Back then, in 1993, "low fat" was all the rage for weight loss. I jumped right on that bandwagon and limited my fat grams to 20 per day. It worked. My diet was pretty much void of any nutritional value, but I did lose weight. What I've come to learn since those days is that any diet that restricts any food group, whether fat or carbs, to an extreme low, will result in weight loss. It's tough to get a lot of calories in your diet when you're only eating 20 grams of fat per day. Pretty much everything has at least a little fat. So, I lost all the weight I had put on with my pregnancy plus an extra 10 lbs. or so. I did not exercise at all. I was so determined not to exercise because it hurt and made me tired. I did not understand all of the other benefits that go along with exercise, such as the anti-anxiety and anti-depression effects. For new moms I think this is especially important for fighting the baby blues. Anyway, a few months after I had taken off the weight I got pregnant again.
Even though I didn't gain quite as much weight with my 2nd pregnancy as I did with my first, I still managed to get up to around 200 lbs. I admit it. I love to eat, and not necessarily always healthy. I definitely used pregnancy as an excuse to eat whatever I wanted, despite my Dr.'s advice. I knew I had taken the weight off the first time and I knew I could do it again. And I did. I once again did my low fat diet and lost all the weight plus some. Fast forward a year, and, you guessed it, I'm pregnant again!
I was 33 years old when I had my 3rd child. The low fat diet once again did the trick with taking the weight off, and of course, now I had 3 babies to care for so I hardly ate anyway. It was different this time though. I was feeling worn out, run down and, though thin, I looked flabby and out of shape. Finally, one day I convinced my husband to go down to the basement and dust off the old stair climber that we had bought 5 years before and bring it upstairs for me to use. I remember stepping on that thing and going for about 30 seconds and thinking I was going to die. It hurt so bad! But, dammit, I am one determined woman. Once I make up my mind to do something there is no stopping me. So, I just decided I would get on that thing every day and do it for as long as I possibly could. Those first days and weeks, I could only last literally 2 to 5 minutes, but I kept at it. Then I began to add an additional minute once a week until I built up to 30 minutes a day. I got to where I actually looked forward to my work outs. I was realizing the benefits. My body was looking better, my energy was higher and my attitude improved.
We moved to Wyoming where I joined the local recreation center and I started working out on an actual Stairmaster, which had different levels of difficulty. I worked up to the highest level and would stay on it for 30 minutes straight. My little at home stair climber was nothing compared to this thing. People that I met when I moved to Wyoming thought of me as a "fitness person", a description no one who had known me before, would have given me. I re-invented myself and I liked the new me.
In the year 2000 our recreation center purchased stationary bikes for a new indoor cycling class. Spinning had just become "a thing" and no one in our town had any teaching experience. I signed on to become an instructor, not knowing anything about it or what the hell I was getting myself into. I just knew that it was time for me to step out of my comfort zone and take this fitness thing to a new level. A group of us who had signed on to teach went to Park City to take a class to see what it was all about. It was the hardest workout I had ever done and I really wondered if I had what it took to be an instructor. I had many conversations with myself. I had never been a really confident person, but I knew that physical exercise was the one thing that made me feel confident and strong. I wanted to be able to do more with that.
The first time I taught the cycling class I was terrified, not only of having a room full of eager cyclists checking out this brand new class, but also fear that I wouldn't be able to get through the workout myself while talking and instructing. We did a 20 minute class, which it turned out, was plenty for all of us. I promised that in the coming weeks I would get a better feel for it and as we got in better shape we would make the class great. We didn't have iPods back then. We didn't even have a CD player in the very beginning. I made my own cassette tapes at home on my boom box. Sometimes the music was good, sometimes not. Thinking back, it was so much more difficult back then in every way. I also had to make notes and tape them to my bike, but the first time I did that I sweat all over the paper and it smudged so bad I couldn't read it. I ended up using my son's Pokemon plastic card holders to hold my future notes.
A few weeks after I started teaching I was able to get rid of my notes and I got better at making the tapes. I was nervous before every class still but I just faked it and got through it. I believe I can fairly say that I became known as one of the toughest indoor cycling instructors around. I continued teaching in Evanston for the next 13 years, even teaching until the 9th month of another pregnancy in 2003. In 2004 I ran the first Salt Lake City Marathon. The last few years in Evanston I even branched out and taught a sort of Tae Bo/Turbo Jam combo class, based on at home workouts I had done.
That 3rd child is 18 years old today and I have kept my commitment to exercise and health. My challenge now is to get out of my comfort zone and try new things. I know from experience that, although tough, it's really good to break out of that zone. I started running again when I got my dog, Geno, and I started weight training, after years of denying that I needed it. I can be oh, so stubborn, but that little voice inside my head always eventually prevails and I end up doing what I know will be best for me.
Now I'm in my 50's. I can honestly say that I am in the best physical shape of my life. I don't plan to slow down any time soon either. I believe totally in the mind, body, spirit connection. I think all three need to be equally healthy to live an optimal life. I hope to continue to learn and grow in all these areas. It's not about being perfect, but about living your best life. Although I see nothing wrong with healthy competition, that's not what drives me anymore. The only person I want to be better than is the me of yesterday.
