Growing up, I was overweight and self-conscious about my body. My brother often teased me, as brothers do. His favorite nickname for me was “Ms. Piggy.” I remember drowning my worries and fears in ice cream and jelly donuts that my grandparents often provided on the weekends.
It wasn’t until middle school, that I felt the most uncomfortable about my body. My friends were thin, had cute clothes and were the “popular girls.” I was not any of that.
Sometimes I have flashbacks about 6th grade and being embarrassed during the gym assessment, where we all had to weigh in. I was 160 pounds and wore size 16 pants.
Thanks to participating in intramural sports (and probably a little peer pressure), I began to slowly thin out. In college, I took a step aerobics class to meet the physical education requirement, and from that point on I became more mindful about incorporating exercise into my daily life. (How I became a personal trainer 17 years ago is a whole new blog post to share!)
As a personal trainer and competitive endurance event junkie, I struggled to conceive and turned to IVF for help.
My emotional and physically challenging journey with IVF lasted for two years. And with IVF usually comes hormonal weight gain, so when I finally got pregnant I was already 5 pounds above my typical weight. I was 39 years old when we heard the five most beautiful words on the planet, “you are pregnant … with TWINS!”
Flash forward many years.
I desperately wanted to be a mom, but was not thrilled about how leasing my body out to two humans could affect my weight and overall fitness.
Our beautiful twin boys were born in August 2011, three years after Active Moms’ Club was up and running. Yep, AMC was my first born!
My strong body carried the boys full-term, and packed on an extra 55 pounds. The day I was induced, I cringed as I saw 194 pounds taunting me on the hospital scale!
As a new mom with twins, I was sleep-deprived and in survival mode. The thought of doing anything other than nursing and sleeping was overwhelming and exercise seemed impossible.
But the personal trainer and endurance athlete in me was eager to get back to regular workouts and fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes. I knew I had a long way to go but I didn’t really have a plan or strategy to get there.
If you’ve experienced the same conflict, I get it and I can help with my proven strategies that I wished somebody had given to me when I needed them most.
With the blessing from my doctors, I started low impact cardio exercise six weeks post c-section. And when say low impact, I truly mean low impact— walking and short bouts on the stair climber and elliptical machine. My heart rate shot through the roof with the smallest effort. And this is normal after the trauma any woman’s body had gone through, deconditioning after birth, and sleep deprivation!
I returned to Active Moms’ Club on a part-time basis and taught the Postnatal Recovery class. It was insightful to be an 8-week postpartum coach, leading my very own postpartum recovery class that I designed!
S l o w l y over the months, my pregnancy weight was coming off, but the last 10 pounds felt impossibly hard.
It was five months later, in January 2012, that I spontaneously recruited a few personal training clients to join me in a weight loss challenge. The goal was to hold us all accountable, and to ditch my last bit of pregnancy weight.
THIS is how Active Moms’ Club challenges were born!
I’ll be honest. There was barely any structure to this challenge. Five of us agreed to ante-up $20 to put in a pot. The person who did NOT meet their declared weight goal would have to pay each person $20! As their personal trainer— and a competitive individual— there was NO WAY I was going to miss my goal and lose a bet. So I persevered and worked my tail off, just like they did.
We didn’t lift heavy weights, but did more functional exercise—think push-ups, step-ups, planks, air squats. We just did what we could do. I led my clients through workouts, and we all weighed in every week.
It was the sheer accountability to my clients that gave me the push to succeed.
At the end of this 60 day challenge I had lost 8 pounds and was within 5 pounds of my pre-IVF weight.
This was my a-ha moment! 💡
I experienced firsthand how important it was to have accountability for perseverance! My experience is WHY I created a formal 8-week program for AMC moms. The very first program was called “60 Day Weight Loss Challenge.” It then morphed into the “60 Day Fitness Challenge.” I learned through the challenges that while weight loss is a benefit, our focus as moms is to be fit and healthy for ourselves and our family—we don’t define our self-worth with a number on the scale!
These challenges were very successful and helped dozens and dozens of mamas get fit and lose weight. And they did this through my coaching and AMC’s small group training sessions. They did NOT have a formal nutrition plan to follow.
AMC’s seasonal fitness challenges evolved over the years and I added more of what clients asked for… more structure and education!
In 2017 I went through a personal transformation while working with my own personal trainer. You may wonder why a personal trainer hired a personal trainer. And the reason is because we all need help, even me!
I thought I was strong and eating healthy— and I was. But what I quickly realized is that portion sizes, the right type of foods, and lifting weights (I’m a huge kettlebell enthusiast!) all had a significant effect on my body composition. By changing my eating habits, being more mindful and strategic about my food choices, and incorporating heavy weight training, I decreased my body fat by 4% in 90 days!
This is when I expanded my education and focus as a personal trainer and acquired two respected certifications. I am now a certified Russian Kettlebell Instructor, and Nutrition Coach through Precision Nutrition.
It was in 2017 that AMC’s fitness challenges matured into 90 Days of YOU!
AMC’s signature program is my proven step-by-step formula to get in shape and feel great… even if you are crazy busy or feel overwhelmed with life.
It’s about shedding the guilt so that you can be a priority— whether you have a newborn or college student, or anywhere in between.
It’s about incorporating new healthy habits into your daily life so you can stay on track long-term, and truly lead your family by example.
It’s about waking up with confidence and self-love that makes it impossible to fail.
90 Days of YOU! is about having the unwavering, non-judgemental support of a personal coach, AND an awesome community of like-minded mamas at your side to raise you up.
You deserve it. You are worth it!
It is my passion and mission to guide you to be THE BEST, badass version of YOU.
Oh, and losing weight after twins, or any number of babies… it can happen. You can also be the strongest, fittest person you have ever been in your entire life, regardless of age. I am. And I’m 48 years young.
Turn 2020 around and make it a better year! Nothing can hold you back.