I want to thank everyone who entered the contest and it was awesome to read all the stories, they are truly inspiring. Without further ado the winners story is...
I usually do not enter contests but I am really driven to enter this one. This July I will be 55 years old or should I say young and have done a lot of soul searching over the past 5 years. It is funny.. you really do not realize how fast time flies until you start to reach my age. I look at my daughter Kelly and think of myself when I was her age, I was in quite good shape. Then life took over I got married, had 2 beautiful daughters and not realizing it put myself on hold for 20 plus years, I was doing the Mom thing and working 60 plus hours a week as a therapist teaching stress management, relaxation and healthy life styles but did not practice what I preached to my clients. Before I knew it I had ballooned up to 226 lbs and in this 5'4" body there wasn't any room to grow except out and all over. I didn't realize how big I had gotten until I saw a few pictures of myself.( some day I will share them with you it is quite overwhelming to look at) I was your typical middle age person who had yo-yo dieted for most of her adult life until.... 5 years ago I had 2 major asthma attacks and according to my Dr.s I am very lucky to be here today. You see I almost died and by the grace of God I am still here. After 2 weeks in the hospital and umpteen tests later I had to make some life changing decisions if I wanted to live. It took a while to get myself focused. At first I made changes by making sure I took the prescribed meds daily......... then I dropped 53 lbs just by dieting but still no exercise. I have gone from a size 20 to a size 10/12. Then in Sept 2010 my daughter Kelly encouraged me to attend a local gym (it took a lot of encouragement but she doesn't take no for an answer so I gave in LOL). I put up a lot of excuses then started to do cardio tread mill and stationary bike 3x a week. I then started to attend Kelly's boot camp 1x weekly on top of the cardio. In Jan 2011 I tried your bootcamp, between yours and Kelly’s what an eye opener. I have found out that I can enjoy exercising without it having to be a chore. Since Oct I have dropped 35 inches, my endurance has drastically improved as has my strength, motivation and drive. I now try to do 2days of bootcamp and 3days of cardio which lately has been riding my bicycle around the neighborhood for 8-10 miles. I now exercise because I really like it, it has challenged me in ways I forgot existed. I am moving my body in ways I never thought I would be doing at my age, my medications have been decreased and some completely discontinued. My asthma is under control, not one single attack in the past 5 years and I am learning to control my breathing which has always been a challenge for me especially when it comes to running. I look at all of the younger folks at Samson’s and hope that they don't loose their drive and focus it is such a wonderful gift to have. It takes a lot of focus and determination at my age to work on getting that back. Their drive and enthusiasm encourages me to strive to be the best I can be each week. I exercise now not only because I know I should but it also has provided me with an improved quality of life and a new outlook for my future. I want my next 50 years to be even better than the last 50. I want to be able to enjoy life by being healthy, strong and continually working on being the best I can be at my age. I try to set goals for myself (baby steps) that I can accomplish. I am so motivated at the end of each workout by the way I feel... I am exhausted..sweaty and very happy by what I have accomplished I can't put it into words how I feel but joy best describes it. Working out has now become part of my normal routine. I do need guidance because there are a lot of times I don't know what I am doing and I need to learn the proper way. I never thought that hurting so good would become a part of my life. I found this sign once that best describes me....."I want to be an outrageous old woman who never gets called an old lady. I want to get leaner and meaner, sharped edged and earth colored till I fade away from pure joy." I hope that you will consider my submission for your contest even though I am not one of your typical clients but I would like to be able to attend your facility more often and improve upon what I have started. I have a before picture, I currently am the during picture but have never and would love to be able to post an after picture with your help. Thank you for all that you do and for providing me the opportunity to share my story. :)
Mary Ann Buckes
No comments:
Post a Comment