As a kid I was active in dance and swimming. I never worried about my weight. I was a tall, skinny kid. I stayed at a normal weight throughout high school, even though by that time I had stopped dancing and swimming.

I started watching what I ate and exercising in my early twenties. I was mostly concerned with keeping my fat intake down at that point, so I was eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, low fat dairy etc. I worked out like a maniac – mostly aerobics classes – Step Classes, Hi & Lo Impact Aerobics. I had a friend I worked out with and we were hooked on cardio. If we ate something like fast food we would do two classes that day to counteract the bad food.

I think that is when I started messing up my metabolism. I rarely did any weight training and was just all about the cardio. I’m sure I wasn’t eating enough calories in a day. I was small but soft. No muscle to be seen. At that time that is what I wanted – to stay small.

The further I got into my twenties, the worse it got. I continued to be a cardio junkie but eventually my weight started creeping up. I was still barely lifting a weight. I hated doing weights because it was too boring, plus I was worried about gaining too much bulk. I wanted to be small. This is when I started playing around with different diets. I tried many diets and deprived my body of foods that I needed and had very low energy. I was having such a hard time finding a diet that I could stick to and after each diet I seemed to gain even more weight. It was really frustrating and depressing. I felt like I was the only person in the world that couldn’t stick to a diet, I felt like a total failure. These diets worked for other people, why not for me? I would say I wanted to lose weight, but then I would make every excuse not to do it. The diet is too strict. I’m too busy to exercise or plan my meals. I will start Monday. Eventually I accepted that being fat was my fate and gave up. Even a wedding engagement of almost two years didn’t spark anything inside me to get moving. I was fat for my wedding. That is a huge regret.

I can’t say what it was that made me ready this time, but something just clicked in my head. I decided it was time to hire professional help because I was tired of trying to do it on my own. My track record of trying on my own wasn’t great. I needed help. I had definitely hit a plateau in my weight loss and needed help to shake up my routine and surprise my body. I had a body composition done to find out my percentage of body fat and measurements.

The results from the body composition were horrible and seeing the numbers in black and white really made it hit home for me – my body fat was 34%. Seeing those results really motivated me to make changes.
Hiring a personal trainer was key. Jari really set me straight about what I had to do to lose the weight. Gone were the days of 60-90 minutes of pure cardio and nothing else! She put me on an intense program based on the results she found through scientific testing on the metabolic cart. I started doing the RIPPED!® workouts 3-4 times per week as well as some cardio – 45 minutes, three times per week. I was hooked on RIPPED!® from the very first workout! I had no idea weight training could be so much fun! I love doing the weights in a group setting with high energy music – it really keeps you motivated! What else kept me motivated was all the lean, fit women in the class. That is what made me realize my goal should me to be fit not just small. It didn’t take long before I saw results either. Within 4-6 weeks of doing the RIPPED!® workouts, I started to notice some muscle definition and a decrease in body fat – something I never got from my hours on the treadmill. Doing the high reps with dumbbells really help me to see the results I was looking for. Seeing those results really motivated me to keep doing RIPPED!®  I could feel myself getting stronger every week and it made me excited to workout again.

When I first started working with Jari, she had me get a VO2 max test to find out what my maximum heart rate was. I found it really helpful to know my heart rate zones and where I should be working to see weight loss results and how many calories I burn in each of the zones. My max heart rate is 210 based on the metabolic cart test and using the formula (220- age) my max heart rate would be 186 – that is a huge difference! I feel very confident in the way that I am training now because it is all based on that scientific test. I also had a Resting Metabolic Rate test as well which was really interesting. According to that test the minimum number of calories I need to keep my body alive is 1137. Good information to have while trying to lose weight. I now make sure that I eat a minimum of 1200 calories per day so that my metabolism won’t slow down.

I was really hesitant to start doing weights because I was afraid of getting big and bulky but just the opposite happened. The unusual number of repetitions and low weights really helped me to lean out, see muscle definition and drop body fat. Because we are doing so many reps, my heart rate stays elevated and I burn a ton of calories. I wear a heart rate monitor and I average 600 calories per workout! Since starting doing RIPPED!®  I have lost 55 lbs and my body fat has dropped from 34% to 18%! The changes I have seen in my body have been amazing.