Biography: I'm 31 years old, live in Northern California and have been married to my wonderfully supportive husband for about a year and a half.
My story is far from being remarkable. After high school I gained a few pounds a year and over a few years those add up. I was around 165 pounds when I realized I needed to make a change, and at only 5’4” the extra pounds show up. I started working out with one of my girlfriends and started feeling better about myself. That was my first taste of strength training, through the “Body for Life” workouts and I enjoyed the challenge.
Shortly thereafter I started taking a prescription medicine that assisted me with gaining about 20 pounds in just about 3 weeks and I just went into a downward spiral from there. I was depressed and filled the hole in my heart with food. I stepped on the scale one day & saw 191 pounds looking back at me and joined Weight Watchers online immediately and started attending meetings a few months later. I was still in college and started working at a job where I was able to be very active, and that coupled with being anal retentive about staying within my WW Points, I was able to reach my WW goal weight of 145 within about a year, in September of 2002. Although this was a great WW goal weight to build confidence, it was still too high for me and I’ve since gone down from there.
I've kept the weight off for over six years now, and about four years ago I discovered that I have an allergy to wheat & gluten. This obviously completely changed my diet and lifestyle, but I’m feeling healthy and happy and have a new outlook on life.
Why and When you got involved with PnP: I reached out for Corinne’s help in preparation for my wedding in 2007 by working out with the Work Your Butt Off book and her personalized Big Mo circuit workouts. I had never worked that hard in my entire life and knew that it was exactly what I needed to get myself in gear. I was on the waiting list to join the site for a few months and was thrilled to be able to become a part of this wonderful community in October of 2007.
What types of workouts you do? I now really enjoy doing Corinne’s tough circuit workouts and do a mix of cardio sessions at the gym and running.
What keeps you motivated? The absolute best thing for me for the past year has been being involved in the eight week PNP team challenges. Eight weeks is short enough to push through and not lose focus but long enough to see some great results, and I’ve just loved getting to know the wonderful ladies on my teams. Other than that, the friends I’ve made here at PNP keep me motivated on a daily basis – on the boards, via email, texting, phone…whatever. They are the sisters that I wish I had grown up with and just love so much.
Eating plan: I follow a strict gluten free diet and have been moving toward eating much cleaner foods thanks to the help of Trish and Phit Nutrition.
Favorite exercise: Deadlifts, because I can really feel them strengthening my glutes and hamstrings.
Something you never thought you'd be able to do and either can do or have tried doing: There are so many things that I thought I’d never be able to do but now know that I can, like feeling pretty good about my body and my fitness, but I’m going to choose two measurable things.
First, I can now do sets of pushups on my toes. I never thought I’d be able to do this and have always had to modify to complete pushups on my knees, so this is a very big deal to me.
Second, I can RUN!!! This sounds silly, but I had never run and honestly I didn’t think I would ever be able to. With motivation from the lovely ladies at PNP and the patience of my wonderful husband, I went from barely being able to run a block at a time when I started the Couch to 5K plan to finishing my third half marathon this past weekend. This has been a remarkable confidence-boosting achievement for me.
How has PnP affected your life? It’s difficult to even express how much PnP has changed my life. Getting top notch training advice was just the start, but I never in a million years expected to get the love, support and motivation that I get from the PnP community on a daily basis. You all have become my friends, my support system and my sisters. I just love this community and don’t know where I would be today without it. All I can say is thank you.
What do you think of the PnP Site and what suggestions would you have for us? I just love the PnP site. I always get so much out of the thought provoking Fat Girl Thinking posts and the Motivation forum, so I’d love to continue to see those areas because they help with getting to the heart of the matter.