I was skinny and an athlete as a kid,
But I gained and lost as fast as the seasons after I left my parent house by eating junk, drinking beer, and being lazy.
When I met husband in March 2000, I was energetic, active and weighed @165. That’s a pretty normal size for my height of 5’8″. Of course I thought I was fat at the time. We ate out a lot while we were dating, and I learned to love wine.
By December 2001 I weighed over 200 lbs. Of course, there are no pictures to speak of here.
Prompted by my future mother-in-law’s success, I joined weight watchers, lost weight and got down to 175 lbs. by the time I got engaged in June 2002. I managed to maintain my weight throughout the engagement and until I got married later that year.
Within a few years my weight was back up, and this time I was 210+. Unhealthy, overweight, unhappy, and falling asleep on the couch exhausted every night.
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In February 2010 ran into a co-worker who had lost 60+ lbs. on WW. That week I went back on WW and lost 25+ again, but this time started getting active. It all started with a 10 minute walk with the dog, and when the weather was bad, I used the treadmill inside. In April I hired a trainer from the gym and was paying @$65 per visit, twice a week, in addition to my gym membership. I tried my first yoga class July 2010 due to reoccurring IT band issues and even ran a few 5Ks. I would run to/from gym AND do a gym workout. By the end of the year I was under 170, close to my goal weight and also looked smokin’ hot at my 20 year class reunion.
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In 2011, I purchased The 30 Day Shred for $10 at target, graduated to hot yoga, continued lots of running, and started borrowing workout videos from library. I ran several longer races including a half marathon that spring. I quit the trainer and joined a crossfit gym. I would run to/from crossfit every other day, plus do the workout. I bought more Jillian Michael’s videos when they were on sale. My running performance and endurance improved performance greatly that year and I maintained weight within @5 lbs.
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I continued on with crossfit, joined a belly dancing class, dabbled in the barre method, tried a variety of yoga studios and had some elective surgery in June 2012.
Finally happy with my appearance in a swim suit, I was swimming laps regularly that summer and doing more yoga including Bob Harper Warrior Yoga. I borrowed the NRLFW book from the library and maybe did 1 or 2 workouts but I decided to quit my gym membership because I was doing all these other activities. During this year I also engaged of 2 rounds of HCG, but just gained it right back. Weight fluctuated from 164-180. I WOULD NOT recommend this to anyone.
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Looking for something different, I bought ChaLEAN Extreme on Amazon.com (because it would get here in 2 days) and did one round of CLX/Running Hybrid with no coach, no support, and no guidance. But my body was finally taking shape.
I graduated CLX and went on to StrongLifts but somehow injured my shoulder (can’t say it was related to working out, but it sure did hurt when I tried to workout). So I stopped working out, went to the doctor, and she sent me to Physical Therapy.
About this time, Ann Dorrian, a woman who I had met through our mutual husband’s working together contacted me about Beachbody. She told me she was a coach and she wanted to help me continue on with my awesome fitness journey. I only had “online friends” through weight watchers and MyFitnessPal so I was happy for the support. She shared with me some of her experiences and even got her upline Coach on the phone, Lynette Connell, and she told me about some of the Programs she had success with.
After much deliberation I settled on Les Mills Pump and over the course of the next few months developed a STRONG but FEMININE body without heavy weights which I couldn’t do because of my should injury. The other differentiator here was the Shakeology. Ann encouraged me to get a Challenge Pack which gave me a discount on my workouts, free shipping, and let me try Shakeology for 30 days. Of course after that I couldn’t stop.
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Over the summer I got interested in Ultimate Reset and completed a 3-week intense program. My stomach hadn’t looked this flat in 20 years!
In the Fall I jumped into INSANITY….but my shoulder still hadn’t healed so I went back to the doctor, then an orthopedic surgeon, got a MRI, and found out I needed surgery. So of course I had the surgery.
I couldn’t do any workouts for 2+ months but I ate mostly vegetarian (which of course I learned from the Ultimate Reset). INSANITY was going to be too challenging to start right after surgery so Ann and I talked about Les Mills COMBAT since I loved PUMP so much. I had bought so many programs as a client already, we did the math and I would actually be SAVING money on my Shakeology being a Coach and buying my workouts and nutrition supplements from my own business…so I became a coach. It was easy and the start up fee was waived because I purchased a COMBAT Challenge Pack which came with the Vanilla Shakeology I wanted to try.
I eased into COMBAT about 60 days after surgery, even before I was able to lift my arm fully above my head. I was DYING to workout at this point. I did a few weeks of COMBAT but at the time, was not feeling much muscle fatigue which I need to feel to know my body is changing, I so migrated to a COMBAT/PUMP hybrid.
In 2014, I realized that I was a walking poster child for these products, and why couldn’t I get a little active and start talking about my success so I could start helping others. So I enrolled in the new coach basics group and learning to help others along the way.
Contact me today if anything in my story resonates with you. I’d love to help support you along the way and get you in a Free Online Support Group that starts in the next few weeks.
Excel With Mel 