Meet....ME - The New Me!

Those of you who knew me in my younger days know how thin I was. Too thin really. Skinny. After having 2 children, I could no longer be called skinny. I was quite the opposite. Let’s face it I was fat. Twice the size that I was when I started college. A job sitting at a desk 8 hours a day didn’t help. Neither did going home just to sit on the couch. I avoided cameras and mirrors at all costs. If I didn’t see myself, I didn’t have to admit how much I had let myself go. I could keep the mental image I had of the “skinny” me. This went on for a while. Too long really. Then one day I woke up. I decided enough was enough and it was time to do something about it. So I did. Those of you who know me also know how stubborn and strong-willed I can be when I set my mind to doing something. That’s come in handy during this endeavor.


It started slowly. I gave up the soft drinks and started drinking water instead. That made a bigger difference than I had expected. I still have one Mello Yello every morning – I have to have my caffeine to get my day started. And on really stressful days, I might hit the drink cooler at the office and grab a Mountain Dew. But then I go right back to my water. I also realized how much time I was spending in a stationary position. My living room isn’t really set up in a way I could put a treadmill in there, but that didn’t stop me. I got up and walked back and forth in front of the TV for 30 minutes every night while I was catching up on my DVR’d shows. And it worked. I lost 25 pounds. I could see the difference and so could everyone else.

After losing the first 25 pounds, I hit a wall. I wasn’t gaining the weight back, but I wasn’t losing any more either. I knew it was time to try something different. Right around that time, one of the guys I work with started offering free karate classes to anyone who wanted to try it. The classes were being held on an empty floor in our building. I decided to give it a try. Why not right? It was convenient and free and a way to try something new. Plus learning a little self defense couldn’t hurt either. So I started going to karate classes twice a week. I wound up being one of the older people in class, but I loved it. Before long I was doing things I never thought I could and having fun doing it. Now those of you who know me also know that I am not the most graceful person on the planet, so I’m sure I looked quite goofy more often than not, but I was still doing it. I would just laugh at myself and keep on going. Karate wound up being great exercise. It worked my core and I got very flexible very quickly. I didn’t realize that I was losing inches until I was walking past a window of a restaurant on my way to lunch one day. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the window as I walked past and stopped dead in my tracks. Was that really me? I looked so thin. I looked more like the old me than I had in years. I couldn’t help but smile and I had a new pep in my step that I hadn’t had in a long time.

I continued with the karate classes until life got in the way, as it usually does. The kids’ schedule and my karate schedule were conflicting so I had to give it up. I hated it but I did what any mom would do. The kids always come first. So I went back to my walking back and forth in front of the TV again. I was determined not to go backward and undo everything I had just accomplished. So I maintained.

Last summer some friends of mine opened a gym. The gym was mostly for MMA training but they also started a women’s bootcamp class. The school year was winding down so the kids’ schedules weren’t so jam-packed and I had some free time, so I thought I’d give it a try. The first class almost killed me. I was sore and tired, but I felt great. It felt so good to move and do something different. So I joined the gym and started a 6 week bootcamp class with classes 4-5 times a week (Monday – Thursday with an optional Saturday class). The classes were challenging at first – I was working muscles I forgot I had. Each class started with “The Daily 7” – 25 jumping jacks, 25 pushups, 25 mountain climbers, 25 leg lifts, 25 hello dolly’s, 25 scissor kicks, and 25 jumping jacks. And that was just the warm up. Then we would usually do some core work. I never realized how many different ways there were to do crunches. And they all hurt. But that was a good thing. It meant I was working muscles that needed to be worked. After that, we would do our circuit training. We had stations set up (usually 8-10 depending on how many people were in class) where we worked specific muscle groups – bi’s and tri’s, back and shoulders, legs, chest and core, etc. We would do one exercise for 2 minutes, rest a minute, do the same exercise for 2 more minutes, then rotate to the next station. We did that until we each had a turn on every station. Then we stretched. Some days one of the MMA guys would teach and we would do different things – like drag a tire across the parking lot, hit a tractor tire with a sledgehammer (which is the best stress reliever there is. Trust me. Try it. You’ll see), different forms of squats until our legs were like jello, or go a few rounds in the ring with a former boxer. The guys also taught us about the importance of a healthy diet, so I cleaned up my eating habits. Saturday classes were the “fighter workouts”. Those quickly became my favorite classes. I would leave there a sweaty mess every day and feeling fantastic. Did I mention that the gym had no air conditioning? I thought I would hate that, but it didn’t bother me nearly as bad as I thought it would. There were a few times in July and August that I joked about knowing what it felt like to physically melt, but it was worth it. The results were impressive. After my first 6 weeks, I didn’t see the pounds fall off like I had hoped. I had to remind myself that muscle weighs more than fat and I was putting on muscle. The weight loss would come later. It was a little disheartening to get on that scale every week and see very little movement though. I decided to stick it out and keep going anyway. If nothing else, I was having fun and I made some great new friends in class.

Then one day before our class started, one of the girls asked me how much weight I had lost. I told her that I hadn’t really lost that much, maybe 5 pounds. She said, “Then you have really lost a ton of inches because I can see a big difference.” I started paying attention to how my clothes fit me after that and I could see it too. All of that hard work and sweat and soreness was paying off. And it was paying off in a big way. I looked and felt better than I had in years. I went shopping to celebrate and bought clothes 2 sizes smaller than I had been wearing. People started to comment on how great I looked and it felt really good.

After 6 more weeks of bootcamp, life got in the way again. School started back and so did the hectic schedules. I had to give up bootcamp. I almost cried but there was just no way to make the schedules work. I swore to myself that I would get back in the gym after football season ended. Then basketball season started and I had to put it off for a few more months. That’s just life I guess.

At the beginning of the year, I reluctantly weighed in to see how much I had gained back during my time off from the gym. Much to my surprise, I had lost 10 more pounds. After basketball season ended, I started working out again. Instead of joining the gym, I started using the gym at one of my friends’ apartment complex. I learned a lot during bootcamp about different exercises and how to do them properly, so I put what I had learned to use. I didn’t have to worry about schedules since I could now go whenever it was convenient. I’m 8 weeks in and seeing the results again. I haven’t kept up with measurements like I should have but I am about to go shopping for clothes 3 sizes smaller than when I started this adventure. I am down 45 pounds so far and the difference is amazing. I look like a different person than I did just 2 years ago. And I no longer avoid cameras and mirrors. People that see me everyday probably don’t notice just how different I look. And those that only see me occasionally probably can’t appreciate the drastic change either. So to prove it, here are my “before and after” pictures. The first one is from September 2008. The second one was taken this morning. Would you believe that is the same person in those pictures if you didn’t know it was me?

To anyone who might read this that is struggling with weight issues like I was, I hope this gives you hope. If I can do it, so can you. You just have to decide you want to and stick to it. It’s not always easy and it’s not always convenient, but it is definitely worth it. I still splurge at times and have that extra Mountain Dew or that cupcake with 4 inches of icing on top. It’s ok to cheat sometimes. It’s ok to take a little time and reward yourself for a job well done. But then you have to get back to work. Don’t get discouraged – you will see results. Just give it time. And if you need a reminder, just look at me. I’ll be the one smiling and wearing jeans at least 3 sizes smaller.