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I have pretty much been involved in fitness all of my life. When I was a little girl I started ballet dancing at the age of 6. Ballet was my life and my passion - when I was 10 I learned first-hand how cruel people can be about weight. I was a little chunky (by no means the skinny ballerina type) and was always being talked to about my weight and being compared to the other girls always being

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I have pretty much been involved in fitness all of my life. When I was a little girl I started ballet dancing at the age of 6. Ballet was my life and my passion - when I was 10 I learned first-hand how cruel people can be about weight. I was a little chunky (by no means the skinny ballerina type) and was always being talked to about my weight and being compared to the other girls always being told that I had more of a Broadway dancer's body rather than a Ballerina's body. It didn't help in my home life that my sister was just naturally very skinny and people were always saying "your so much bigger than your sister" or "you would be so pretty if you would just lose a little weight". As a result I struggled for years (into my 20's) of EXCESSIVE exercising and eating very little. I would literally find out the calories in everything I ate and not eat it unless I knew that I could work off those calories (and then some)at my local gym, while I was very thin I was by no means doing it the "healthy" way. When I was 27 my husband and I learned we were going to have a child, how this would affect my body was a huge concern for me. When I was pregnant with my son I ate as healthy as I possibly could and scaled back about 90% on my exercise and just did daily walks - I gained only 22lbs during my pregnancy and others did not even know I was pregnant until I was 6months along. On May 5th, 2002 I had a healthy little boy named Angelo and was desperate after his birth to get back into my pre-baby rigorous exercise schedule. At 10 weeks post-baby I started working out again and between my workouts and being so busy with baby the lbs literally melted off and by that Winter I was happily back to my pre-baby weight. For about 3 years I was able to do 2-3 workouts per week and keep the weight off and it was great - that all changed in 2006. I was now 32 years old and while I was doing cardio I was not doing any type of weight training. My metabolism was definitely starting to slow down and the scale showed. From January of 2006 - December of 2006 my weight went from 131 lbs to a high of 152 lbs (I was only 154 lbs when I had my son). I felt absolutely miserable and awful about myself. I didn't want to go anywhere in public and it affected my relationship with my husband and my son. I would get tired easily and for comfort was turning to food. I knew I had to make a change but I had tried everything (FIRM videos, using the elliptical and the treadmill) but the scale just would NOT budge. I was up late one night watching an infommercial for a program called Turbo Jam - they had wonderful success stories and the program seemed fun as it incorporated dance (my passion) along with kickboxing (another passion of mine). I figured I would give it a try and start eating healthier. For the first 60days I was a little discouraged as no matter how much I worked out the scale would just NOT get below 145lbs, then when I was into my 4-5th month I added the weighted gloves to my workout for resistance and also started incorporating the Turbo Sculpt workout into my weekly routine. I didn't weight myself for about another 5 weeks, but knew I was losing weight as my clothes were getting looser. When I then weighed myself I was already down to 137 lbs. I was SOOO excited and remember in past talks I had with my brother (who was a bodybuilder for many years) that the best way to boost your metabolism is by using weights. I continued using/buying and loving all of the Turbo Jam workouts available through Beachbody and was just AMPED when I found out that Chalene Johnson was releasing a new workout program in January of 2009 called "ChaLEAN Extreme". A program that incorporated weights and interval training taking you through 3 different phased BURN/PUSH/LEAN to jump-start your metabolism and get you lean. I purchased this program the SAME DAY it became available on Beachbody and started it on January 1, 2009. The first 30 days I was getting a little discouraged as I wasn't seeing a whole lot of results and the scale had gone up a pound or two. I then had to re-remind myself that muscle weighs more than fat and to focus on the inches I was losing and how my clothes were fitting. I stuck out the program and at the end of 90 days I was down only 4lbs, but had lost 11" overall on my whole body. My body just felt smaller, leaner and more muscular. I could do 20 pushups off my toes no problem by the end of the program and was absolutely ecstatic about my results. In July of 2009 I decided to embark on another 90day round of ChaLean Extreme (incorporating some Turbo Jam workouts on my non-workout days), I am happier and healthier than I have been in a long time. I take an hour for myself every day 6x per week to get in a good workout, spend quality time with my family and am finally eating "right". This fitness journey that I have embarked on is long-term and something I will be involved in for the rest of my life. I was very excited to take the next step on my fitness journey in July of 2009 and become a BeachBody coach. I am looking forward to motivating others and having them start their journies towards better health and fitness. I love my new fitness lifestyle and the best is yet to come and I owe it all to Beachbody - THANK YOU!!!

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