How/why/ when did you get into fitness?

B

Boybert

Cathlete
General question here, because I love to see the diversity on this forum!

Me - I spent my entire youth extremely obese and finally at 16, w/ the encouragement of my mother, joined weight watchers and lost 150 lbs over the course of 18 months. I started in the YMCA doing maybe 15 min on a bike or stairmaster and a few weight machines and that about killed me!

When I couldn't make anymore improvements on the flab, I had cosmetic surgery to remove all the loose skin. 10lbs worth! I kicked it up a notch w/ cardio & weight training ever since, but hadn't really busted through a MAJOR plateau until Cathe. Fast forward to today - Cathe has jump started my routine and shown me muscles that I figured were under there somewhere!

"you miss 100% of the shots you never take"

Debbie
 
Debbie,

You are a true inspiration. I admire how you took control and made a difference in your life.

Me - I have been pretty sedentary most of my life, up and down the scales but never very heavy. It wasn't until a little two years ago that I took control. After being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when I was 38, my life became a nightmare. After two to three years of trying to find a drug or drug combination that would control my RA and being on prednisone tapers off and on during that time, my weight ballooned to 165 lbs. I had always been around a 12 but even 14's were too tight and I was looking at buying 16's. After starting Enbrel in January of 2003, my RA finally came under control and I went on WW in April of 2003 and never looked back. I am now around 135 lbs and a size 8. Cathe has helped me keep my weight down like nothing else. I was using the Firm before Cathe. It is good, but I prefer Cathe.

Anyway, I will be 44 next month and in the best shape of my life. There is no substitute for healthy eating, getting enough sleep, and exercise.

In an ironic twist of life, it took getting debilitating disease for me to find the focus to really stay the course on a healthy life-style.
 
I had always been skinny all my childhood until I married my husband. I was 21 and gaining weight before my wedding. Well when my children were 2 yrs old, my neighbor let me try a firm tape. I started to enjoy exercising after not having to when I was younger. I went from a 14 to a size 7-9.

kim
 
After the birth of my first child, my hubby told me I had developed cellulite on the back of my right leg. I did nothing about it, but about 6 years later I started working out with Tony Little (yeah, I know, but at least it wasn't Richard Simmons) :eek: !
I did the same tape over and over again as I didn't know anything about rotation, etc. I still ate bad and in 4 months time felt better, but did not notice any changes so I quit. I never went back to exercising after that until a few years ago as my neighbor gave me a video tape of Tonetics (ladies from the eighties) and there was some significant improvements with my legs as I started to watch my diet carefully as well. Pleased, I continued and one day I stumbled upon FitTv and the rest is history. Most of the time I just focused on my legs doing Tonetics and then Cathe PLB and Legs and Glute. I found Cathe to be very challenging and so now my Tonetics tape is just collecting dust. I just started working out upper body in January of this year. I had no idea what changes would come to my upper body. I never knew I had shoulders as they use to be soooo narrow and just recently had to clean out my closet of tops that no longer fit because the arm hole comes all the way up to my underarm rubbing against it when the tops use to be gappy. I just get a thrill when I put on a summer top I wore last year and this year looks completely different on me. I feel like a new me!!!


Charlotte~~
 
I think exercise in one form or another has always been a part of my life: As kids, we used to actually walk a mile to the local mall (which was not enclosed at that time). Also, my parents would take the whole family ice skating, and in the summer we'd go to the town pool and I'd be in the water for 3-4 hours at a stretch. I got into more structured exercise when I took ballet when I was 8--though I stunk at it! Then in college I took up jogging a bit. That gave way to ice skating seriously after college--that lasted 15 years, plus swimming and biking here and there. I got a treadmill in 1998 and started walking on it (long ago gave up running cause my knees couldn't take it). Started lifting weights on a regular basis in about 2000. I still take a ballet class, and racewalk on my treadmill, and swim. Seriously, I can't imagine my life without some form of fitness that I'm obsessed about! I find it hard to sit sit sit at a desk all day. But strangely, I never thought of myself as athletic! Oh, I'm 46.
 
I've changed my reasons since then, but I think I got into fitness because I was bored. I think I started working out (well, beyond what we were forced to do in PhysEd. classes) when I was 19.
 
I got started when a friend invited me to a Jazzercise class. I had never exercised before and I was 19. I was hooked!That was in 1985. After Jazzercise closed up in my town, I got a magazine called Collage Video in the mail. I found Cathe there and my first of her tapes was Step Max I loved it, then I found this site and checked periodically from the library computer. Since CTX came out on presale I have always gotten my Cathe workouts here. There is nobody like Cathe!
Colleen
 
I got started last year when I needed a PE credit for my last term at my community college. I joined this independent fitness program where you can do any kind of physical activity. All I had to do was keep a log of what I did. I was never really into physical fitness and my pretest scores were hideous. I scored poorly in all categories (pushups, situps, flexibility, endurance) This was an eye opener for me so I was determined to do better and I did. After 10 weeks of this class, exercising became a habit and here I am.
 
As a child I was very skinny and tiny. Then at 12yo I hit adolescence and gained 25 pounds in only 6 months. I was pudgy... a little overweight. I tried different sports but didn't like any of them very much. At 18yo I decided I didn't want to look like I did anymore so I threw out my glasses and got contact lenses, got a hair cut (without my mother present) and lost the weight in 6 months by eating everything I was used to, only halved all my portions. After 3 months I again halved all my portions. This way I could eat up to three cookies a day, have the ocasional ice cream etc. I got my weight down to 114 pounds and could eat everything I wanted when I wanted but with portion control.

In addition I started doing aerobics / fitness when I was 20yo to tighten up mainly and Tae Kwon Do cause I loved it. I was a fanatic at times, addicted to working out as some said. They were probably right.

I maintained my weight easily even after two pregnancies. I didn't gain weight again until after my car accident when from one day to the next I couldn't do anything but lie in bed or on the couch. I gained 14 pounds and after 5 years I'm still struggling to loose close to 7 pounds to get my weight at a level that is acceptable to me (116 pounds).

Dutchie :)
 
I got into fitness while recovering from drug addiction back in 1987. It has become an integral part of my life for not only self esteem reasons, but also health, weight control, stress relief and it helps my depression.
 
Well I have been exercising on and off for YEARS but didn't COMMIT myself to it until about 3 years ago. I don't know what was different that made me stick with it this time but I did and I'm glad. These days I can't be with out it. Having to stop working out after Joey was born was torture! Feels great to be getting back into it now. It just makes me feel good in sooo many ways! I love it.:7

Wendy

6/13/05 Some new pics added!Check out pics of Joey's room in the "nursery" album!

http://www.PictureTrail.com/wendymin
 
I got into weightlifting when I was about 16. I used to help spot my brother for bench press and a few other exercises. I wanted to be more useful so I started lifting. However I was impatient and busy so I only did it off and on for months at a time because I didn't see "enough results." However once I got to college and had access to a gym I was hooked. I found Cathe once I got too busy to make it to the gym during noncrowded hours. I'm 23 now :7 and I'm thankful for the time I get to myself everyday to workout:) (still pretty new to Cathe but I love it so far so good :) )
~Angel
 
Great thread. It's fun reading about everyone's history. :)

I got a gym membership for my birthday when I turned 21. Don't know why--I wasn't overweight, I was very thin but not toned at all--my dad gave it to me. Anyway, I was hooked.

Then when I went away to grad school at age 25 I worked at a gym to cover expenses & I started training w/one of the college's football players. That's when I got into serious weight training. I'm 37 now & never stopped.

I didn't get really serious about my diet until about 3 years ago. When I turned 30 I started gaining weight bit by bit even though my diet (low fat at the time) & exercise routine didn't change. I gained about 30 lbs in 3 years. That's when I jumped on the low carb bandwagon. I lost the 30 lbs & have maintained my weight since.
 
Mine is a long one but I love to tell it...! :)

I started getting chunky in my early teens and gradually gained weight through my junior year of college. I tried different diets here and there and would lose 10 – 20 ponds but later put it back on. I tried different exercise too and did the same. My dad suddenly passed away in my junior year of college. He was a very healthy eater & avid exerciser, and I watched people at his wake look at him in amazement that he was gone at such an early age (51) considering that he led such a healthy lifestyle. I continued to eat badly and put on weight and for no reason at all, I was watching a talk show, got off the couch, grabbed the step from the basement and tried it out w/the Jane Fonda video that it came with. This thing had been gathering dust for years and I finally used it. After that it clicked and I decided that if I was going to torture myself by working out that I should learn more about nutrition and watch my food intake.

I lost 40 pounds using the same video every day and really cutting my fat and food intake (probably a little too much) and it melted off very quickly. I then joined a gym by my mother’s house (about an hour away) figuring that I could add some variety and I will never forget just how AMAZED the trainer was on my intake that I could manage all of the exercise that I could….18 minutes on the stepper, 18 on the treadmill and 18 in the bike. As people walked by, he was just sharing his amazement that “she’s still going…I am shocked.” (Keep I mind here that I am 6 feet tall so that 40 doesn’t really look like 40 on me & spreads out well!). x( That JERK made me motivate to lost that other 40 pounds! So, when I came to Boston for law school, I started a whole new life…new school, next step in the career path and new body. I even made it into a Fitness magazine article for the loss! :)

After about a year here, I started with the Firm Basics and later Cathe. Since that time (about 9 years), I have toned and strengthened a lot more and have lost about 2 sizes (but no weight). Although sometimes I am hard on myself, I am very proud of the changes that I made in my body & the fact that I have a healthier lifestyle. I feel great and I can do anything and well, you ladies know what I mean! ;)

Christine :)
 
I was always a thin girl who could pack away food like nobodys business...but I was never really fit. I knew I could be more fit and lean, and I also knew that if I didn't start excercising at some point my age would play a huge factor and I would start to gain weight.

BUT, what really did the trick was over 10 years ago I was in 2 weddings that were 2 weeks apart. So of course vanity took over and I knew that I wanted to look FABULOUS (as much as I could in a months time). One of the dresses was made of a really thin material that showed every lump, bump, and bulge...and the other dress was tight and strapless...their weddings were 2 weeks apart and I was matron of honor in one of them! Ugh, the idea of walking down the aisle alone AND feeling fat made me get up off my butt and start working out. I went for it, gave up ALL junk COLD TURKEY, worked out like a MANIAC, and in a months time I dropped 1 full dress size...6 to a 4. I felt trimmed, more toned, and fabulous!!!

Ever since then, it's been a part of my life. I cannot ever imagine becoming sedentary again.

Traci
 
This is a great thread - it's so interesting to read about everyone's history. :)

As for me... I was never into exercise or fitness or sports when I was in school. I dreaded PE class. I was not "overweight" but I was overfat for sure. I never really paid much attention to my eating. I just ate whatever.

When I went off to college, there was the university recreational center right across the street from my dorm, and it was free to use... but I only went there a few times. I played around with weight lifting a little bit (using machines, because I thought free weights were only for big muscle-laden men). But nothing really serious.

In my senior year of college, I was feeling flabby (and had gained about 20 pounds during my college career), so I bought some dumbbells and joined this free website that provided daily custom weight-lifting routines. It was a cool website, but unfortunately, no longer exists. So I did some of those routines, but didn't have much clue as to proper form or anything like that. And I wasn't very serious about it. And don't even get me started on my dietary habits... it was Budget Gourmet ALL the time!

After graduating, and getting a nice job, I realized my weight was out of control and I really needed to do something about it. I joined Curves, and started the Slim Fast diet. I lost 26 pounds. SlimFast left me feeling hungry a lot, but it taught me a LOT about counting calories and I did my own research on nutrition and whatnot. So I didn't stick with SlimFast, but it was a springboard to better eating.

Curves got to be really boring, and too easy. So then I quit Curves and joined Lady Wellness, an all-women's gym of the more traditional style - cardio machines, weight machines, aerobics classes, free weights, etc. There, I became more serious about weight lifting - but still only used machines.

After a while, I was finding it difficult to make it to the gym for any reasonable length of time. Their hours were not compatible with my schedule, so it just wasn't working out. About this time, I found the Firm BSS1 set at Target for like $30, and said "What the heck - I'll try it!" And I loved it! Thus began my home-fitness adventure. I did Firm and Kathy Smith for a couple of years... and then, recently, I discovered Cathe. And here I am today! :D
 
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