Jennifer Marnell Lost 180 Pounds

What do you think of when you hear the phrase "180 pounds"? My immediate thought was "Gee, that's a whole person."

Jennifer Marnell, a 30-year-old wife and mother, lost an entire person. She lost 180 pounds, going from 300 pounds to a very fit 120 pounds and a size 4.

How is this possible? How did this woman lose the weight of an entire person, without the use of fad diets, medication or life-endangering gastric bypass surgery?

She changed her entire mental outlook. She became mentally ready to acquire the body she was meant to have by nature - a body that is healthy, fit, in shape and ready to live life with her family.

The first step was to change her eating habits. Jennifer began consuming a low-fat, low-calorie diet. She lost 50 pounds over the next few months, which was an amazing motivator to continue.

She then began adding exercise to her life by joining Gold's Gym. Despite her timidity and insecurity about her weight, she kept at it. First, she stuck to the ladies' only section of her gym; but then, as her confidence grew, she took on new challenges like water aerobics, that were great for her body and decreased stress on her joints.

The more Jennifer exercised, the better she felt; she eventually lost 180 pounds over a 2 ½ year period. Now Jennifer is a personal trainer, and the winner of Gold's Gym's "Change your Body, Change your Life" Award.

Well, so what? Jennifer Marnell is only one person who overcame the odds stacked against her, who was actually able to lose the weight healthily and keep it off.

Au contraire. Jennifer's story is quite similar to mine. I went from weighing 250 pounds at my heaviest to now weighing in right around 175 pounds.

Like Jennifer, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. At my heaviest, I was a student at the University of Florida, and it pained me just to walk around campus to class. I was out of breath just walking to the mailbox in my apartment complex, much less hiking all the way across campus from one class to another. Read more about my story here.

I had watched my pants size creep slowly from a respectable size 12 all the way to a size 24. I joked with my mother to cover my embarrassment - "I have to shop at the 'big ladies' store now."

Finally, I just hit a wall where I realized I couldn't keep doing these things to myself. I was making awful choices in regard to eating. I'd have fast food multiple times a week - sometimes even twice in one day.

I drank sodas with every meal, and rarely did I finish a bottle of water. The most exercise I got was the walking I had to do just to maintain a daily routine of school and work.

The first step was getting my butt off the couch and out from in front of the television. I began walking in my neighborhood one mile per day. It was slow and painful, but surprisingly I noticed that I slept better even the first night I began my exercise.

I started walking every day of the week, and I began trying to increase my pace. I took my dog with me, and he began looking forward to our walks so much that I couldn't bear not to take him even on days I felt like staying home.

Starting an exercise regimen, no matter how light, triggered a desire to feed my body better things, too. I cut out sodas completely. I replaced soda with water, Arizona iced tea and Propel fitness water.

I started paying attention to portion size. If I got hungry from eating smaller meals, I'd stock my fridge with low calorie, high fiber food like apples, grapes and low-fat yogurt.

I opted for healthier versions of things I already ate: whole grain bread, mustard instead of mayo, low-calorie cookies instead of regular.

My confidence soared as the pounds melted away, often as much as five pounds per week. I actually was excited to step on a scale for once.

I found that once I reached about 190 pounds a year and a few months later, my weight loss seemed to plateau, like Jennifer's. So I, too, sought the help of a personal trainer.

He taught me new weight training exercises and explained that by building lean muscle, my metabolism would be increased. Therefore, I'd be naturally burning more calories even while sitting at my desk or on the couch! (Even with weight training, though, he encouraged 20-30 minutes of cardio three to four times per week.)

I would weight train two to three times per week, and do cardio training three to four times per week. I began to enjoy jogging. The weight training program I used was not intimidating and was surprisingly easy to follow.

I noticed my clothes fitting better, my energy increasing, I was less tired and I had fewer "fat rolls". It was fantastic!

So what is to be learned from stories like mine and Jennifer Marnell's? Weight loss is not a fad. It has to be a life-altering decision a person makes for him- or herself. It isn't easy, and it will not happen overnight. But what an amazing story you'll have to share if you, too, could join success stories like Jennifer's?

Source
Fit by Jen, Inc., My Biography, http://www.fitbyjen.com/Bio.aspx