Andrea Persino
XSport Get Fit Challenge 2009 Participant"I am in the best shape of my life! My weight is at a place I never thought it be, I never thought I would be at 19% body fat, and the size of clothes I fit into, well never in my life have I been this small. "
I became a member of XSPORT in mid November 2008. My enrollment counselor, Demetrius Stringfollow, was great. He excelled with the gym tour and just getting to know me and my needs and wants for the gym. As he took me around he showed me everything the gym had to offer but took more time with my interest areas. For example I said that I enjoy taking classes so when we were in the studio Demetrius made sure I knew where the schedule is always posted and even recommended classes to take. But he also made sure to show me areas at the time I said I would not use, i.e. the upper floor where most of the weights are at. He also talked to me about PTs and how they can help with my fitness goals. Based on his recommendation I enrolled for the free PT session and that is when I meet Becca Cooper. It really was a fluke how we ended up together. The PT that I was set up to see was unavailable and Becca was new to XSPORT and had an opening. So right then I was thinking this lady better WOW me for me to sign up, if they cannot get the schedule together how can they do anything for me. Well she did WOW me and we started working together. She and I had great results. She helped me learn how to eat better, work out using weights and just learning about gym equipment in general.
When the XSport Get Fit Challenge was posted we talked about the different categories, and if we thought this was something I wanted to do and could benefit for. With the first prize being $10,000 the challenge was something to think about. It also came up at a great time for me. I was ready for a new challenge in the gym. I really thought I was in great shape and wondered how much more could I do to my body. So there was the personal goal born inside of me. I wanted to see how far I could push my body, both physically and mentally. Physically by working hard in the gym everyday and in a ways I never thought I could or would do. I was the person who always said that I will not work on the main weight floor. I would say things like it's the big boy room, no need for me to play in there and get in their way. Boy was I wrong! I not only learned how to use a lot of the machines and exercises for the free weights, I also learned about form and using weights to sculpt my body. As a woman I don't want to have a huge muscular frame. I wanted to be toned and lean. I did not understand that the pounds do not equal size! If it's a muscle it will get stronger not necessarily bigger. I also learned the importance of increase the amount of my weight to increase strength plus it's about how I do my sets to get lean and tone i.e. more sets and more reps in each set for toning my body.
I challenged myself mentally by staying focused, putting myself and my commitment to the challenge 1st, plus learning to see and accept the changes in my body. Before the challenge, I would say that I was an average gym-goer. I did three days cardio and three days whole body weights. And like I said it work out great. I was looking better, had more energy, and feeling better about how I looked. But if something came up that I wanted to do my thought was that the gym will be there tomorrow. Now I would proudly call myself a gym rat! I do have days off that I plan in, but I have made the commitment to myself to stick to a plan. And I have followed through on that commitment thanks to the challenge, and now going to the gym is part of what I do. As I am now reflecting back on the last 12 weeks one thing that I would like to work on now is balance between social life and the gym. I want to learn that it is ok to do something else, I know that it will take more than one extra night off to change the progress I have made and the same is true with going out to dinner with friends.
As for accepting the changes in my body, that has been hard! There are times that I still see myself how I looked at the start of all of this. Then I will stop and look and think WOW, is that really me? I am still amazed that I have been able to tone and sculpt my body this way. I have definition lines and strength I never thought I would get. I have seen other women with it and was like WOW, I only wish my body could do that and now it has! It feels amazing to see that my hard work has exceeded any expectation I had for myself. There are other times when I am getting dressed and I am looking in the mirror and I recognize my face but my first thought is, "whose body is that? Oh wait, its mine! WOW!"
The Get Fit Challenge was my motivation. When I started the challenge I just told myself that I was the first place winner. And there was no stopping me from getting there. So everyday that's what I would tell myself, one more day closer to winning the $10,000. One thing that was very helpful was setting goals every four weeks. I looked at the short term goal and not the overall goal. I was always working towards meeting the four week goal. It was easy to stay focused on what I needed to get done in the gym without feeling overwhelmed or that I would never met my goal. My goals have been about my body fat. By the time the first four weeks where done I was seeing my progress. It was great to see the pay off after a short time. So then that motivated me to work hard the next four weeks and so on. As my body changed I would catch myself looking in the mirror at my body.
Now there was motivation to keep going! I remember the first time I really saw my body changing and getting cut. I was at the Logan gym doing a workout with a barbell and as I was watching my form in the mirror. In the middle of the exercise I just froze. I was looking at my arms and could not believe how my arms were getting tone and cut. Well of course I went home and look at my whole body and saw that I was getting tone and cut all over. Within the last week of the challenge I was getting ready for work and as I was putting on a vest and I was blown away as to how it fit and how thin my body looked. I again was like whose body is this? I recognize the face but just had to stop and take in my lean and tone body.
Becca was great at keeping me motivated. I was able to come to her and let her know what was I was think and feeling at any time. We would talk about everything from my friends supporting and lack of support, my eating and finding myself wanting to go back to how I use to eat, and the changes in my body. Becca would remind me why I signed up and what I wanted out of it, quitting was not an option. I said that from the beginning. I told Becca that quitting was not an option so don't let me quit. It also helps that Becca and I have been working together for so long. She can read me now and can tell when I am have a great day or when my day is off She knows what to say to me to get my head back into the work outs and back into the challenge.
Demetrius, my enrollment councilor, has been great to. Ever since I became a member of XSPORT he would see me and ask how I am doing with my work outs and how things where going with Becca. When I told him I was in the challenge he would make a point to ask how that was going, and even offer to help with work outs if need be or anything else I thought I would could need some assistance with. It was great knowing that I someone other then Becca in the gym who can help me. There have been other trainers too (Troy and Jessica to name a few) that were really cool. They would tell me how they have really seen my body changing and that to keep it up because what ever I am doing is working. Talk about motivation. These trainers have their own clients in the challenge but they still can tell me that I have made some great progress so far. I remember this one day, about a week before the end of the challenge, I ran into Jessica and one of her clients that is in the challenge. We talked about our progress and our game plan for the last week. I told them that mine was to do add an extra hour of cardio and drop 5 more pounds. It is time to go big or go home. Well I saw Jessica the next day and she told me that she was glad that she ran into me yesterday because her client is excited and ready to finish strong. So now I am starting to motivate other! For me that was just an amazing feeling.
I also used Facebook. It was a great tool. Everyone there knew from the start that I was doing a gym challenge. It really helped me to let everyone in my life know what I was doing. And throughout the summer I would post updates to it and of course post pictures. They would motivate me to stay focused, not to give up, and to get in the gym and do what I have to do. Now that the end is almost here I am still getting the support and congratulations for finishing it.
The last area I have found helpful for motivating me is sharing this challenge with my co-workers. Now that was a great move because they would ask if I was going to the gym and if I was not feeling like it they would remind me of my goals and the challenge and I would head to the gym. It has also been great because they help me with eating. No one will order or get food for me. Again this was something I talked to them about. And now that it is coming to an end, being a teacher I have not seen most of them since the challenge started, they are telling me how great I look and my hard work has totally paid off So that makes it easy to finish this challenge and want to keep it up after the challenge is over.
Food was and is the toughest obstacle. It would be easy to say that it is fast food, but not for me. I teach so I don't have time to run out and pick something, packing food is what I have to do. Packing food for a day was easy for me. The hard part for me is putting down a bag of chips, cookies, and candy. So everyday I tried to make a good and healthy choice. Did I do it all the time, no. But I always had a chance to change that choice the next time. And I still have moments when chips, cookies, and candy sound better then chicken and peas, and that's ok for me. It has been about finding a balance of it all. Watching what I put in my body and not letting myself fall back to how I use to eat. There are times I still eat a lot more "junk food" but then I have a talk with myself. It kind of goes like this, "Andrea what are you doing? You are really eating a lot of junk food. Is this how you want to eat? No. Do you want to go back to your old weight and your old body? No. So let's start making better choices". I have a mantra about eating: There is always tomorrow or my next meal of the day to make a better choice.
I would say that I am also an emotional eater, so when things are crazy or I get stress I will eat the "junk food". And I still find myself doing that. But for the first time I am aware of this. As I am walking through a store I might think man I really want chips. In the past I would just go get it and not thing twice. Now I stop and think do I really want it or am I just stress. Does that mean that every time I pass on the chips, no. But now I can put them down now that is important to me. When they do come home with me I really struggle with the balance. I feel that because I don't eat "junk food" a lot that I don't let myself have my control when I eat that stuff Here is where I need to find the balance. I don't eat that stuff a lot so when I do bring it home I want to eat it all. That is just not healthy. So here is the next thing I need to work on....finding the balance on eating the "junk".
There have been two times I felt like quitting:
1. When I first started the challenge it was hard for my friends to understand what I was doing and why. I told myself that I will make the gym my first priority, and I did. I went from spending an hour in the gym to about two hours most days. My friends wanted me to be like I was before; eating out, drinking, and missing the gym if something came up. Well after a few weeks I had enough of trying to defend myself to everyone. And I thought this really is not worth it. I turned to food for comfort. Then I came to the realization that this is not about them, it's about me and what I want to do. So at that moment I decided to stand on my own two feet and do what I want to do for me. It was very empowering to make that decision. I felt like no one can get in my way. I drew a line in the sand and I was not going to move it. I talked with my friends. I told them that it's ok that they don't understand why I am doing this but all I need from them is their support. I told them how you are asking me to be there for you but right now you are not doing that to me. As the good
friends that they are they all came around to rise me up and help me through this challenge. The hard part for me was letting them in at that point to support me. I was so afraid that they would not that I tried to push them away. Again as the good friends that they are they pushed back and stuck by my side.
2. The second time was two weeks before the challenge was up. It is crazy that I was so close to the end and was ready to walk away but it was about food. My school is a year round school, and that was when teachers started. I was putting in long days at work plus the gym I just wanted to eat "junk" and I did. But as I was sitting on my couch with a bag of chips next to me I was like oh no I am not going back to sitting on the couch eating chips (and this was more then one night). I have worked so hard to blow it now. This has got to stop! It has I am back in control but now it is about finding that balance of work, gym, and food. For me it is ok to eat that stuff but I don't need to eat a bag a night.
When the challenge first started I was measuring my success with weight loss and loss of body fat. But that changed really fast. It became how my body has changed: adding muscle, definition, and strength.
I tried three XSPORT supplements, the multi-vitamin, glutamine, and protein. I found that all are great products. It is a great idea to take a multi-vitamin and XSOPRT woman is as good as anyone out there. My favorite product has been the glutamine. It works great and the benefit it has on muscle recovery has been amazing. When I do not take it for a few days I really noticed that I am missing it. I mean this to the point where I will wonder what has changed in my diet; the results have slowed sown so much. Then I see that I have not taken my glutamine and I will add it right back in.
I also tried the protein. I think overall the protein is a great product but the only thing that I was not crazy about was the taste. I just did not like it. And with protein that is very important. But I believe with protein it is very personal you have to find one that is going to work for you and that you like the flavor. However, I did switch do a different protein and my results slowed down and plan to go back to XSPORT protein again when I am done with what I have now. I would recommend all the XSPORT supplements I tried. I have had wonderful progress during the challenge using these supplements.
Becca helped me 110%! Without her I would not know what to do, where to go in the gym, or how to do any of the exercises that I currently do. Even now, I have exercises that we have done together but when I try to do them myself something feels off. So the next time I see her she will show it to me again. And she never makes me feel like I should know how to do an exercise. She will take as much time as we need for me to feel comfortable with each and every exercise. She will show it to me and then have me do it and watch, telling me how to fix my body. Then we will do a few to make sure I understand it and can correct my form without her by me.
Without Becca I know that I would not have met and exceeded my goals that we have set and reach my wishful thinking goal. Over the twelve weeks I have met every goal but my last one. And at first I was mad that my body fat was not really moving. But then I thought about it and was like I am at 19% that is amazing, that is my wishful thinking goal and I am there. So I let myself celebrate that win, and started to work on finding a better balance with food. Working with Becca and the twelve week challenge has been life changing for me. I learned to stand on my own two feet and not to lean on others to reach my goals, I have pushed my body and transformed it into a new one, one I never thought I would have, and I have learned to use the gym, all of the gym and not feel like I don't belong in an area.
Within the first few weeks of the challenge, I talked to Becca about working my muscles in a more isolated form. We were doing whole body, and that was great. But right when the challenge came up was when I was become stagnant. So I did my own homework on how to workout, and talked to some friends on ways to change up what I was doing. That is how I learned more about what I would call a more "body builder" type of workout. So I came back to Becca and told her what I wanted to try. She was on board with dividing up the major muscle groups and came up with a plan to work each group. It was really hard at first. It was a shock to my body. My work outs started to take longer to get done and weights that I would do when we did whole body felt too heavy. But again, I was amazed at how quickly my body adjusted to the new workout. And thinks I had trouble with I was able to do. Exercise I did not like at first later became one of my favorites to do. There are still exercises I don't like and Becca will have me do them, but you cannot like exercise or every muscle group, but it is good to work the muscles differently each time you work them.
Having a plan to come into the gym was great! I knew every day what I was going to do. I started to keep a workout log so I could keep track of the changes in weight. I would add notes as I did my workout, for example why I did not use the right weight, or if I could not figure something out so I can ask Becca the next time I see her. Becca and I would look it over when we started the isolated muscle workouts. I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing without her. Becca has some amazing workouts for whole body approach, but she did a great job listening to my wants/needs and coming up with a workout plan.
As far as how it compares to my workouts from the past- it is night and day! Before, I had an idea of a few things I wanted to do and figured out the rest as I went along. I hoped that I would work all the major muscles but there really was no game plan. Going to a very structured plan kept me more focused with my time in the gym, made sure I did my workout, and working all my muscles throughout the week. The best part is the results I have gotten are better then anything I have ever been able to do on my own!!
If I had the chance to change another person's life, I would choose my twin brother Byron because over the last ten years he has put on a lot of weight and just got a cholesterol test back and it was dangerously high. My brother and I are very close I want him to be around and healthy for a long time. Throughout my time as a member of XSPORT, we have talked about how I have been working out and the progress I have made. But this challenge has been a different experience then my progress before it. I am 31 years old and I would say a novice when it comes to the gym. When I first graduated college, I had a membership to a gym and within that year I went a handful of times or less. Then I had some tapes I used at my home and did have some success with that. But again it did not last more then a few months. Here it is coming up on almost a year and I am more dedicated to coming to the gym than when I started. So why am I more dedicated? Well, I made the decision to put me first. I wanted to be healthy and around here for a long time to come. And for that to happen I need to stay in shape and eat right. XSPORT has helped me with all of that.
Before the challenge I would say that I did get to a good weight, body fat at a good place, and eating better then ever. But now I would say that I am in the best shape of my life! My weight is at a place I never thought it be, I never thought I would be at 19% body fat, and the size of clothes I fit into, well never in my life have I been this small. So that is just the numbers of it. But what about me? Am I happy? Could you be happy?
YES! As I am writing this it makes me think of everything I have done, given up, and gone through to get here. In the end, I would not change a thing. I was not always at my best but I have learned a lot about me and what I want from life. I would say that I am blown away regarding how my body looks and how much it has changed in twelve weeks. When I signed up for the challenge I thought, "Twelve weeks, that's a long time, I mean it's the whole summer!" But really, twelve weeks is not a lot of time. If you stick to your plan, the twelve weeks will fly by and you will see a change But you truly need a plan. Let me tell you that there are days when I had to write my food log and I did not want to. I did not want to put down what I ate/drank. But having that list in-front of me, well, there was no hiding how and what I ate and why I was or was not meeting my goal. Writing a food diary really held me accountable for what I am choosing to put in my body. I would say it is the most important piece of all of this. The other thing that helped me was having my workout written out before I started. Before I joined the challenge, I would have no plan and just do what came to mind and when I felt like I was done, great. There were many times I would be driving home and was disappointed in myself because I forgot to do a few things. Now I never feel that way. I have a plan and I am there until the workout is done.
What I would say to Byron is, I know that you want to get healthy not just for me, mom, dad, or even Cat. I know that you want to get healthy for you. Brother you have been there before and I know you can do it again. Let's not forget that before all of this I was a couch potato and yes now maybe a little extreme for your liking, but that is me and what works for me. So now Byron, it is your time to rise above the thought of I don't have time and make the time! Put yourself first, let's put together a twelve week plan that includes working out, eating right, and times for "cheat meal"-- after all, it is about finding a health balance that works for you. One that you can live with and keep it up for the rest of our lives!
So, a side note to the ones reading this.....as I have just typed my thoughts on who I hope to inspire I realized that even though we have talked about it and I try to help him with his journey I really think it would help him to see everything I just put down here. So as I am sending this to you I am going to send it off to him. So thank you for that!
Andrea Persino
Logan Square Gym
