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I am personally really enjoying our Spotlight Sunday Series and I hope you've had the opportunity to read these amazing stories! They are real people just like you and me who took a chance to make a change even if they have failed several times before in hope to change their lives and they HAVE! I learn more and more about them and it is a true joy to see them escape the prison they put themselves in because they feel low self-esteem and feel they won't succeed anyway!

Jenn is no exception to the rule! Her story is truly inspirational and teaches us all to find that thing that works (no matter how many things you try) and then go out and be UNSTOPPABLE! I noticed Jenn losing a TON of inches for a while now and then finally asked her just the other day, how much weight she has lost (I am not about weight, I'm more on inches and clothes) and she said 30lbs! I was blown away. I couldn't be more proud of her! She is just at the beginning of a long journey of accomplishing GREAT things!

Here is her story…

It was as if I just woke up one morning 40 and fat.  In my mind, I remained young, cute and skinny, but every once and awhile I would catch a glimpse of myself and think, “now, who in the heck is that chubby middle-aged woman???”  I would love to say it was pregnancy weight, but I actually lost all that 10 year ago…after my daughter was born.

It was life.  It was being a wife, mother, and small business owner.  You know how it is, you feel selfish doing something for yourself.  I would get on the treadmill and the guilt would get to me…. I would start thinking of all the laundry I needed to do, the work I was behind on, my daughter’s teacher needing help in the classroom…so I would get off the treadmill and take care of everything else first, and by the end of the day I was just too tired to get back on.

It was actually very hard for me to come up with a “before” picture.  I hated being reminded of how chubby I’d let myself become.  I mostly avoided pictures, but if I couldn’t, I would hide in the picture.  Here I am hiding behind my daughter:


Then I hit my all time low ~ which turns out was my all time high.  I stepped on the scale one morning and couldn’t believe what I saw.  I weighed as much as the average man.

I know it’s completely cliché to say I tried everything and nothing worked, but it’s true.  I joined gyms; I never went to a class.  I bought P90X (and all the supporting equipment and supplements); I GAINED weight.  I even went to one of those weight loss doctors where you pay them a bunch of money and they give you drugs and shots so you can starve yourself.  The drugs gave me such bad acid reflux I had to be on medication for 2 years to heal my damaged esophagus.  I really could go on and on.

A friend invited me to attend Carrie’s Boot Camp with her and I agreed to go, but told my husband I wouldn’t be signing up because knowing myself like I did, it would just be another thing I signed up for and didn’t go.  I went to boot camp, came home and signed up (insert husband eye roll here).

Thanks to Carrie, in less than a year, I’ve lost 30 pounds; I don’t even know how many inches, and 2 dress sizes.  It’s not about the weight loss though; it’s about a complete lifestyle redo.  Carrie’s Belly Blast Challenge changed my eating.  I continue to pay attention to how and what I am eating, and I continue to make better choices.  A lot of Carrie’s recipes are part of our regular meal rotation now.  As a result, I feel healthier than I have felt for probably most of my whole adult life.  I’m even off the acid reflux medication.  Because of Carrie’s encouragement to improve my reps and times in boot camp I am as fit and as strong as I’ve ever been.  I did something I never thought I would do…run a 5K.  And when we took our picture before the race…I didn’t even feel compelled to stand behind someone.

Congratulations Jenn! You are a true inspiration!