"The Biggest Gainer"

   It was a sultry Louisiana day in September of 2008 and I remember it as if it were yesterday. I had just arrived home from picking up my two oldest from school and my daughter wanted me to play outside with her. After a few pushes on the swing and a short game of chase, I could barely catch my breath. Now, I had decided nearly two weeks before that I would embark on a weight loss journey which would consist of changing my diet ever so slightly and see what would happen. At this time, I was tipping the scales at nearly 215lbs….yes you heard right, this little 5 ft girl, was 215lbs. As I caught my breath, walked inside and plopped myself on that sofa to watch Oprah, I realized something…..I was missing out on valuable time with my children because I refused to take care of my body.

   In that moment I vowed to do something I swore I’d never do again. I vowed to go to the gym. I had paid for several health club memberships over the years and the biggest workout I probably got out of them was when I wrote out the check each month for payment. It wasn’t fun for me because I didn’t see immediate results like I did with all the diet pills I’d taken throughout the years. But then something hit me….Being out of shape wasn’t fun either. It wasn’t fun for me, for my children or for my sweet husband, who, bless his heart, loved me just as much then as ever.

    Now the first problem I encountered was that I had nothing to wear...tennis shoes were not in my vocabulary, but I just so happened to have a pair underneath my bed for occasions such as this. Gym shorts? Who wears those dreadful things? They do nothing for a figure, or lack of figure in my case...I guess if I had Jennifer Lopez's body, I'd look good in some gym shorts, but even hers have little Swarovski crystals down the side, at least they are fashionable. Well, I dug some of those up too, and of course they looked as bad as I imagined they would. My bright orange Amite Baptist Church T-ball tee shirt topped off the outfit. Now, the next thing I tell you will definitely be hard to believe, but I am telling you the honest truth. I had to stop at the Dollar Tree to get some Gym Socks. Yes, you read that right...this little southern diva had no need for socks as she doesn't intend on wearing tennis shoes! I had only bought a couple pair over the years, for wearing with boots or helping out with my kids ball teams.

  So here I am...scanning my little key fob thingy at the entrance to Anytime fitness. I can see my best friend on an elliptical machine inside the window, who by the way exercises regularly. She's laughing. Probably because shes never seen me dressed like that and she knows how much I HATE it!! I did apply some fresh lip gloss before I got out of the car, and I was very thankful for that as I entered the dungeon of fit little barbies with no make up on whose butts definitely looked like they visit this place more than starbucks. At least my lips were shiny and sweet......that is until the sweat started dripping from them!

  Within the first five minutes I was absolutely certain as to the reasons I had avoided these places over the years. Sweat. Men. Barbie Doll Bodies. Sweat. Pain. Sticky Hair. Red Cheeks. Shorts that crawl between your thighs. Personal trainers that get way too personal and have you making a fool of yourself in front of everyone. Oh and did I say, SWEAT! Seven minutes in and I am ready to bolt for the door. I had picked up a pair of headphones as a friend recommended and HgTv was playing on the big screen. Sell this house was not making me feel energetic enough to finish this 35 minute elliptical session I had keyed into the machine, so, I decided to try something else. Aha, there we go, Food Network! Now that's my channel.  As I'm watching Rachel Ray whip up something tasty, it occurred to me that it might make me look extra fat and unhealthy to those around me if I were watching food network at that moment, so....I sucked in my tummy extra hard and searched the monitor for some music.

   I landed on some dance music, now that made me wanna work out. Ten minutes in and its really burning, but I can do this with good music. Has anyone ever watched BET channel on tv? Well, you should check it out sometime, it will give you some insight to other cultures. At this point I’m thirteen minutes in as I look over at my friend and mouth “I cannot do this” to which she mouths back, “Yes you can”, to which I mouth back, “See, I can't be good at everything”, to which she just shakes her head. I can not be a quitter, is what I kept telling myself. My friends will never let me live it down if I get off this machine. “Focus on the rap music and pretend your in this video shaking your butt with all those girls“. Eighteen minutes in and I find myself realizing that maybe I can do this.

   Twenty Four Minutes. Why on earth do people enjoy this? I liken it to being held down and fed flies. No, I take that back, eating flies would be easier than being on this machine. Oh, and I should add, every time you try to take a break or slow down...All Cap letters pop up on the screen, screaming at you to speed up....I feel like I'm back in 9th grade with my coach yelling “Faster Kiesha...those short legs can go faster than that!” I wanted to punch her, and I wanted to do the same to that darned machine!! By some small miracle I managed to finish the whole Thirty five minutes I’d programmed in, so, just for fun, and because the scale was by the weights that we were moving to next, I decided I'd step on the scale and see what my 35 minutes of hell had gotten me. Drumroll……NO WHERE!! It had gotten me two more lbs than my scale at home had!!!! Now, explain to me the fairness in that! I come to the gym because I want to lose weight and I GAIN IT instead!!! I thought "No wonder people don't stick to this torture"!

   To ensure that I did just that, the sticking to it I mean, I signed myself up for some sessions with the personal trainer. Not the bouncy, energetic, 'let me see how much humiliation I can dole out today' trainer. No, I went for the calm, assertive, not so bouncy cheerleader type....mostly because he was a guy and I thought if I cried he would go easy on me!

   Hiring that trainer was the best decision I ever made. It made me accountable, and forced me to learn about a healthy lifestyle. Now, those who know me know that I am not the type to just function through life off of someone Else's knowledge. I have to research and learn for myself. I have to know everything about everything before I pour my heart into a task. So that’s exactly what I began to do. Research. Research. Research. The knowledge that I gained about food, sugar, carbs, fats and calories was immeasurable. I had been doing it so wrong for so long.

   Slowly, then very quickly, the weight began to melt away. Pound after Pound until nearly a year went by and I had lost over 55 of them. Not because I wanted to fit into a size 6. Not because I wanted to look better than the barbies in the gym. But because I loved my children, and had a zest for life that I could not obtain while wearing a size 18. I had to love myself enough to achieve my goals and the journey I had started was built on that, not on superficial gain. That reason alone is why it worked for me. We are not promised our next breath in life, but we can ensure that each breath we take in this life is a healthy one. I have felt better, been more energetic and less stressed from the moment I walked through the doors of the gym. That alone makes it worth it for me.

   More than anything else I want to honor God who gave me this life by taking care of the body he provided me to live my life in. After YEARS of fad diets....DIET PILLS of EVERY kind.....low carb...no carb....the grapefruit and cabbage soup diets..Weight watchers..starving myself.....binging....and any other weight loss plan known to man, I realized that what I knew deep inside my heart the WHOLE time was exactly what would be the thing to work for me. I believe that if I focus on all that I have gained, then the loss will naturally follow. If you are doing what is right for your body then there is no way you can fail at this. It is a matter of learning the concepts and returning to lifestyles before fast foods and processed foods....life before hydrogenated oils and corn syrup. Life before 1 point weight watcher cookies that cause you to gain instead of lose.
   What I have "GAINED" from this is so much more important to me than what I have "LOST".  I have gained knowledge which has resulted in power. Power to overcome what I considered the biggest obstacle in my life. Weight.

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