Personal Info
How I Started
Before kids I had worked out in the gym with my hubby and loved it. I continued after my first child but not after my second. Slowly life and everything else happening did not leave me anytime for myself. I have lost weight before - alot - at one time 80pds! I felt great but the underlining issues were still there and I did gain it all back with more. During a family ski vacation in the BC mountains in 2010 I tore my ACL and MCL ligaments and had to wear a brace for about a year waiting to have surgery. In that time period I became depressed and ate and ate and was at my all time highest weight of over 310 pounds! After I had my ACL surgery we went back skiing and I was so winded and couldn't ski very much and my body was exhausted. My mom had died when i was just 19 from breast cancer...its weird but I had associated losing weight with cancer - she had lost so much weight changing her lifestyle the year before she was diagnosed and I contributed that to her getting cancer and losing her life. It sounds stupid but that's what I had believed in for so long and that's what blocked myself from losing my own weight and get fit and healthy. I vowed that I was going to lose weight and get healthy to be around for my family - I deserved it and so did my family. I cut out pasta, rice, bread and milk and started exercising on my own. I lost about 20 pounds and then decided to join a fitness trainer in my town along with my girlfriend. I still remember the day I walked into Jill's garage - I must have looked like a deer in the headlights LOL. My girlfriend and I started working out with Jill and I will be honest - I thought I was going to absolutely DIE!. I was so sore that I had trouble going up and down to the bathroom. I remember sitting on the toilet and texting Jill - Saying OMG i cant get up and she laughed- she said that was normal - and that everything was going to be ok!. Well I kept up with it and followed my meal plan and drank alot of water and I began to see changes. I started losing weight and I discovered a love - a love for lifting weights. It was enpowering, it released stress and made me feel amazing beautiful and strong! It was like a drug...I wanted to do more, lift more, lose more...After semi private classes I began Jills 8 week strength classes on my own and that's really when the BEAST inside me was released. Lifting changed how I looked at things, how I coped with things and I couldn't wait until I worked out each day. It has been quite the journey - some tears, a lot of sweat, laughter and both celebrations and landing flat on my face but the difference is I got back right up and continued moving forward. It is not even close to being over..I have so much more to accomplish.Through every step of the way, my immediate family have been right by my side and so has my trainer and friend Jill. She is an amazing women and every time I workout she makes me want to do better then I had done the day before. She will ask for 2 more reps and I will give her 3-4 more haha. She has taught me that I can do anything if I allow myself to. Mind over matter.
Why I Love it
It makes me feel strong and beautiful and it is such an enpowering feeling. You feel like you are on top of the world and can do anything. I am so happy to be able to workout and be such a great role model for my teenage daughter. Now she too has started training with Jill and she is strong like her momma. I am showing her that it is ok to be strong, have muscles and NOT look like a little skinny 12 year old boy like the photos of models in magazines. It has given her the confidence she needed to move past being bullied harshly in grade 9 and she is becoming proud of her own body and how it looks. Watching her go through this journey has been the greatest gift in the world to me. We go and lift together 3 times a week - we are strong, and beautiful and we can lift heavy. It is truely the best thing that has happened to both of us and a truely special mother daughter bonding thing!