fitness – Patty's Fitness Journey

Blood Tests Don’t Lie

The following is a letter I wrote to the manager of our local Gold’s gym on July 18, 2016.

Today marks 6 months since I began the 12 week challenge. I have lost 48.5 pounds in total so far. I injured my knee during the challenge and I had to slow down my activity in the gym since then – but I never stopped; I just did less.

I wanted to let you know of something I believe is far greater than the number of pounds lost on a scale. I’m not sure how many people know this about me, but about 4 ½ years ago I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Literally one week before the challenge began I was given a blood test called the Vectra DA to measure the level of activity of the disease (the rheumatoid arthritis).

The results came back with a 39 – which if you look at the chart below you will see that is in the moderate range teetering towards high. I was crushed with this result because I hadn’t had any “symptoms” of the arthritis for a few years and I thought I would be in the low range.

Fast forward to today – I repeated this blood test just last week (6 months and negative 48 pounds later). My result was a 16. I hung up the phone after receiving the results and jumped out of my chair and screamed with excitement. Good thing everyone was upstairs and I didn’t scare anyone.

I have been a fan of Gold’s Gym Clifton since before these doors opened and we were in the office space nearby. But I cannot say enough about Ryan and Mana and how they have taught me so much about nutrition, weight training, muscle groups, goal setting, goal crushing, etc. And they have always, always believed in me. That is huge.

Huge accolades to those two for helping me improve the quality of my life. My family is so thankful as am I.

Essay Written For 12 Week Challenge

As promised in the previous post here is the essay I submitted as a finalist for the 12 week challenge.

I had my first thoughts of being fat back when I was just 8 years old in 1969. Sister Mary Mercy, our 3rd grade teacher, sent us home each day with a warning, “Beware of the Zodiac killer.” We would then walk a mile home scared to death. I remember thinking “Well I’m not skinny enough. He would probably want one of the skinny girls.”

In high school, I was a cheerleader but I was always at the bottom of the pyramid because at 120 pounds I was 20-25 pounds heavier than my girlfriends. In college my swim team nicknamed me “Cutey Curves” because at 145 I was 40 pounds heavier than the other swimmers. And so it went from there. I have always believed I was fat (even when I wasn’t).

I had my last child when I was 40 years old and then the metabolism began to slow down. I have put on weight for the past 15 years despite all my attempts to lose weight. Inching closer and closer to 300 pounds, I was desperate for change; for help revving up my metabolism.

Over the years I had tried many different weight loss methods with no long lasting results. I was feeling out of options when the NLP Program at Gold’s Gym was made available to me. It was through this program that I met this young man who would become my trainer. And YES, I was skeptical when he said he would help me if I wanted to sign up for the 12 week challenge. I had a hard time believing anything would work for me.

I am no stranger to hard work, so I pushed hard with my workouts. That was really the easier part for me. But when he asked me to eat more, all those insecurities and fears of “eating = being fat” came to the surface. I could not reconcile eating more in my mind and I fought it for five weeks. It got to the point where my trainer asked my husband to get rid of the scale(s) in the house and only weigh myself once a week with him. (You see, I would eat more at the beginning of the week, but then weigh myself. If my weight hadn’t changed, I would eat less the rest of the week.) Once the scales were gone and I conformed to weighing only once a week with my trainer, the results followed.

Another huge way my trainer helped me was with my self-worth. I remember early on doing some exercise where when facing the mirror, I called myself the Pillsbury dough boy. He immediately said, “Don’t talk about yourself that way.” Any time I got discouraged and called myself gross or fat, he just did not allow that kind of talk. This is another weak area for me — believing in myself, but I am getting better at it.

My journey was not without setbacks. There were many times he needed to adjust the food and/or the workouts due to illness, Mother Nature, and injury. He made the adjustments, I followed the plan and the results always followed. A major victory came two days after the challenge ended and my rheumatologist called and left a message with much surprise in her voice that my blood work (which is done quarterly) came back “surprisingly good!” (This was not the case just four months previous – before the challenge began.)

Although my results may not seem as visible as others, what is happening on the inside is just as vital as what is happening on the outside. I honestly believe the hard work on the part of my trainer as well as my determination to see this through has added years to my life. For that I will be eternally grateful. This is only the beginning of my weight loss journey and I am thankful to be continuing it with Ryan (my trainer) at Gold’s Gym.

Patty Deters – 4/28/2016

About Me

January 2016

This is me – 1981ish – college swimmer. I was never “super” thin, but I was very “fit” here. This would be my goal, to get my weight down enough that I am not embarrassed to be seen in a swim suit and to get back in the pool.

I am now 54 years old and about 130 pounds overweight. I wouldn’t say that having three kids did that to me. I would say that getting too busy to exercise did that to me. I actually did okay until turning about 45 – since then it’s been challenging. Out of the blue, five years ago I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. With the treatment plan came prednisone, which tends to work against any weight loss goals. I also developed high blood pressure and things were not looking good for me. I now have the arthritis under control by way of medicine, but the blood pressure was still high. I have had an under active thyroid since the age of 17 – and yes medicine for that. I am off the prednisone which is a great thing.

I have been an “In and Out” Weight Watcher for years. I know every plan. I know the “how” of eating correctly, counting “points,” exercising, drinking water, etc.

Weight Watcher Journals over the Years

I have tried Nutri Systems. I have tried Dr. Furhman’s Eat to Live. I have tried juicing. These were all great, but with no weight loss results. I have tried the Plexus products (which were great) and more recently my rheumatologist suggested The Metabolic Center as it worked well for one of her previous patients.

I began the Metabolic Center in June of 2014. I was beginning to feel hopeless and I knew my health was greatly suffering. About this same time, I quit my 2nd full time job and stepped down for one year from our ministry responsibilities. The Metabolic Center worked well at first. I lost about 20 pounds, but I was restricted to about 1100 calories a day and as you can see from the picture below, they all said I needed ALL of those supplements several times a day to lose weight.

In May of 2015, my 16 year old son and I headed back to Gold’s Gym because he was six months out from having had spinal surgery for scoliosis and he wanted to work on getting strong again. We paid for about $1000.00 worth of one-on-one training sessions for him. He was wanting to go to the gym three times a week and this was about $50.00 a session. By August we were talking to the head trainer at Gold’s asking if there were any other options (more affordable) available for him. That is when we were told about the NLP program which stands for Next Level Performance. For the cost of about 3 trainer sessions we could have access to trainers but in a group setting. We signed Joe up for this on the spot.

A few days later, I signed up. About one month later my husband signed up. After having so many failed attempts at weight loss, I still firmly believed that diet and exercise should be enough.