Team Beachbody ¡preestreno!Español Guest

My transformation is in progress. I'm a homeschooling mom who has spent the last 18 years not having to spend much time outside my home. I'm also a National Manager with The Arcaro Group, a worldwide, full-service training and support company, but that is something I have been able to do from home on the internet, so it still hasn't mattered so much what I wear or how I look.

I haven't always been fat. I weighed 108 pounds on my wedding day, and even that was heavy for me at the time. I am only 5 feet tall. Maybe. I never, ever had any problem with my weight. If anything, I sometimes did not weigh enough. Then, in 1985 I married into a fun-loving Italian family and learned to love the wonderful food they ate, and to eat similar quantities! I gained 40 pounds when I became pregnant with my daughter, who is now 21, and added another 20 to that when my son was born in 1991. I have gained and lost the same 20 or 30 pounds for about 10 years.

Last summer, at the age of 51, I weighed 185 pounds and was in the hospital with chest pains. It wasn't the first time I had chest pains, but it was the first time I really thought it was a real heart attack. That was a major wake up call! I don't have many, if any, pictures from that time because I haven't wanted my picture taken in years.

I lost quite a bit of weight this year using a Christian weight lost program, and was feeling really good about how much I had improved, but I still was not exercising. I began to pray about what to do about that. It has been too hot to walk, and anyway that is pretty boring. We really couldn't justify the expense of joining a "real" gym, and I had done the 30 minute women's circuit thing in the past with minimal success.

Every year we attend a conference for Christian homeschooling families, and this year they had dance workshops, one of which was hip hop! I have 15 years of dance training in tap, ballet, and jazz because my dad owned a dancing school, and though it seemed kind of crazy, I signed up for the class with all the teens and 20-somethings. I had so much fun! They were all pretty surprised that I could keep up with them. I knew it was the answer to my prayer.

Then my son and I saw the Hip Hop Abs infomercial a few weeks later, and I was spellbound. Speaking of answers to prayer! Now that I was not afraid I couldn't pick my feet up off the floor, I could see not only that I would enjoy the workout, but that the changes I was looking for could be achieved! I really liked Shaun T.'s patient way of explaining and demonstrating the moves. So I bought the DVDs and joined the MDB website.

As a Christian who believes that I should "glorify God with my body", I had been feeling that all anyone saw when they looked at me was a fat slob, and that I was not honoring God by the way I looked. When I lost the weight this year, I had been feeling so great about how I was looking. So I was really shocked when I saw my "before" picture at 158 pounds! Yes, it was a wonderful improvement for which I thank God, but I realized how far I had to go. But for the first time in years, I had the confidence that I could actually lose ALL the weight I had gained.

I would like to lose 50 pounds and get back into my wedding dress in time for my 25th anniversary in 2010. Actually, I would like to get there a whole lot sooner than that! But that is the drop-dead date to achieve this goal.

I have been feeling and acting like an old woman for a long time, and I am NOT old. I have been blessed with youthful skin, and for many years people could not guess my age. I am looking forward to seeing dropping jaws again when I say I am 52 (or 53 or whatever).

I just started my workouts on 8/2/07 and am looking forward to a major success story.