Wellness Star for July

Tiffany today

Tiffany before

When I started working with her company she was a skeptic, but a friendly skeptic. Eventually she started moving toward better health. The beautiful thing about her transformation is that she did it herself; meaning she initiated the change of attitude. All the management and I provided was the workout area and a workplace that dedicated itself to promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Here is her testimonial....

"Since February of this year I’ve lost 23lbs. If you think about it, go to the store, pick up a 20-pound bag of dog food and walk around. THAT’s what I was carrying around each and every day. No wonder I was unhappy and tired all the time. After a year of eating what I wanted and doing no exercise I said enough was enough.
I began to take advantage of the fitness room at work. I started out slow, walking and jogging on the treadmill, then I added some rowing in. It felt great just to get moving. Also, I once again began logging my food on Sparkpeople.com. I’ve used this site before and it’s really helped me become accountable and make a lifestyle change.

Between the exercise and the food logging, the weight started coming off, I started feeling A LOT better and making smart choices became second nature. I also began doing some of the daily workouts Mark assigned. I remember after the first workout with him (that included a ga-billion squats, seriously!) how sore I was for two days. But the pain subsided and I felt stronger. Now I look forward to our weekly challenges, pushing myself to be even better and stronger.

I’ve stuck with it and with the help of a work out buddy at the office who keeps me accountable, it’s not been hard. I have “cheat days” once a week where I can go out to a nice dinner or have some pizza so I never truly deny myself anything, I just think if I really want it before I eat it. If we’re going out to eat, I just look up the online menus and their nutritional info, log it in for the day and enjoy a lunch out without the guilt of “Oh! I shouldn’t have ate that much!”

While I still have about another 12 pounds I want to lose, I’ve gone down two pants sizes, can see a noticeable difference in my appearance (I may actually have the emergence of an ab!) and energy levels and have signed up for my first 5k in three weeks and am planning to run in the Race for the Cure in October. I doubt I’ll actually run the whole thing, but knowing that I CAN run some of it is miles away from where I was just five months ago.

So what are you waiting for? There’s nothing more important than your health and you have all the tools at your disposal here through the wellness program. Start off small, build your way up and next thing you know, you’ll be looking at a bag dog food or that 10-pound bag of potatoes in a whole new way!