Total Transformation Final Blog Part 3

In this part of the essay I write about who I became during the 12 week challenge.



Who Will You Become?

Every week when I got my Body Building emails the question was asked, "Who will you become?"

Here is what I became over the last 12 weeks:
◾A stronger person
◾A confident person
◾Someone who is doing things she never knew she could do.
◾Someone who says I can instead of I can't
◾An athlete
◾A person who can look in the mirror and like what she sees
◾An inspiration to others
◾A role model to my kids
◾Someone who finished something for the first time in her life.
◾A person that is ready to take on the world instead of staying in and hiding from the world
◾Someone who walks a little taller
◾Someone that can so no to people
◾Someone who now knows how to set boundaries and keep them
◾Someone who doesn't care what people think anymore
◾Someone that is finally putting herself first for the first time in her life.
◾Someone who WILL reach all of her goals and dreams.

Here is who I will become when I reach my dreams and goals:
◾I will be an Ironman
◾I will be a marathoner
◾I will help obese kids and their families better their lives.
◾I will be a role model to others and help them take back their lives.
◾I will have lost 150 pounds.
◾I will be mentally the strongest person I have ever known.
◾I will be closer to God.
◾I will write a book.
◾I will be happy with who I am no matter what is going on.
◾I will always look at life positively and live with my glass half full, not half empt



I will always look back and remember the Total Transformation as a key point in taking my life back and will always be grateful for this start to my journey.

Total Transformation Challenge Final Blog Part 2

In this part of my essay I talk about what motivated me during the last 12 weeks





My Motivation

The one person that motivates me the most is my mom, Patti. She died obese at the young age of 53. She left behind 4 kids and a husband and a very promising life My mom did not take care of herself. I am a lot like my mom. Some traits I love sharing with her, but being overweight and unhealthy is one way that I don't want to be like my mom.

I also have two wonderful kids, Tricia and Parker, who deserve to have their mom around for a long time. They motivate me all the time and even help me eat healthy.

My personal trainer, Justin, has been a key person in my motivation before and during this challenge. He believed in me even when I didn't believe in myself. He encouraged me to join this challenge and even on the dark days he never gave up on me. I have been known to push people away and quit when things get hard. Justin is the first person who didn't let me push him away and would not let me quit. He is a great personal trainer and knows just how to help me and keep me motivated and help me see what the final outcome will be.

Another person that motivates me is my friend, Rich Kalasky. He has lost 160 pounds and is now an endurance athlete and coach. During the 12 week challenge he was there for me every step of the way. I could call or text at anytime and he would talk me through the hard stuff. It was great because he has been exactly where I am, so he understood.

Rich introduced me to the most wonderful saying RELENTLESS FORWARD MOTION. I was having a hard time with how I had gained all my weight back and just felt like a failure. Rich kept encouraging me to keep moving with RELENTLESS FORWARD MOTION. He told me that no matter what happened in my past and whatever will happen in the future I need to just keep moving forward. Keep my eye on where I want to go and not on where I have been. Rich, also encouraged me to always be positive. No matter what you are going through you can always have a positive outlook. I have adapted these two concepts into my journey. RELENTLESS FORWARD MOTION is now my daily, hourly, and sometimes even minutely (I know it's not a word) mantra. This has been great motivation for me.

Another person that motivates me is Jesus Christ without Him I am nothing. My favorite Bible verse that has helped me through this journey is, "I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength."-Philippians 4:13.

There were times during this challenge that things got really hard for me. There were weeks that I gained weight. There were weeks that I had hard personal things come up and I didn't think that I would be able to make it. The last thing I wanted to do was workout and there were times that I gave in to my old habits and ate things I shouldn't. I had to learn how to deal with the emotional problems without turning to food or self sabotaging myself.

This is when my motivation was the lowest. I found that I wanted to quit and could care less. I worked with my counselor, James, worked hard, and realized that I couldn't keep doing this cycle. I would have a few good weeks and then hit a low, so low I had hard digging myself out of the pit. He gave me tools to use, we worked on hard things from my childhood and during this 12 week challenge I really had a huge turn around in my mental health, which then turned into 6 weeks in a row of me losing weight.

My motivation came back and I knew that I would never go back to those dark days. This has been some of the hardest things I have had to work through, but am so thankful that I did. My counselor and personal trainer really stuck by me during these times and I'm so thankful they did. If they didn't I don't know where I would be today.

I think it is great that I have so many people in my life that motivate me, but really the most important person that I need to have motivate me is me. If I cannot motivate myself I will not get to the gym, workout, or eat right.

I did not lose all the weight I wanted during this challenge because of these dark days I had, but I'm ok with that because the mental transformation that took place over the last 12 weeks was amazing and something that I'm so thankful for. I'm a completely new person and there is no stopping me now. I'm so motivated to now keep going and finally hit my goals. I have dreamt for a long time to be able to release a lot of pain in my life and during this transformation challenge that has finally happened. Thank you so much for your part in my physical transformation, but more importantly my mental transformation.

Total Transformation Challenge Final Blog Part 1

12 weeks ago I signed up for a 12 week weight loss challenge at the urging of my personal trainer, Justin Killeen. I just finished it this past week and had to turn in my after pics and a final essay. I will be posting my final essay in three parts. Here is the first one.




The gray pictures are my before and the pink pictures are my after pics.


In 2008 I weighed in at 306 pounds and knew that I had to change my life. I worked hard over the next 2 years and lost 106 pounds. In 2010 I was diagnosed with Crohn's Diease and was put on Prednisone and it caused me to gain back 50 pounds. After that I moved to Massachusetts from Illinois, where I lived for 27 years It was hard to move and make friends and during the first year of living here had some depression and gained the rest of my weight back minus 1 pound. I weighed in at 305 pounds.

In October 2012 I decided I had had enough and went for a walk. It was a tough week. I wanted to quit, but I pushed myself and finally was walking home and I saw a sign for a personal trainer. I emailed him that night, we talked on the phone, and on November 5th, I started with him and have been having success.

In December he sent out an email to all his clients and encouraged us to join the Dynamatize Nutrition Total Transformation Challenge. There was no way I was going to join. I had joined other contests before and failed. I've self sabotaged myself and felt like I had failed, so I didn't want to join another challenge and fail and disappoint my personal trainer, Justin. I knew I wasn't going to do it, but Justin kept encouraging me and finally I gave in. I was all set to do this.

We met together and made a plan.

My Workout Schedule

The first thing we talked about was my workout plan. I was only meeting with Justin once a week, but we changed that to two days a week. We would workout on Mondays and Fridays and concentrate on my weight training. The rest of the week I would concentrate on burning the most calories I could. I was burning around 1000 calories a day when not working out with Justin. I would also do core training. Later on in the 12 weeks I added a third day of weight training. I used the elliptical, treadmill, jump roping, and boxing to get my heart rate up and burn the most calories possible. I also took some hikes and really surprised myself with what I could do and accomplish.



My Nutritional Plan.

Next up we talked about the nutritional plan with Justin. I would be eating 5-6 small meals day 2-3 hours apart. My meals would include lean protein, fruits, veggies, and some starches like sweet potatoes and brown rice. I also quit eating out for the most part and only drink water and green tea. I had my days were I gave into temptation, but overall my nutrition plan was a good one. I also was introduced to protein shakes (see My Supplement Plan). I would have one shake in the morning before my morning workout, one midmorning, and one after my evening workout. These were a great addition to my nutritional plan as I never felt hungry.

My Supplement Plan

When we discussed my nutritional plan we also discussed what I would do for my supplements. I had never included supplements into any program I had been on. I have to take a lot of pills for my Crohn's Disease and thinking about taking more pills was just a turn off. I didn't realize that taking supplements was not just pills. However, I did add Fish Oil to my pill regiment. I learned that it will help keep my heart healthy, my blood pressure normal, and a healthy immune system, which is really good for someone with Crohn's.

I started taking Amino Energy before my workouts. I love this stuff. It really gave me just the boost I needed to up my workouts and get more out of my workouts. Next up, I would take Glutamine after my really hard workouts to help with my recovery. I also, as mentioned above, I started drinking protein shakes. I used Vanilla flavored performance whey. I really loved introducing protein shakes into my program. I love how full I felt after drinking a shake. These are all things that I will use even though my 12 week transformation is over.