How I Lost the Weight and Kept It Off

I would like to share with you my story about how I became a personal trainer and why I have such a passion for helping others to achieve their fitness goals. I hope this story will inspire and motivate you to persevere in your workouts.

I have worked out in a gym regularly since 1993. Like many women, my workouts consisted of a lot of cardiovascular activities such as aerobics classes, treadmill, and stair master, with sporadic weight training. I went through periods of time where I would lift weights more than others, but I really did not have any knowledge regarding what exercises to do or in what order; how many reps or sets to do; how many times a week I should work out, what kind of results to expect, etc. Needless to say, I didn’t see much physical change in my body for many years. I rationalized to myself that since I was a size 8, my workouts suited me just fine. This was indeed some progress since I was wearing 10’s and 12’s when I graduated high school in 1989, right???

All of that changed in the fall of 2001 when I finally “got my act together” in the gym. My husband had always told me, “Build muscle; burn fat”. My response was always, “You work out your way – I’ll work out mine!” I had to eat my words (no pun intended) when he turned out to be right! Once I began learning proper weight training techniques with the right amount of cardio activities, in addition to healthy nutritional habits, I lost 15 pounds and dropped 2 sizes in clothes! I am now 36 years old and wear a size 4! (Remember - I wore a size 12 when I was 17 years old). 

This is why I decided to become a personal trainer, which is a second career for me. My first career was in counseling, and I have both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Social Work. Due to my love for helping people, my interest in health and fitness, as well as my own success story, I want to help others to find the joy and excitement of meeting their own fitness goals. Because I have been there and know the frustrations of having such a low metabolism that just smelling food seemingly caused weight gain, I feel that I can very personally relate to others who share this same frustration. It is my heart-felt passion to encourage and motivate other women in their pursuit of weight loss, improved fitness, and overall improved health! If I can do it, you can, too!!!!

*Feb 2008 Update:  For those who don't know, I am now 15 weeks pregnant!  This is indeed the biggest challenge of all to maintain (and hopefully continue to improve) my fitness through all of the various physical changes that come with pregnancy.  My husband and I are very excited to welcome this little one into the world, especially since we battled infertility for 8 1/2 years.  We are so excited that God has blessed us with this long awaited baby without fertility treatment.  So far, for anyone who is interested, I have gained 10 pounds from when we first found out I was pregnant.  My goal is to keep the pregnancy weight gain within the 25 to 35 pounds that is recommended.  We'll see how I do!