BelovedHeather
Cathlete
Greetings! I just joined this morning and am not sure where to start, so I will dive in right here. I have been reading Cathe’s forums for months and feel like I “know” many of you. I am not really new to this place. I just finally decided to come out and play!
Cathe is such an inspiration to me. She is in awe-inspiring shape, and so are many of you based on the pictures I have seen! It amazes me that I love and look forward to working out now. I am one who would do anything to get out of gym class in my school days. I even tried to flush gym clothes down the toilet when I was in junior high school (and succeeded in flooding the toilet and making a big mess)!
I am 5'3" and weighed 260 pounds on July 4, 2003, when I started my fitness journey with walks in the pool, Jen Carman’s FIRM Basics video, and my friend Gretchen’s cardio kickboxing class. It was very intimidating for me to walk into a fitness club at that size, but I did it. The club closed a few months later, which was so upsetting because I was just starting to feel comfortable in that environment. Gretchen started teaching and training at another club, and I followed her there and started over in a new place.
I loved cardio. I hated weights. That was until the FIRM Ya Yas introduced me to Cathe’s workouts last year. I am so grateful. I started with Cardio Kicks because of my aversion to step aerobics and weight training, and I was hooked the first time I did it. I hated step aerobics until I tried Rhythmic Step. I was under the impression that it was boring and uncreative. Then I experienced Cathe’s choreographed step routines! Now I love step aerobics (but have to limit it until I get closer to my goal weight). Leaner Legs and Pyramid Upper Body showed me that weight training can be fun and enjoyable. Cathe’s personality makes weight training fun. I even did a Slow and Heavy rotation in December and enjoyed every minute of it. That was amazing to me. I do Gretchen’s cardio boot camp class at the club and jog in the pool, but I am too self-conscious to lift weights in the fitness center because of my size. I am in my element in the aerobics studio and in the indoor pool, but the weight room intimidates me. It is a tremendous blessing for me to have Cathe’s videos and DVDs at home because I understand the importance of weight training but would not do it on my own. I am a cardio queen by nature. I volunteer to do extra cardio for any of you who hate it! The VHS sale enabled me to acquire a great rotation of workouts in a short period of time, and I finally bought a DVD player for my workout area this month after I preordered the new workouts. The Terminator, High Step Training, and Abs Hits arrived yesterday. I also ordered Total Body Stretching with my preorder. I am fired up and ready to dive in and blast off the rest of this fat so I will be light on my feet and ready for Drill Max when Cathe is able to film the new workouts!
I have always been a girly girl and had no interest in athletic sports, but I loved to dance and twirl from the time I was a little girl. The dance flair Cathe adds to her step choreography is what captured my attention, but the athletic side of her workouts challenges me and gives me something to focus on other than my weight and butt size. There are so many moves that are still way out of my league (like stability ball pikes for example), but it thrills me to finally accomplish something challenging for the first time. Thanks to Pyramid Upper Body, I can now do a few pushups on my toes for the first time in my life! Cathe and her crew members are positive role models for me. With a history of eating disorders, I need strong women in my life who inspire me to be fit and free as opposed to thin at any cost. I have been down that road, and it was not worth the price I paid and the damage I did to my body.
I have hope now that I can finally be free from this prison of fat for good. I believe I can do this. Cathe’s super challenging workouts inspire me to keep eating clean because I want to experience them when I am no longer carrying the burden of this excess weight. All the jumping she does looks like so much fun, but I have to modify some of the impact to protect my joints. As of today, I am halfway to my goal (down from a size 28 to a size 16 so far). It has taken over 2½ years of intense exercise to get this far. My stubborn fat is not going down without a fight.
I did not have any athletic ambitions when I started this journey. I just wanted to be able to bend over and paint my toes without getting winded! Now I am thinking that there might be an athlete (or dancer!) buried under these mounds of fat. Thanks to Cathe and her forum members for all the great inspiration! I have been stuck at halfway point for way too long, but I am starting over today and breaking free from this fat cocoon with a 10-week cardio and circuit training rotation! I will be ready for Drill Max when it is ready for me!
Blessings,
Heather B.
“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV).
Cathe is such an inspiration to me. She is in awe-inspiring shape, and so are many of you based on the pictures I have seen! It amazes me that I love and look forward to working out now. I am one who would do anything to get out of gym class in my school days. I even tried to flush gym clothes down the toilet when I was in junior high school (and succeeded in flooding the toilet and making a big mess)!
I am 5'3" and weighed 260 pounds on July 4, 2003, when I started my fitness journey with walks in the pool, Jen Carman’s FIRM Basics video, and my friend Gretchen’s cardio kickboxing class. It was very intimidating for me to walk into a fitness club at that size, but I did it. The club closed a few months later, which was so upsetting because I was just starting to feel comfortable in that environment. Gretchen started teaching and training at another club, and I followed her there and started over in a new place.
I loved cardio. I hated weights. That was until the FIRM Ya Yas introduced me to Cathe’s workouts last year. I am so grateful. I started with Cardio Kicks because of my aversion to step aerobics and weight training, and I was hooked the first time I did it. I hated step aerobics until I tried Rhythmic Step. I was under the impression that it was boring and uncreative. Then I experienced Cathe’s choreographed step routines! Now I love step aerobics (but have to limit it until I get closer to my goal weight). Leaner Legs and Pyramid Upper Body showed me that weight training can be fun and enjoyable. Cathe’s personality makes weight training fun. I even did a Slow and Heavy rotation in December and enjoyed every minute of it. That was amazing to me. I do Gretchen’s cardio boot camp class at the club and jog in the pool, but I am too self-conscious to lift weights in the fitness center because of my size. I am in my element in the aerobics studio and in the indoor pool, but the weight room intimidates me. It is a tremendous blessing for me to have Cathe’s videos and DVDs at home because I understand the importance of weight training but would not do it on my own. I am a cardio queen by nature. I volunteer to do extra cardio for any of you who hate it! The VHS sale enabled me to acquire a great rotation of workouts in a short period of time, and I finally bought a DVD player for my workout area this month after I preordered the new workouts. The Terminator, High Step Training, and Abs Hits arrived yesterday. I also ordered Total Body Stretching with my preorder. I am fired up and ready to dive in and blast off the rest of this fat so I will be light on my feet and ready for Drill Max when Cathe is able to film the new workouts!
I have always been a girly girl and had no interest in athletic sports, but I loved to dance and twirl from the time I was a little girl. The dance flair Cathe adds to her step choreography is what captured my attention, but the athletic side of her workouts challenges me and gives me something to focus on other than my weight and butt size. There are so many moves that are still way out of my league (like stability ball pikes for example), but it thrills me to finally accomplish something challenging for the first time. Thanks to Pyramid Upper Body, I can now do a few pushups on my toes for the first time in my life! Cathe and her crew members are positive role models for me. With a history of eating disorders, I need strong women in my life who inspire me to be fit and free as opposed to thin at any cost. I have been down that road, and it was not worth the price I paid and the damage I did to my body.
I have hope now that I can finally be free from this prison of fat for good. I believe I can do this. Cathe’s super challenging workouts inspire me to keep eating clean because I want to experience them when I am no longer carrying the burden of this excess weight. All the jumping she does looks like so much fun, but I have to modify some of the impact to protect my joints. As of today, I am halfway to my goal (down from a size 28 to a size 16 so far). It has taken over 2½ years of intense exercise to get this far. My stubborn fat is not going down without a fight.
I did not have any athletic ambitions when I started this journey. I just wanted to be able to bend over and paint my toes without getting winded! Now I am thinking that there might be an athlete (or dancer!) buried under these mounds of fat. Thanks to Cathe and her forum members for all the great inspiration! I have been stuck at halfway point for way too long, but I am starting over today and breaking free from this fat cocoon with a 10-week cardio and circuit training rotation! I will be ready for Drill Max when it is ready for me!
Blessings,
Heather B.
“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV).
