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A Chicken Recipe for Every Occasion
It taste just like chicken. That line’s become a part of our culture to describe meat dishes that aren’t made with chicken, but none the less, taste almost exactly like our favorite poultry meat. And why do we think that many of these alternative white ...
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The terminology “low-carb” wasn’t really coined until around 1992 when the USDA announced America’s model food pyramid included six to eleven servings daily of grains and starches. However, low-carb dieting dates back more than 100 years before the trendy ...
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Low Carb at TGI Fridays! Low Carb Ice Cream! And the best one - Low Carb Beer! I was ecstatic. Low carb had finally become mainstream! Life would be good from now on… I’ve been on the Atkins low carb diet for years, but was shocked to find earlier in the ...
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1. Angela, what was it that finally motivated you to get in the gym and start eating properly? Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you are like most people, you had been unhappy with how you look for some time.
If this is accurate, how long were you unhappy before you decided to take action? What do you think kept you from taking action all that time?
After being diagnosed with toximia and advanced gestational diebetes, I spent the duration of my pregnancy on mandatory bedrest. I gained 90 lbs and delivered at 240 lbs. My husband was away serving in the middle east.
I battled with postpartum depression teamed with lonliness and disgust for my appearance. I longed intensely to return to the body I had when my husband and I were first married and I wanted to build that body before he returned home.
2. How did you get started with your new liftestyle? In other words, what changes did you make, or planning did you do, to give yourself the best chance at success?
I was a size 18 with a goal of size 9 and I had given myself three months to meet it. I joined a local gym and signed up for my first Body for Life challenge.
I planned my workouts and entered each one into my newly created workout log book. I noted each improvement I made no matter how small. I took photos of myself regularly and taped them to the cover of the book as a motivational tool.
I made significant changes to my diet. I excluded fast foods and regular sodas as well as ate more protien and less carbohydrates. I stopped allowing myself to go hungry by eating meal replacement bars between meals. If I wasn't so hungry when it came time to eat I ate less at the actual meal. I made working out six days a week a mandatory step toward reaching my goal. I did resistance training four days a week and cardio two. In three months I reached my goal of 150lbs, wearing size 9 pants!
3. What problems did you have to overcome in order to stay on track with your new fitness program? Some of the popular excuses I've heard from people I've trained include "not enough time"(both for exercising and eating right), "eating healthy is too expensive", "don't see results fast enough", "weights will make me big and bulky", "have trouble sticking with an exercise routine". What were the obstacles you had to overcome?
Some of the obstacles I encountered along the way were: Where do I go from here? Now that I've reached my goal, what's next? How do I maintain the same level of commitment when my husband returns home? How do I maintain a clean diet for myself and still prepare meals that my husband (who wasn't dieting) would also enjoy?
4. How did you overcome those problems? What specific techniques did you use to make your dreams a reality?
Upon his return my husband was very proud of my achievement. He was very supportive and encouraging. Fortunately, this made it easier to overcome what I once thought to be obstacles. He brought with him lots of wonderful foreign chocolates and beers, which I had to enjoy in moderation but other than that, healthy meal planning was not as difficult as I imagined it to be.
I just changed the ways I prepared the food we normally ate. I broiled, grilled, and baked meats instead of frying them.
I used virgin olive oil and spices to season in place of butter. I also switched from canned to frozen vegetables to control portion sizes so that we wouldn't be encouraged to eat the left over amounts of prepared food just because it was there.
I continued to set goals for myself and completed a second challenge, finishing at 127lbs wearing size 1 pants. Balancing schedules with my husband, I managed to make it to the gym at least 4 days a week if not the 6 that I wanted.
I allowed myself breaks from my routine spanning anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks to enjoy time as a family, but kept the staying power to return to the gym when my break was up.
The most significant advancement I made along the way was encouraging and convincing my husbant to join me. It was an advancement for me because I found it to be very motivating working with him and my weights lifted have increased tremendously with him there.
We are currently working on what is my third challenge and his first. We are now competing as a couple! Instead of leaving him at home every day, he joined the gym and we now go together six days a week! Teaming up with my husband has made yet another one of my dreams come true.
I have finally found a balance between the two main things competing for my time, the two things I love the most,
working out and spending time with my family. The two hours I spend at the gym, my husband and I now enjoy that time together, and when we are finished we take the kids to the park on the way home. Uniting the family through fitness has been a dream come true in and of itself.
5. Moving forward and knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently?
Knowing what I know now about fitness and the way the body responds to the things you eat and do, I wouldn't have allowed myself to get to the point I was durning and in between my pregnancies. I see now that a lot of my health issues were a result of my own unhealthy living and could have been avoided if I just applied myself earlier.
6. What would you have done the same way, and will continue to do, going forward?
If I had to do it all over again I would continue to hit each workout with the same burning desire to change and the same commitment to intensity. I would especially have included my husband. Doing it over I would have included him sooner.
There are so many positive changes popping up in our life as a result of including the family in fitness. I will continue to keep that part of my life open to my husband and children as they grow older. It certainly benefits us all.
7. Do you feel that ongoing feedback and motivational tools would help in maintaining a fitness program?
I feel ongoing feedback and motivational tools are a critical part of maintaining a fitness program. If you're not much of a people person journals and pictures can give the feedback needed to keep going.
I used the timer on my camera and took most of my pictures myself. Pictures can be very inspiring because they are the closest honest description we can get of what others see of us. I found that mirrors don't quite capture a person the way that a picture does.
Another great source of inspirational feedback is to team up with someone. Allow yourself to be pushed by them and them by you.
A support system is very motivational. If you can, bring it into the family. A fit parent is setting an excellent example for children and pushing yourself that hard next to your spouce will introduce to them a new respect for you.
It can also open up the lines of communication and trust a little more as well. Working out with your partner can definitely bring you closer.
8. If you were to advise a close friend or family member hot to follow in your fitness footsteps, what would you tell them?
If I was to advise someone of how to follow in my fitness footsteps I would tell them to above all stay in touch with how they truly feel about themselves and their desire to grow and improve.
Hit every workout like it is the only thing they have to do, the only thing standing in the way of them and their dreams, because in reality it is.
I would tell them not to sell themselves short by setting a goal of what they think they can achieve. They need to cling to their actual dream because they have no idea yet just how much they CAN achieve. And please give the same level of commitment to excellence that they would to perhaps a best friend or their job, to themselves.
Be that committed to yourself, and give yourself enough time to see the results. Don't give up! After you see those results but are not quite to your goal yet, don't settle. Don't give up.
And once you reach that goal, to keep those results, don't give up. I tell people all the time that they don't have to be who they have become, they can become who they want to be. If you are not happy with who you are, become someone else, it's that easy. And above all else, don't give up!
Thanks, Angela and congratulations on your success. Check out Angela's before and after pictures below.
Please, don't just read the interviews like Angela. Think about them. Angela, and other success stories have invaluable information that you can use to become a success story yourself. She is not different than you and her success can be yours.
To paraphrase a wonderful blurb in her interview, "You don't have to be who you've become, you can become who you want to be."
Please go to Angel a's Success Story to see Angela's amazing before and after pictures.
About the author:
Gregg Gillies is the founder of http://www.buildleanmuscle.com His articles have appeared in Ironman Magazine and he is a regular contributor to Body Talk Magazine. He has written two books, available at his site. He publishes a free newsletter, available at Fit Physique
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