My entire adult life I have always felt overweight...

My entire adult life I have always felt overweight.  Even when I was young and weighed 130 lbs. I felt out of shape.  

 

I have had a desk job for 25 years, was a couch potato who loved spending the entire weekend binge watching Netflix, and wasn’t very fond of exercise or activity.

 

In December of 2017, as I dragged myself through all of the holiday festivities eating and drinking everything that was bad for me, I was feeling very sluggish, overweight, out of shape and exhausted all the time.  I would drag myself out of bed for work and at times was barely able to keep my eyes open during the day.

 

Little by little the weight had crept up over the years and before you know it I was 50-60 lbs. overweight.  I had just turned 46 in December and thought to myself that this must be my new norm as I enter into middle age.

Between Christmas and New Year’s, I received an email with a link to determine BMI.  Always resulting in an overweight BMI, I was shocked to see that it now displayed OBESE.

 

Obese??!!  How could I be Obese??  Overweight maybe but I surely did not want to be considered Obese.  It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I made the decision right then and there to get my act together and do something about it.  I started my annual resolution diet on January 1st.  Within the first couple weeks I had dropped 10lbs and was starting to feel much better.  By the middle of February, I was already down 17lbs and my clothes were falling off but was concerned about gaining it all back.  In the past, as soon as I hit a 20lb weight loss I would start to gain it all back again.  I needed to do something more and make this a way of life and not just a diet so that that didn’t happen this time.  I decided that I needed to be educated and with all of the Information on Facebook and internet, I was becoming confused quite easily as to what direction to take:  Low carb, low fat, count calories, meat, no meat, no dairy, how much water, lift weights or no????  I needed help, I needed guidance, I needed direction from an expert.  I have known several friends that have joined Tall Trainer and had great success but that kind of commitment can be a tough one.  I needed to do this for me.  Not for my family, not for my husband, but for ME.  Taking that first step I was so anxious and it actually took me a couple of weeks to join.  I was nervous committing to working out, being held accountable, and working out in front of other people, but I knew if I put my mind to it I could do it.  I decided to join the 5:20am class because with my busy work and family schedule, that was the only time that I couldn’t make excuses not to work out.

 

I joined Tall Trainer for the March 2018 session.  Everyone right from day one was so welcoming and supportive.  I was really shocked how much the trainers and other members cared about me, cared about how I was doing,

and cared about my successes.  Within the first week I was becoming addicted and couldn’t wait to work out each day.  Who would have though working out could be so much fun!  My daily exhaustion was subsiding (even with getting up at 4:30am) and I was starting to see results fairly quickly.  I was not only working out but was learning how to eat, how to exercise, what pitfalls to look for, how to deal with plateaus and most importantly I was learning that I was POWERFUL.  Powerful not only physically but mentally.  I started to have more confidence in myself not only in my workouts but in my daily life.  I embraced each workout session whether it was cardio or weights.  For someone who was never very physically strong I started to gain muscle and got very excited when I could start to see those muscles form and be defined.   

 

I’m very proud of my weight loss but secretly I’m even more proud of my muscles (hehe).  I continue each day to use the knowledge I have been given to make me strong physically, mentally, emotionally.  This is now my new norm!  

 

On the last weigh out day of my month 5 at Tall Trainer, I had reached my goal weight.  Down 36.2lbs in 5 months was awesome and being down 56.2 lbs. since January 1st was incredible and I couldn’t have done it without the support of my family, trainers and fellow boot campers.  I am beyond proud of myself for all that I have accomplished with this program will always remember to stay POWERFUL.

 

-Ali