Nov 06 2010
5 Comments
Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman

Confessions of a Fitness Instructor Part 2

Here’s Lisa once more…

In Part 1, I set up the premise, depressing as it may have been, that becoming a gym rat would not make you thin.  (Next comes the Santa talk.)

I gave you the studies on “The Reward System” and “I Did That Already” behaviors.  In a nutshell, the half a muffin with coffee after an hour workout, pretty much negates the workout.  And, working yourself like a farm animal for your personal trainer, does not give you permission to stop all movement the rest of the day.  There is a bigger, and I hope to prove to you, brighter picture!

Barry Braun, associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts, says that the evidence emerging from research shows that moderate exercise is an excellent way to burn calories without triggering a caloric-compensation effect.  In one experiment, Braun showed that simply standing up instead of being seated used hundreds more calories per day.  MOVE!!  Remember, exercise is still the number one predictor of weight loss maintenance.  And while it doesn’t have to be brutal, it does have to be constant.
People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of diseases—you’ve heard it all before—heart disease, diabetes, cancers.  We need to incorporate movement in each day, for a variety of reasons.  Mentally, emotionally, and, or course, physically, we just have greater quality of life if we are movers.
“You cannot sit still all day long and then have even 30 minutes of exercise without producing stress on the muscles,” says Berthoud, a neurobiologist at LSU’s Research Center.  “The muscles will ache, and you may not want to move after.  Better to distribute movement throughout the day.”

I recently attended a conference to hear Dominique Adair MS,RD, a highly regarded nutritional expert in the United States.  This was my topic—this is my thing! Lay your wisdom on me!!  When asked WHY our country is becoming obese, she simply stated, “positive caloric consumption”….we eat too much!  We have become a country that eats way too much of the most unhealthy types of food.  Most Americans eat food that is calorically dense, highly processed and in huge proportions.

And so I return to my original confession.

I am a thirty year veteran of the fitness industry, who is not sure we are educating our students correctly.  It’s not just about the workout, or just about the food you eat.  It’s about both of them…and the thoughts you think, and the aspirations you have.
Ask yourself this question, “What am I getting fit for?”  (pardon the grammar)  Then, ask it again…and let your heart answer as well.

Why and how are you exercising?  Is it for the mirror, or is it for your life?  Go deeper, think longer…what is it, really, that you want to accomplish? If you truly want a quality of life that includes a healthy mind/body connection, take classes from the entire spectrum of cardio to Beamfit, power pump to gentle stretch.

Find the joy in developing core muscles that help you engage better posture, keep you from slipping on a patch of ice, or allow you to laugh deeply!  Get outside and walk, breathe fresh air, carry your own groceries, MOVE!

Change how you look at your workouts, how you look at the food you eat, and you can change the quality of every day.

What are you moving for? Toward?

P.S. We moved the treadmill from the basement to Adventure Guy’s office. Well, two strong young men moved it. Now, to use it and add it to daily movement.

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Oct 28 2010
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Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman

DirectLife coach in my inbox

Still going for green...

Confession

As I’ve whined before, since July, I’ve been sporadic about moving my molecules in any regular fashion.

Enter Jen, the Coach in My Inbox, with DirectLife. When she emailed to check in with me (yes, she does that), I whined to her about the additional job, the new classes at school, life in general, and…well, no need to go further. You’ve all whined the same chorus before.

She came up with a great idea. She suggested, since I use Google mail, that I create a Google calendar of what I have to do each month and then tell her what I’d like to do with movement. Then send her the calendar and she’d take a look at it and see where perhaps I was being unrealistic or could fit something in.

A fresh idea! And I could do it on my computer. So, I did. I added the time with my husband I wanted as well as the school schedule, the Mac classes for the new laptop (yes, there IS a learning curve), Keep Moving and BeamFit classes at the rec center, and oh, yes, my friends. The friends who were complaining that they never see me anymore and was I “cocooning”?

Since the thrust of DirectLife is an overall increase and maintenance in lifestyle moving, she covered something I hadn’t. Going

5 checks x 5 mins. = 25 minimum minutes moving my molecules. Lifestyle math.

to classes is valuable and helpful. And then there’s the rest of my life. Jen suggested I make five boxes to check off each day. Each box would be movement of at least five minutes.

This got me thinking. My office is at home. There’s the stairs up and down to the washing machine. There’s jumping jacks and emptying the dishwasher. There’s dancing to I Love Rock n Roll. Okay. I can do something there.

Then she suggested that I print out the calendar and put a big ‘ole red check when I accomplish the scheduled movement. It’s a tweak of improvement on the gTasks checklist I have on my home page. I see a calendar posted on the white board more than the gTasks list which I check off and then don’t see when I’m not on the home page.

My coach in the Inbox. And get this. She said if these ideas didn’t help me, to let her know and she’d change her approach. Gotta love that.

Go green dots. Thanks, Jen.

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Oct 22 2010
6 Comments
Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman

Confessions of a Fitness Instructor – Part One

Since I switched to a county recreation center for moving my molecules, I’ve been fortunate blessed to meet many women from different walks than mine. A community center is by design a melting pot and, despite our being in suburbia, it remains so. I see families arriving with swim suits and towels for the indoor pool, senior couples who come together and split to use the weight or cardio room or walk together on the track upstairs. Young moms drop off small children and come to a class for an hour of mommy time. Women like me take water classes, yoga, cycling, and Pilates, or work with a personal trainer.

I’m finding the classes I enjoy most are taught by Lisa Condie, a certified fitness instructor with more than 20 years of encouraging people. I take the Keep Moving class (which she initiated) and now, the BeamFit class with her. She creates a sense

I liked my own first class on the Beam!

of community in each of her classes and they are full–with everyone from teens to men and women my parents’ age.

One day, as we were doing the cool down in Keep Moving, she mentioned the importance of such activity as we’d just completed–that which is not so murderous as to render you incapable of moving about for the rest of the day, yet provides a benefit. We spoke after and I asked her to blog her thoughts.

This is Part One: The Problem. I’m looking forward to your feedback.

Confessions of a Fitness Instructor:

I see them come to class year after year.

I see them pedal and run steps to nowhere in the gym…lift, kick and crunch…year after year, and yet each of them look just the same as they did when they began their “exercise program”.  WHY??

Even more than the “regulars”, I see the “drop ins”.  They may drop in for a month, three months, even six…but then, they disappear.  Their bodies didn’t change.  The workout was hard…and no matter how perky that instructor’s voice remained, the workout was not fun.  And their muscles ached.  And places that they didn’t even know they had muscles, ached.  And still the scale did not go down, jeans did not zip up, and motivation to exercise ran out. What went wrong??

I am writing to tell you the “rest of the story”…the ugly mathematics of caloric expenditure.  I am going to explain why exercise alone will not make you thin.  By now you are probably thinking I’m a real downer…and who invited me to the party anyway??  Fear not–there is good news ahead.

We are a population that knows, by now, that exercise is necessary for a healthy body.  Most of us grasp the rudiments of weight gain and loss: energy into your body (calories) must be burned off through movement, or stored as fat.  The theory is that it is possible to burn more calories than you take in, resulting in weight loss.  The reality is, you must do a lot more exercise than most people realize.  An hour of spinning (hard, aerobic exercise) burns off one donut.  The end, that’s all.  However, exercise DOES work.  By understanding a few more concepts of behavior and science, you CAN make it work for you.

The Reward System:

In a recent study at the University of Louisiana, led by Dr. Timothy Church, women were divided into four groups.  For six months, three of the groups had an exercise regime of varying amounts of time.  The fourth group had no exercise. Food was not regulated. At the end of the study, there was no significant change in the weight of any group.  In the three groups of exercisers, ALL had adjusted their food intake such that they lost no weight.  They “self-rewarded” their good job at the gym.  The compensated and celebrated all their hard work away.

I Did That Already:
We tend to vastly overestimate the caloric expenditure of our day and assume that one hour at the gym is sufficient.  In a recent article from the American Council on Exercise, they describe a new type of athlete—the “couch potato athlete”. Relentless at the gym, and exhausted the rest of the day.  Natural activity for the day is over.  Rather than going up and down stairs, or out to the mailbox, throwing the ball for a pet, all activity stops!  We “did that already”…..

Evidence is emerging that an intense workout in the gym is actually less effective than a more gentle approach in terms of weight loss.  Stay tuned…I’ll tell you all about it!

‹

My little green dotter

P.S. Me, again. What Lisa is going to tell us next time fits so well with my affection for the DirectLife Activity Monitor. Yes, I am still enamored with getting green dots.

Oct 21 2010
9 Comments
Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman

How bizarre…they fit!

Startled

Going through my closet recently and packing away “almost-there” shorts from summer, I came across a pair I particularly liked: they are long but not capris! At 5’8 3/4″ I like shorts long enough not to travel up into the hinterlands when I walk or sit. Know what I mean?

Put a pair on the bed to pack away. They fit but not comfortable. Zipped and all and a size lower than last summer, but not quite there. We’ll see them again next summer and see. Wouldn’t it be cool if they were too big by then?

The long pair I decided to try on to see how close they were to fitting so I could remember next spring. (I usually start wearing shorts in spring since I’m a hot body.)

Well, I’ll be switched. The buggers fit great. No straining, no gapping at the pockets.

“Huh,” I mused aloud, walking to the mirror over the dress. They hung just fine. “What about sitting?” I sat on the bed. Huh. Again. No tightness.

“Well, I’ll be darned.”

Confession

I’ve been struggling since we returned from New York in July. Leaping back into three new classes to create, adding an additional job of auditioning for online tutoring with tutor.com (like going back to high school via chat. I had two very scary encounters with diagramming that I fled from.), and starting up weight lifting with a trainer has left me tired and in “just screw it” mode. Anyone ever been there? Raise your hand, yes, that one with the cheese Danish in it. That hand.

So today was nice present.

Okay, I'll keep at those good vegetables.

Sep 22 2010
3 Comments
Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman

Yes, I’m Still Moving My Molecules

image

Can you believe it? A Wonder Woman girls- only ride! Yes, I rode the 30-miler with a former student. We had a great time. Scale hasn’t moved but I am.

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Aug 11 2010
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Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman

Make Aheads & Perspective

Funny how a week out of state to visit family turned into three weeks off blogging. Since I know you all know the routine of going out of town and then the getting back into the routine of the routine, I won’t belabor the whys of my dereliction of duty on Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman.

To summarize the trip, Adventure Guy and I had a blast. Our rented house was on a non-motorized lake (yay) and came equipped with a canoe and a rowboat. My two sisters and brother-in-law added four kayaks and two bicycles and we were set. Camp Damp (my family name) was ready to go.

I did everything there was to do. If it floated, I was in it or on it. I rode the bikes, includng an ancient Peugeot 10-speed found in the basement. Adventure Guy, newly educated in bike maintenance, tuned it up. It was a paddle shift bike, if you know what that is. That info alone dates it to probably the 60s or 70s. Once I figured out the distance between gears, it rode pretty well. Enough to toodle into the tiny town of Clifton on Cranberry Lake with Adventure Guy and my younger sister. I walked. Adventure Guy and I rode up and down the hills around Cranberry Lake in forest! (Not many trees in Utah where we live, so trees are a treat. So is the shade they provide.)

The trip back, however, was a 12-hour marathon with Washington, D.C. shut down from storms and the domino effect of cancelled flights. It was worse than the trip out when Delta cancelled our connection and we spent the night in Detroit. Bright spot: there was a Middle Eastern restaurant that took our airline vouchers. We had a feast!

While I was there, a recurring theme was perspective. What lenses was I living at the moment? For example, a negative perspective on the house focused on the major musty smell that all/most 0ld Adirondack houses have, small windows, the lack of air conditioning, steep stairs, and the leaking toilet upstairs. The lens I chose to live through that week was laughing at the inconveniences, remembering that musty places get enough rain to have gorgeous lakes and forests for me to play in, and gratitude for my older sister who daily changed the paper towels under the toilet tank so the musty smell was reduced.

Finding different ways to get my green dots factored in with perspective as well with two days of rain. (Living in Utah means not a lot of summer activities changed because of rain.) Darker lenses of perspective whined about the steepness and hauling up my luggage. Green dot perspective meant I was getting credit for every trip up and down those stairs. On the rainy days, I made some extra up and downs. (Those stairs were steep enough that my size 10 feet didn’t fit and I gained a rather rapid descent after a certain point on the those treads. My little sister and I hit a badminton shuttlecock back and forth to get our heart rates up during the breaks in rain.

And then there was the walking into town to go behind the library to get the wi-fi connection for my phone which had no cell coverage for the week. I had no idea I was that tethered to technology.

Back at home

Now that I’m home and back at the gym (I just switched from 24-HR Fitness to a county rec center for better class schedules and PICKLEBALL.) I am continuing to deal with perspective. The weight is slooooowwww in coming off. I don’t care about all the green dots on every day. The goals for the DirectLife are getting tougher and I’m not making them as easily. (Would I like a little whine with that cheese?) I washed out of trying Power Pump this morning. So, time for a perspective check.

I have lost 15 lbs. I am in a different size short. I have moved over the hooks on my top underpinnings. I am handling hills better on my bike. I think about the tale of the Chinese Bamboo tree. If it takes four years to shed the excess weight and improve my health, will I still do it? Plenty of thinking and catching the attitude plunges.

Foodwise, I’m working back into what I do to make our clean eating work: Make Aheads. At least that’s what I call them. I have friends who don’t/won’t eat leftovers and I have to shake my head. I make leftovers on purpose. I’m also “eating down the inventory” with what’s in the house. It makes for creative combinations. Here’s the items in process:

Stuffed Peppers

Sort of cooked, hollowed out green peppers (cooked in the microwave)

Can of Northern beans

Fresh basil

a couple of handfuls of cooked red lentils

cooked onions

cooked ground turkey

tail end of a bottle of agave-sweetened barbecue sauce.

tail end of a jar of Black Bean Corn Salsa

last bit of V-8 in a small bottle

Organic ketchup on top for the baking in the toaster oven. (Because I didn’t want to heat up the oven.)

Yield: Six with some extra filling in the pan.

Mystery Dish

The rest of the cooked ground turkey went into an unnamed dish:

Cooked ground turkey

chopped up green peppers (the salvageable parts of the green peppers I hollowed out for the stuff peppers)

oregano

feta cheese

a partial packet of fajita seasoning

I’ll serve this over salad greens, chopped hardboiled eggs, shredded purple cabbage with a lime dressing.

Lemony Rice

1 c Basmati rice (it’s a lower glycemic index rice)

3 c chicken/vegetable stock – hot or boiling

2 T olive oil or one each of olive oil and butter

1 t salt

3 T juice from lemon. Throw in a little zest if you’re feeling zippy. I used RealLemon and I don’t like it as much as the fresh.

In a large frying pan, flatten out the uncooked rice and put in the oils until you heat up the stock. Add the stock and cover and cook. Can’t tell you how long to cook because  a prospective student’s parent called me and I overcooked it because I was on the phone! This time it will have a nutty, lemony flavor as it got rather crispy on the bottom.

Tell me I’m not the only one who does leftovers on purpose. What are yours?

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Jul 20 2010
3 Comments
Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman

WHY I’m not blogging this week

image

KAYAKING, canoeing, biking in yet another small town. See you next week. Create your own adventure wherever you are!

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Jul 12 2010
9 Comments
Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman

Drink Up: Ultima Replenisher Drink

I think I started drinking “recovery” drinks way back when with Gatorade, back when I actually ran two miles almost every day. Gatorade tasted nasty, but I figured I was putting back, um, well…stuff I needed to put back after sweating like a horse. (For most of my life I have been saying “sweat like a pig” but have recently been informed by a farmer-type friend that pigs don’t sweat.).

Did I know what I was “putting back in”? I did not. Did I read to understand all the ingredients of Gatorade and think if they worked for me? I did not.

Flash forward to the bummer diagnosis of insulin resistance. Watch that sugar source, eliminate most of it anyway. I began reading labels. Aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, fructose (okay for most, but not me), etc.

Um, and an electrolyte is?

From the Ultima web site: (yes, it’s the lazy way to do this, but hey–it’s my blog.) “The word “electrolyte” is derived from words meaning “carry” and “energy”. Electrolytes are minerals found in the healthiest foods we can eat, such as fruit and vegetables, The main electrolytes include the macro-essential electrolytes: calcium, chloride, magnesium, potassium and sodium, and the micro-essential electrolytes: selenium, zinc and phosphorus. These minerals, when used in proper ratios, can be utilized by the body systems to control blood flow and oxygen utilization, which thus keeps our cells healthy and our muscles strong and loose. Ultima’s formula focuses on provided all of the electrolytes in correct and useable ratios. Hydration depends on electrolytes and the best way to stay hydrated is to make certain you get electrolytes.”

How we found Ultima

The Food & Exercise Guy (FEG) we visited for four sessions tuned us in to Ultima. He recommended it for the “other stuff” and the stevia, which would not affect my blood sugar. I was already using Now French Vanilla Stevia packets for my coconut-almond milk lattes and in coleslaw. (Added data: Stevia can be 70-300 times sweeter than white sugar.) Stevia was a good thing. Then he gave us the “other stuff” info, the added benefit of an electrolyte drink.

The added benefit

Here’s the gist of what the FEG said: To get optimal hydration from the water I’m drinking, I need a good balance of the different electrolytes. It takes carbs~gasp~to help electrolytes absorb best (and thus provide the best benefit to me). After the fact, when I was preparing this post, I learned that “Ultima’s researchers found that by minimizing carbs, and using only complex carbs, rather than simple sugar, the absorption is quick and effective.” So that’s why “sports drinks” made me feel nauseous, gaggy, and shaky very soon after drinking–the carb was a simple sugar. Sort of like the way I feel after eating a cheese Danish or toffee almond ice cream, dang it.

But how does it taste??

The fact is that Ultima Replenisher powder, added to water, will help me. The reality is, if it tasted like Gatorade or any other crummy sport drink, it wouldn’t matter how good it was for me–me no drink it.

The good people at Ultima (who are NOT on Twitter & YES I instructed them on the exponential value of getting their tweets going) sent me a packet of no-strings-attached-no-positive-review-hint samples of their most popular flavors. We have Lemonade and Orange at our house already. At first, I wasn’t a big fan of Orange, but now I’ve adjusted the powder-ratio to how I like it and it likes me. Remember, I was a Tang kid, so judge accordingly. Lemonade is the one I use the most.

Well. That was before I got the samples box.

Ready for the taste tasting

Before I get to that, let me say that when I was a kid, my mother was early-savvy on the white sugar thing. We had soda very infrequently and it was always an ask-first luxury item. If we did have it, it was stored in the vegetable cellar, out of our line of vision. Coke was never an option; it was Tru-Ade or Canada Dry Ginger Ale. Not sure why, but I think it had something to do with the Navy using Coke to clean the rust off bridges. (I’m not saying it’s true, I’m just saying that what I remember hearing somewhere as a young kid. I do, however, distinctly recall a baby tooth eaten in less than a week in an inch of coke in a glass bottle. That was Mr. Abraham’s experiment in sixth grade. And yes, he drank Coke in the teacher’s room.)

When Mom made Kool-Aid (shall we sing? “Kool-Aid, Kool-Aid, tastes great. Wish I had some, can’t wait!”), she put in half of the one cup sugar called for and when the “new and improved” came out, pre-sweetened, well, she wasn’t buying it.

the new favorite

All this to say that grape was my second favorite Kool-Aid flavor and Ultima’s grape is GREAT. Brings to mind the K0ol-Aid days.

Adventure Guy weighs in on taste

He tasted each of them with eight ounces of purified water. The directions say 8-12 ounces, but I wanted more flavor than not. That way, if there was an interest, but he wanted to dilute, he would still get the flavor. See how scientific this was. I would have taken pics of each glass with the ice cubes and sunshine beaming through, but alas, I have hard water and the glasses were most unattractive.

The results, in order of preference:

  1. Orange – “Reminds me of Tang”
  2. Wild Raspberry (which I thought for sure would be first)
  3. Lemonade

When it came to the Grape, he swirled the ice in the glass, sniffed the bouquet, and sipped. Cocking his head, he mushed it around in his mouth. He sipped again. I got a little worried. That was the last packet of Grape and if he liked it, it meant I was going to have to share. This time he took a deep drink. Dang it. Adventure Guy has the kind of face that looks the same whether he’s happy, sad, or mad.

Then he spoke: “I don’t like this even a little bit. Tastes like Dimetapp.”

Whew.

I’d like to know the electrolyte drinks you use and what the sweetener is in them. Please post!

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Jul 09 2010
Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman

If Shedding Takes Four Years, Will I Still Do It?

Here’s the tale of the tree that doesn’t show any growth for years, then shoots up above the ground.

I think about this. If shedding the final 45 lbs takes four years like the tree, am I in it for the long haul?

Too often? I just don’t wanna.

It’s the wanna that I’m working on. And if you read The Grace Note earlier in the week, that the wanna way I’m working.

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Jul 09 2010
7 Comments
Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman

Wonder Woman Becky Danto: From Miserable Mom to Mini-Marathons

The Wake-Up Call

A time to celebrate. A birthday. Her son’s. He received a trampoline. Eyes aglow, he turned to his mom, then 271 lbs. at five foot ten inches and asked, “Mommy, can you jump on it with me?” A quick look at the safety standards and her heart sank. To make him happy would make them both unsafe.

It was then Becky Danto (@beautifulbecky on Twitter) began thinking of many other things she would miss with her children at her current weight.  Things like playing soccer or ball in the yard, sliding down slides at playgrounds, walking around amusement parks and riding rides with them. She wanted them to be proud to have friends come over to the house and play.

The Back Story

Living overweight wasn’t a new thing for Becky in 2005. It wasn’t even a having-kids sort of overweight. It had begunsoon after the first hand surgeries when she was in the fourth grade. An active kid became inactive. Enter more weight piling on and being called “orca” and “cow” in high school. Then came college, marriage, and the added baby fat with two children.

After the wake-up call, however, at 271 pounds, she donned the bracelets, tiara, boots, and cape and headed toward Wonder Woman.

Here’s the Q & A:

Me: Becky, your story on That’s Fit is compelling. You’ve had a lifetime (up until 2006) of dealing with your weight. What were some of the diets and pills you tried unsuccessfully? In looking back, why did you try those instead of a healthy path?

Becky: You name it, I probably tried it.  I did Slim Fast, LA Weight Loss, Fit America (all pills). I tried  Metabolife. I even signed up for Jenny Craig but realized I couldn’t afford to buy that food and groceries for my kids.   I thought if I did a pre made plan or have that ‘magic pill’ it would be easier to lose it.  I don’t think I ever thought I was ‘fat’ because of the way I ate.

Me: How did your boyfriend-turned-husband react to the added weight from the time you met? How has it affected your relationship then and now? You’re not only healthy, you’ve got a bikini body post two children at age 36!

Becky: My husband really never once batted an eye.  He likes the curvier, more voluptuous woman.  It never really seemed to bother him that I got bigger and bigger, but it affected my self esteem which I think halted our sex life.  I didn’t want to be touched, looked at and felt very uncomfortable naked.   Since getting healthy, it has increased my confidence and I have a GLOW which he is attracted to.

He was pretty nervous and well… his confidence decreased since I lost the weight. He was more insecure and felt since I was looking good, I was going to leave him.  That was rocky part of our marriage, but he has since started eating healthier and has started exercising and it is now something we do TOGETHER! He is so proud of me and he boasts about me any chance he gets!  He does shine when I walk into the room.

That girl is not a kid. That's the mommy!

Me: How does your body makeover affect your family? Any challenges at home to overcome during the shedding weight process?

Becky:  My family just knows what I will eat and not eat.  They know what I will cook and not cook.  Mike (my wonderful hubby) will joke to friends, ”Yeah, she doesn’t even make fried food anymore… we don’t even have a fryer in the house.”  I know he is joking because since me losing the weight, he has lost 40 lbs since January 2009.  The biggest challenge was at family gatherings, not having the healthy food I eat there.  I since then I bring my own food, and my family expects me to.

Another challenge I faced was trying to figure out a workout schedule.  Once my boys were old enough, I felt I could allow myself “me” time.  I would go walking after dinner or right after work.  I started to feel guilty that I was missing out on the evening with them. I didn’t see my kids or husband all day, and here I was going to leave them to go work out.  That is when I turned myself into a very EARLY riser.  I wake up at 4:30 every morning. I am at the gym by 5. I get a good workout in either a run/weights or a long run. I am home by 6 so Mike can go to work and then I start the day.

Me: The elusive “willpower” question. Why Weight Watchers then and not earlier attempts at Weight Watchers? What sustained you during all those two-pounds-a-week weeks? Losing 100 lbs is a looonnnnggg process. How did you handle wanting to give up? Or maybe you never felt that way.

Becky:  I wasn’t going to do Weight Watchers.  I had an appointment with a gastric bypass surgeon.  I was going to have the surgery and go from there!   Something just didn’t feel right.  I had a consult appointment with the dr, but had to have it rescheduled because I didn’t have the right documents. I was devastated. I so wanted this to be the answer.  I went home and did some reflection, and thought maybe this was someone’s way of saying… “you gotta do this on your own, Becky.”  I knew Weight Watchers worked for me in the past ( I would lose 20 lbs here, 25 lbs there), it can work again.  I signed up January 2006.  I hung up a 12-month calendar and in pencil circled my WW days and wrote down in the corner what I wanted to lose that week.  Some weeks I nailed it, some weeks I fell short.  I didn’t have a time line or a particular date I NEEDED to lose the weight by. I knew I just needed to lose it!

Well, the first 25 was gone really fast, and I knew I had to keep going to my meetings and learn more about the plan.  Before I knew it, I was celebrating 50 lbs gone, then 75 lbs.  I was getting compliments left and right.  I had a new found sense of confidence and pride. I  never once in my adult life been below 200 lbs.

I was 171 lbs and knew I only had 5 more to go be at goal and no longer pay to attend a meeting.  March 2007, I reached my goal weight (set by WW, I picked the highest in my weight/height bracket). I had to maintain that for 6wks before becoming a LIFETIME member.  Well, May 3, 2007 (my birthday) I became a lifetime member.  Just wanting to accomplish that..was my motivation.

Me: After losing 60 lbs, you became interested in the Couch to 5K training. Why running? What else did you begin to do as far as the E word, exercise?

Becky:  Mike and I always went to the gym as we were dating. It was something to do together.  I usually would do the treadmill, but always walked.  I tried other cardio machines too!  I would take fitness classes, but just felt at my size I stuck out like a sore thumb.   I started walking around my house, and well, the walking got boring. I wanted to try to run.  Well, my heart rate got up there…and LOVED THAT HIGH.  I know I really have a hard time doing anything else. I will bike ride for leisure, walk for leisure, and roller blade for leisure..but I will RUN to burn calories!

Me: I read on Twitter that you’re doing regular gym routines now. At what time in the metamorphosis did that begin? Tell us about it.

Becky: I can honestly say, I didn’t start this intense gym routine until after I hit my goal weight and maintained it for about 1 year. I realized after a year of maintaining, my body still needed a makeover.  I didn’t have muscle tone—or strength—for that matter.  My whole weight loss process I focused on losing weight. I watched my calorie intake and got the exercise in, but that was so I can lose..not maintain. I had loose skin and flabby arms.  I realized I needed to step up my game if this was going to be FOREVER!!!  It has only been more recently that I have fallen in love with lifting weights and changing my whole outlook on cardio vs. weights.  I think they BOTH play a huge role in MAINTAINING my weight.  It has taken me 3 years to learn my NEW BODY!

Me: Re-tell the story of “This is my normal.” I love that. It’s what Adventure Guy and I are living.

Becky:  Oh, my… I love my sister dearly. She was always the pencil thin girl.  In high school she was the size 0.  Before, during family gatherings and holidays, we would just eat.  I would have cookies, chips, more cookies.  Well, I was no longer indulging; I would say out loud, “ No, I am not going to eat this…”

My sister turns to me and asks me, “When are you going to eat normal again?” I turned to her and politely and calmly said, “ This is my normal!”

“Well!”  that was all she could say!

Me: Why did you decide to become a leader at Weight Watchers? Tell us how that’s turned out for you.

Becky:  I am a teacher and a teacher wants to teach everyone something new and that will better them.  I thought this would be the greatest venue to do that it.  I went and the leader wanted me to keep the weight off for a year.  Since I lost a lot of weight, they wanted me to get used to me being the NEW me!  I went for the training and started my sessions.  Unfortunately, due to life’s business of being a wife, a mom and a full time teacher/administrator, I was not able to continue being a WW leader.  It is something I will look into again when my boys (9,8) are grown.   I lost the weight to be a better mom and more active; it was hard to be more active when I was at WW meetings or at my full time job.

Me: Finish this statement: Before I lost the weight, I saw myself as someone who …

Becky:  didn’t appreciate myself and life!

Me: Now, with the after, the @beautifulbecky, complete the same statement: Now I see myself as someone who …

Becky:  loves life and myself!!!

Me: Imagine we’re sitting outside at a coffee shop in the shadow of your Wonder Woman cape, sitting and sipping something iced. How can you encourage us who are at whatever point on the path to health? What would you tell us as we hang on every word?

Becky:  I would first ask, ”What do you want?” Then I would ask you “How are you going to get what you want?”  and continue to ask “What do you need to get what you want?” Then after you say what you need to get what you want, I will ask my favorite question: “Are you going to do it?”  I would continue to say,”I can give you all the advice in the world, tell you what to buy, how to cook it, and when to eat it, but I can’t do it for you… YOU HAVE TO WANT IT and be able to reach down deep mentally, emotionally and physically and make it happen!”

Me: You go, girl. Them boots are made for running.

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