All of my clients are special. I’m grateful to serve clients who have similar priorities and values as me, so finding a new client is more than just business; I find a new friend. That description couldn’t be more evident than what I’ve found in Heather. She inspires me daily. Whatever benefit I’ve been to her, she’s been for be tenfold. She has more determination and more heart than most women I’ve met in life.
This is just the beginning of the story God’s writing in you, Heather. And you’re stuck with me for the rest of it. Thanks for being a continuous blessing in my life!
Here’s Heather’s story:
After three years of miscarriages, surgeries, tests, and treatments, to finally sustaining two complicated pregnancies that both ended in C-sections, my body had taken a beating. My boys, born 19 months apart, both came out with colic and after ‘surviving’ the pre-pregnancy road I had just walked down, I then found myself battling post-partum depression.
Working full time, while trying to maintain being a mom and a wife, only meant that I put myself last in every area of my health because I just didn’t have the time or the drive to do anything about it. In a nutshell, I let myself go. And in doing so, my weight got to a place where I could hardly recognized myself anymore.
I was always tired, stressed, and grumpy. I turned to food for my comfort. Emotionally, I was disgusted with myself. I started retreating from people. I didn’t want to look in the mirror. I didn’t want to be seen. I was embarrassed for my husband. I was too tired or physically capable of even getting on the floor and playing with my kids.
More than just being physically overweight, I was completely emotionally and spiritually drained.
Last December, I hit a breaking point during a routine physical. Due to some complicated health issues (which developed into PCOS and insulin resistance), he told me that if I didn’t do something about my weight now, my future path would be a road that led to Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
I was stunned. I mean, I’m only in my 30’s.
It was then I realized it was time to do something about the state I was in. I wanted my husband to have a wife and my boys to have a mom that was physically capable for them. I was desperate for help, but I had NO idea how or where to start.
And then I found Michelle. Or maybe she found me. Thanks to a mutual friend and work companion who had joined Michelle’s Myers Cross Training Community. I gave my friend permission to give Michelle my name & email address, and she emailed me soon after.
Honesty time: I gave Michelle the ‘run around’ on this whole challenge group thing. Even though I knew I needed help, I didn’t think I could do it. I thought it would end up like every other ‘scenario’ I had tried in attempts to lose weight. So I did what I had always done in these situations:
I proceeded to give her every excuse in the book. Every excuse.
But she stuck with me. And despite all of my whining, she helped me realize how much I needed this. So I agreed to give her 30 days, changing my habits to eat healthy, replace one meal a day with Shakeology, and begin working out with T-25.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that was the start of my new life.
Not only has my body changed, but I rediscovered my drive, my emotional stamina, my thought process, and my spiritual life. I learned how to celebrate my little daily victories. To take my journey one day at a time. To see myself as God sees me and learn to accept that I was ‘Fearfully and wonderfully’ made and believe it. And walk it. And live in it. It created this passion inside that I knew existed but honestly had not felt or seen for a very very long time.
Here’s what I realized: I was more emotionally overweight than I was physically overweight. But once I broke through the negative thoughts I had about myself, I was able to find the physical energy to do what I needed to do.
So far, I’ve lost 40 lbs. And I know I’ve lost way more inches than I can track because I was too insecure to even measure my body in the beginning. Weight loss aside, my body feels completely different. My muscle tone is defined in places I didn’t realize existed on my body. I feel confident and comfortable in my skin. I have joy again. I have discovered heart health in every sense.
But my biggest victories have happened off the scale, what Michelle calls NSV’s (non-scale victories.) For almost two years, I wore a fake wedding ring…because my other rings just didn’t fit anymore. I would often look at my rings and get sad, thinking, “I’ll never wear those again.” We even talked about having them sized up. But just two weeks after working with Michelle, she asked us for victories off the scale, and I thought about my wedding rings. I thought, “I’ll just try to skip them over my fingers.” But I didn’t really think they would.
I went to the bathroom, grabbed my rings…and they fit. I sat on the floor and cried. I didn’t realize how truly important that was to me until I actually felt them slip over my finger again. That was all the motivation I needed to keep going.
I also ran my first 5K this July. I hate to run. The Color Run was coming to Asheville, and it seemed like the most ‘fun’ 5K to do if I was ever to do that kind of thing. Michelle had formed a team here locally for whoever wanted to join. So I signed up. And I did it. I crossed the finish line running all but maybe 5 min of that 5K beside the person who believed in me most from the beginning. Needless to say, I had another good ugly cry moment walking back to my car. I could not have done that 6 months ago nor did I ever think that I would.
My first 5K with my new fit family.
Michelle is full of great practical knowledge, but she is first and foremost concerned with where your heart and head are. That was where MOST of my weight loss came at the beginning. I just needed someone telling me I could do this. That it would work if I did. That God loved me and saw me as beautiful. She poured prayers over us. Loved as He loves. And honestly cared for each of us every single day. That made all the difference in my success.
My one piece of advice to those of you considering taking a leap of faith to accomplish your health goals is to stop making excuses about time and money, and just do it. My turning point in making the decision to try came when Michelle told me it’s not a magic pill, but it’s also not rocket science. I would see results if I simply committed to follow the plan. Exercise, eat right, rest, and love yourself. I promise you, it works. Take it from the biggest, most pessimistic excuse-giver than every was.
I’m only halfway to my goal. It might take me another year or longer to get there. But I’m going to get there.
And after that? I’ll keep going.
Stay connected with Heather’s journey here.
Interested in learning more about the Myers Cross Training Community? Watch the video below, and fill out the form here.
