completed a 20K and a 1/2 marathon, both with an 8-minute mile pace and will complete a marathon on October 10th. My biggest hope was that a consistent effort will be rewarded through the elimination of the residual puff that remained at my waistline at the start of 2009, to reveal my six-pack abs. I know they’re under there. Plus, I love those mason twists! I have gained a couple pounds this year, but lost in volume and now have a visible 4-pack and that additional two are starting to appear... it's only a matter of time and continued focus. As Tony says, anything is possible, just do your best and forget the rest.