January 2008 Member Spotlight: Barbara
Biography: I am a 56 year old wife, mother and grandmother. I have battled a weight problem since age 16. I was a chubby teenager. I lost weight in my early 20s and kept it off for a number of years. Then slowly, over the years I gained it all back and then some.
I finally joined Weight Watchers 3 years ago and lost 25 pounds. When I became lifetime I decided to work for Weight Watchers as well and am now a leader for 2 meetings with a 3rd meeting on the way.
Prior to WW I was a couch potato. I’ve never been an athletic person. I was always the chosen last for teams as a child. But when I joined Weight Watchers I learned how important exercise was for weight loss & health for my weight loss journey and for maintaining that weight loss.
After reaching goal and lifetime I stopped making progress with my exercise. I knew something was missing. I started adding some strength training to my workouts, but still was not getting to where I wanted to be. That’s when I learned about Phit N Phat. I saw Corinne’s ask a trainer posts on the message boards. I asked her a few questions and got good answers. I thought about joining for a month or so and then took the plunge.
Why and When you got involved with PnP: I joined PnP May, 2007. I wanted to know how to put all of my workouts together. I knew I needed cardio and strength training, but didn’t know how often or what ST exercises I should do. I joined PnP to learn how to do it, but found out I was getting so much more for my money.
What types of workouts you do? I work out at home. I use videos & dvds, mostly, for my cardio. I just recently added a treadmill to my home gym and have started incorporated the treadmill routines from the Work You Butt Off book. I am currently doing the intermediate 20 week full body routine. For cardio I use my treadmill, The Firm, Gilad, Kathy Smith, Karen Voight, Leslie Sansone, etc. I try to vary what I do so I don’t get bored.
What keeps you motivated? There are a few things that keep me motivated. First of all, seeing results. And it took me several months before anything really started happening. I kind of plodded along for the first 4 or 5 months. When we started the 3 month challenge in October that is when I started really seeing results. I started pushing harder.
So I guess it’s a combination of the results I am seeing as well as the encouragement I get from everyone on the message board. I don’t think I could accomplish as much without everyone rooting me on when I reach a new calorie burn or lift a higher weight. It really keeps me going. And I am doing so much more now than I ever did before. Every time I see a higher calorie burn on my HRM (thank you Trish) I am encouraged to work just a little harder next time.
Eating plan: I guess I eat a little differently from everyone else with PnP. I am a vegan vegetarian, been one for over 20 years. I eat 3 meals a day and no snacks. One thing PnP has helped me with is to add more protein and fat into my diet. I was not getting enough of either when I first joined.
Favorite exercise: This is a hard one for me. Despite what appears on the boards, I don’t really like exercising and I especially don’t like lifting weights. I like the results, like Lorie says. I guess I like cardio better than weights. And if I were to choose one, I’d probably say step aerobics. I have a lot of fun doing my step aerobics videos. They are not complicated and I get a good workout in less time than doing any other kind of low impact aerobics.
Something you never thought you'd be able to do and either can do or have tried doing: I never thought I could do high-impact aerobics.
I also never imagined I’d be lifting anything higher than 5 pounds, and I am able to do some things with 10 & 15 pounds now. Maybe not all reps in a set and maybe not the whole superset, but I am making progress and it absolutely amazes me sometimes.
How has PnP affected your life? PnP has showed me that I can accomplish so much more than I ever thought.
I am lifting heavier than I ever imagined. Just the other day my husband needed help getting a heavy item out of our van. He asked me to help him, and I did. He said that prior to my lifting weights I would never have agreed to help him. I would have told him it was too heavy. He was impressed that I just jumped in there and we got the job done.
To me that was a great compliment from him and it showed me that PnP is not just about exercising; it’s about life. It’s about having confidence that I can do what I need to do. I feel stronger, look better and most importantly feel better health wise and about myself in general.
I am stronger and healthier now than I was in my 20s, 30s, and 40s. And I hope to be even stronger when I reach my 60s.