The Fit Professor: Breaking Free- My journey to losing over 160 pounds

For many years of my life I was a prisoner held captive in the chains of my own body. I was obese; a miserable sentence brought on by myself through years of poor decisions that were neglectful to my health; both physically and mentally. No words can accurately convey the feelings of despair that I felt as a young obese woman and mother of three children. The desire to change myself was always there but the thought of losing so much weight seemed nearly impossible. For many years, I had attempted to lose the weight. I had tried every diet, every pill, every promising workout routine and workout equipment. All of these attempts gave some minimal initial results but in the end would fail and I would then gain back whatever weight I had lost and then some on top of it. In essence, with each attempt I took to lose the weight, I actually ended up being heavier. In a last ditch effort, convinced of no other possible way to become healthy, I began to research drastic weight loss surgery options, however that door was quickly closed when my insurance company informed me they would not cover the costs of such a surgery. In this rock bottom moment of my life, I knew that if I wanted to be there for my children, I needed to change and become healthy.
Being a woman of faith, it was at this point that I finally turned to God and laid it all down at his feet. I knew from all of my previous failed attempts with losing weight that I couldn't do this on my own and I needed his help. A verse that spoke to my heart for my journey was, "Commit to the Lord whatever you do and he will establish your plans" Proverbs 16:3. After fully committing my plans to restore the temple that was given to me no matter what the cost, was the point when I truly began to walk my journey towards restoration. So before a single pound was lost, the transformation first began in my mind. I couldn't view these plans as a "diet" but more as a lifetime journey. The weight wasn't going to disappear in a night or a month, but I had full confidence that my health would be restored gradually with each step of change I made. We live in a society of instant gratification, we want results now and we don't want to invest much time and effort to receive them- this worldly notion is easy to buy into but when it comes to weight loss it is not reality. Much time, dedication, sacrifice and hard work is required to loose weight. Very early on in my journey, I developed what I refer to as a "soldier mentality" and set off on my journey of waging war with each excess pound on my body.
Tipping the scales at over 300 pounds, exercise in the beginning of my journey was simply what my body was capable of doing, which was walking. In combination with walking regularly, I began to make healthier food choices and simple changes. After 4 months, I had lost 50 pounds and was becoming more confident that my goal of becoming healthy was attainable. However, the weight loss had started to slow down as my body became used to my walking routine and my diet. I knew I would need to make a change in order to continue to lose more weight. Keeping the mentality that it was a journey and sometimes on the roads to our desired destination we may need to make adjustments to our road map in order to arrive successfully. I decided that since my diet was very healthy and little change could occur in that area, that I would need to change my exercise routine and with that in mind I purchased a gym membership. However, as an obese woman the fear of going to the gym was overwhelming; thoughts of making a spectacle of myself and being judged by others clouded my mind and I delayed actually using my membership for 3 months because of this fear. I finally mustered up enough courage to go to the gym and began once again with what my body was capable of doing, which in the beginning was the elliptical machine and a few simple machines with light weights. I committed to working out as much as I could at the gym and as the months went by my consistency and dedication were paying off on the scale, as the pounds one by one were coming off. I began to hit plateaus in my weight loss and so as my body became more capable of doing more strenuous exercises, I would make adjustments to my exercise routine, including adding classes at the gym that I had previously been afraid to try. The classes introduced a fun new aspect of the gym to me, comradely; people who shared the same common interest of living a healthy lifestyle and many who were on their own weight loss journey. These women inspired me, cheered me along my journey and many today are some of my closest friends. In addition, I was greatly encouraged by a wonderful class instructor Stacey, who wasn't afraid to call me out if I wasn't giving my all in class and shared and emphasized the appreciation I had of working hard. By my one year gym anniversary I had lost an additional 75 pounds and something crazy had occurred; I had absolutely fallen in love with fitness.
As I continued on my journey and began hitting additional weight loss plateaus, my background as a college professor began to kick in. I began to research various training methods, new diet approaches, and supplementation. I set aside (and still do) time each day to research. I began experimenting like crazy with new exercises and diet alterations. In many ways, the gym became my laboratory or as I lovingly refer to it now as my playground. As with all experiments, some worked and some failed and some just needed adjusting to be successful. I began to develop a training method that worked for me that was a hybrid approach fusing together several training techniques and pairing it with an effective diet and supplementation intended for optimal athletic performance. This method allowed me to loose body fat and gain lean muscle mass simultaneously and by my second gym anniversary I had lost another 40 pounds for a total of 165 pounds. More importantly, I had gone from only being able to walk to a fairly advanced fitness level. Above all it was clear to me and to those who know me, that fitness had become my passion- It's what makes me happy! I get excited just thinking or talking about it and no lie, I even dream of it sometimes! If you would have ever told me when I was an obese woman that I would love fitness and be doing the crazy exercises I do now, I would have laughed and never for one second believed you! God's plans are always better than our own and he definitely has a good sense of humor!
As with all journeys, there were bumps along the road. There were just as many moments of frustration and pain as there were moments of happiness and jubilee. When I was a few pounds shy of reaching my weight loss goal, my life was completely turned upside down upon receiving the devastating news that my four year old son had cancer. Every parents worst nightmare had become my reality. In the whirlwind of hospital stays, procedures, and chemotherapy treatments, my own goals were no longer important, my priority was helping my boy fight for his life. The disheartening truth about being a parent of a child with cancer is there is absolutely nothing you can do to help fix it, other than providing emotional support and praying like crazy, you sit and observe helplessly and must trust that the doctors are doing everything they can to attain the best possible outcome for your child. My faith in God, knowing that he is the great physician and has the power to heal my son is what has sustained me in this storm of my life. Honestly, I don't know how anyone could face such trial without God's mercy and faithfulness to sustain them through it. With emotions running rapid, I felt God say not to give up on my goal of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and so I returned to the gym and my workouts took on new therapeutic benefit where I could release stress and focus my mind temporarily on something besides cancer. There were many days where the only moments of peace I had were found in the gym lifting weights and working hard. With the many hospital visits, I obviously couldn't work out as much as I once did, but I intentionally carved out time to workout when possible. My soldier mentality kicked in with a "no excuses" attitude, my son had cancer but I couldn't let cancer steal everything from me. My son continues to fight cancer and has another year and a half of treatments planned, he is a true soldier and his passion for living, having fun and loving others displays his own determination to not allow cancer rob him from enjoying life. He is my hero and inspiration, God has used my young son to teach me so many invaluable life lessons and I look forward with great anticipation to the day when my son is cancer free and I can shout to the world of God's faithfulness that he healed my precious son.
Today I am very much free from the chains of obesity that once imprisoned me. In fact, many people I meet today do not even believe me when I tell them that I was once very overweight. I know that there are many people reading this who feel imprisoned by the extra weight they carry and have lost hope that their body can be restored. But I'm here to tell you that there is always Hope. My journey is proof that with God all things are possible, he can make all things new and give you beauty for ashes. I know what it feels like to believe that there is no way to shake the chains of being overweight but that belief is a lie! With a soldier mentality, dedication, hard work and faith you can unlock and loose every chain that is binding you today! I believe that the next step of my journey is God using my passion for fitness and my weight loss story to help others. Quite honestly, if I only help a single person change their life I will be satisfied for taking this step of faith and sharing my story. The truth is, I have not wanted to share my story for a long time with others and have kept it to myself, mainly due to fear of being judged or criticized by others. Yet now with God by my side, I am stepping out into the unknown with the confidence that his plans are always better than my own and that my journey to freedom will be used for his glory.