Madeline

When I came to Metro Fitness I knew exactly what I was looking for. I knew what I was capable of physically and that I didn't have the best eating habits. I had been on a "get healthy" life track since September of 2009. One year after I got married, and after a year of trying to get pregnant, I was diagnosed with PCOS (the most common fertility disease in America) and as a pre-diabetic. I weighed 240 pounds and at just under 5'-4", I was classified as morbidly obese on the BMI chart.

Over the next 4 years my husband and I chipped away at our unhealthy habits and completed several rounds of fertility treatments. Our habits really did get better, but I would gain and lose weight in rhythm with our failed treatments. In 2010, in an effort to get excited about exercise, I started participating in Triathlons. This was great for my emotional state and I did have minor, but temporary, success with my weight loss. By our fourth failed IUI, I had become a wannabe expert in PCOS and everything that I read and heard, and most of all my heart, was telling me that I needed to lose weight. I cannot describe the pain I felt thinking that my inability to have a child was my fault, my fault because I was fat. I also cannot describe the fear I felt at the thought that the only way I may be able to succeed in having a baby was to conquer my most difficult life struggle. I had to lose weight.

In February of 2012 I buckled down. I signed up for the half iron man distance Lake George Triathlon in September 2012. My thought process was: if I were going to accomplish this, I would have to lose weight. I trained, a lot. Swim, bike run...swim, bike, run...repeat.  Day after day and I lost 15 pounds. I completed the race, all 70.3 miles of it.  I swam 1.2 miles, I biked 56 miles, and THEN I ran 13.1 miles! All of this at 225 pounds. Finally, a SUCCESS!

Unfortunately, in the weeks following the race, I did not feel successful. I was still fat. I tried to put the negative thoughts out of my head. I was healthy, look what I could do!  We scheduled our next IUI in December of 2012 hoping that this time it would work. It did not and I was beyond devastated. I spent the next 3 months sitting and eating. I gained the 15 pounds back and as the new triathlon season approach I felt like a complete failure. In April of 2013, in a last ditch effort to reclaim my life, I found Metro Fitness.

I started off by getting personal sessions with Patrick. The first thing we did was a body assessment. Patrick was able to tell me that I had over 150 pounds of muscle, bone and organ tissue.  When you consider that women should carry 18-24% body fat, my goal weight should be around 185 pounds. What does the BMI know, I have muscle everywhere! This gave me an attainable goal that changed my whole perspective about myself. I told Patrick in our first meeting that I needed help understanding how to eat. He listened and we made nutrition the focus of our first 3 meetings. Some of our conversations included comments like "What do you mean I have to eat carbohydrates, those are bad!" and "Listen Patrick, I need my cheese, its only a little." After that last one I very much felt like a drug addict, addicted to cheese, but we pushed forward! Patrick helped me work into a solid routine again, but this time I was learning to feed my body for success. Over the next 6 weeks, my energy level went up and my weight went down. I lost 15 pounds just like that!  I never understood when people would say, "the weight just fell off." What does that mean? Well now I know, it just falls off.  Don't get me wrong, it was hard work, but MetroFitness gave me the support to keep it going.

That support continued when Randy invited me to be a part of a beta-test group, the focus, strength and weight-loss. Sign me up! I participated in the Metro42 Challenge and over 6 weeks I lost 8.5 inches from my waist and another 21 pounds! My total to date, 36 pounds and counting.

Over the last 6 weeks, I have experienced the best of what Metro has to offer. The group fitness classes helped me get into a better routine and put my workouts first in my priority list. The personal training sessions pushed me farther than I ever would have gone on my own. Our regular meetings to discuss nutrition kept me focused on making the right choices for my diet. It was in the middle of these 6 weeks of training that I had some blood work done and found out I was no longer pre-diabetic. In just 9 weeks MetroFitness helped me change the course of my future, I will not become a diabetic.

This challenge, and all my experience at Metro, has helped me understand how to be a healthy person.  I have a better understanding of how to balance cardio with weight training, and I understand the importance of both. I finally accept that my diet has the biggest role in my weight. I no longer have cravings for unhealthy foods because I know how to feed my body to keep it moving. In just 12 weeks, between personal sessions and the Metro42 Challenge, my life has been changed forever.

When I look at myself today, I am proud. I have muscles in my arms, and I have a waist! My legs, they are full of muscle. Somewhere along the way in the last few months I have stopped looking at my flaws and started appreciating my body.  That feels like a miracle.

The biggest thing I want to say is thank you to Randy and MetroFitness for helping me find hope. In the past my struggles with fertility and my weight have been all consuming.  Now, with the unwavering support from the MetroFitness team I feel so hopeful for my future. I know I will get to my goal weight. I know I will have a much better chance of being able to conceive and when that happens, I will have a healthier pregnancy. I no longer feel helpless in my life path. I have taken control of what I can and that makes it easier to accept everything else.