Today, I want to tell you a little bit of my personal exercise journey. I’m greek-irish. Most of the women in my family take after the Greek side. We are curvy, metabolically disadvantaged women. Although, I prefer the term voluptuous over curvy :-).
My mother, and the women on her side: grandmother, sister, aunts and cousins are ALL obese.
My maternal grandfather, supported his family by running a lunch wagon. My mother and her twin sister, often consumed lunch wagon leftovers of sodas, chips and hoagies for most meals. They were obese toddlers, children, teenagers and adults. When I was young, my mother blamed these non-nutritive foods for ruining her health. So, she refused to let any processed foods in the house. We were not allowed to eat white sugar or white bread and we never, ever bought school lunch.
Despite her efforts to feed us “healthy”, I too struggled to keep my weight down with the onset of puberty. By 8th grade, I was home-schooled and had the luxury of spending up to two hours a day in the gym. I studied the ACE personal trainers manual and set out to create my own workout routine. I’m pretty sure I was the only 12 year old in the Laurel Sport & Health, pumping iron at 1PM during the week.
In the mornings, my gym teacher was Jane Fonda. I owned every one of her aerobic workout tapes and strictly followed along to every step and beat. Pictured here is my favorite video. I faithfully tried to pony, grapevine and charleston my way to a lean body. I was determined to break the fat-cycle in my family.
As life got more complicated into my later teens, I would miss a few weeks of workouts and gain weight. So, I would slim-fast my way to getting the weight back off. I probably spent most of my life from 18 to 25 either being ON or OFF my diet. When I was ON, I would wake up at 4:30AM, run for 45 minutes have a slim-fast for breakfast and lunch, eat a sensible dinner then hit the gym for 1-2 hours of bodybuilding style weight training.
When I was OFF, I could balloon up an entire pants size in one week. Usually, I would yo-yo up two more pant sizes before I could muster up the motivation to get back ON. So, that pretty much describes my lifestyle for those years.
I had 4 sizes of clothes in my closet:
My skinny clothes,
My loose-fitting skinny clothes,
My fat clothes,
and
My really fat clothes.
A turning point for me, was an extreme Atkins diet that got my weight down to the lowest ever point… 112 pounds. I was a size 2. I went from a size 6 to a size 2 in less than 90 days. That’s great, right? That’s what everyone wants, right? A quick weight loss scheme to get results instantly!
The real shocker here, is that within 6 months of being at my LOWEST weight ever… I was tipping the scales at my heaviest weight ever… 159lbs. I was between a size 10-12.
Make no mistake, at 5’2″, That is uncomfortably large!
I felt sluggish, I had no motivation to exercise, I was sleepy all the time, irritable, and severely depressed. I even started taking anti-depressants and resorted to food for consolation.
After all, what was the point of all this exercise and dieting? It never lasted. I was at the point of giving up. Maybe, I was just meant to be fat. Maybe, it was just in my genes.
Have you ever felt this way?
Well, there is wonderful news. I don’t have clothes in 4 sizes anymore. I don’t work out 6 days a week either. I train 3 times a week. I don’t drink diet shakes or take fat-burning pills and I’ve stayed within 5 pounds of my ideal weight for 4 years.
You can do it too, and it’s not hard.
Read my secrets to success here. Ten things that won’t fail you!
Warmly,
Kelly Scott, Creator of the Forever Strong Fitness System™
P.S.) I’ll give you a hint… I had to learn the hard way, that long duration cardio (step aerobics, running, the elliptical machine, Zumba, Body Pump,etc.,) were working against my fat loss efforts.
Join me and train ForeverStrong to see real visible results that you can stick with! Call now at 301-452-5547 to schedule your complimentary fitness consultation.