Fit to Print Volume 24 Issue 2 June 2015 | Page 22

M e m b e r Pe r s p e c t i v e

by Dolores Falco

Breaking Through
Determination, a Great Trainer & The Contest
lbs.
Dolores now...

Funny thing is, I thought I still looked
pretty good, especially considering
everything we had gone thru for the
past 7 years. My husband didn’t seem
too concerned with how much weight I
had gained. He knew that I was fighting
for our son’s life and that was my
priority.
After years of fighting for my son, he
was finally healthy, and I no longer
knew what to do with myself. I felt lost
and became depressed. I

Friends who haven’t seen
me in a while cry when they
realize how big I was and
how much I lost.

I

was always pretty
And then...
thin, not necessarily
fit, but healthy
enough. Never concerned
about my weight, it always came off,
never had to really exercise or diet. It
was very natural for me to be thin. After
getting married and having back to back
to back pregnancies and not ever losing
the weight in between, I started packing
on the pounds.
Never thought I would become
overweight, definitely not morbidly obese
- I am a mom to 3 young boys, who keep
me on my toes, running around all the
time, losing weight should be easy, but it
wasn’t. My middle child was very sick,
born with 2 extremely rare birth defects
—one of his airway and the other of his
immune system—that took until he was 7
years of age to get under control. All my
time and energy went into keeping him
alive and healthy. We lived in and out of
hospitals, fought with Doctors and
insurance companies, all to get him what
he needed. I was always eating unhealthy
food and being very sedentary, not being
concerned with my own health, just the
health and well-being of my son. After
two open heart chest reconstructions and
getting his immune system under control,
we were finally able to get him healthy.
In the meantime, I had packed on 100

22

continued to eat unhealthy and
be sedentary because that is
what I had done for the past 7
years. I started trying to get my
son’s story out there, but no one
responded. Until one day someone
wanted to know more, not about him,
but about me.
In September 2013, I had appeared on
the Dr. Oz show for yelling too much at
my kids (tried to go on about my son
and what he had gone through). They
made me go for a physical and do all
sorts of medical tests for the show.
According to my blood tests, I was
pretty healthy, so I figured I was good.
It wasn’t until they told me they may
put my weight on national television,
that it hit me. Thank God they didn’t
put my weight out there for the world
to see—they would have elevated my
heart rate from yelling! I was shocked
to find out I weighed 260 lbs. How did
this happen? I never had a weight
problem before. I didn’t think I looked
that big, but the reality started setting
in.
Right after my appearance, I started
walking around the park for 2hrs 5 days
a week and increased my water intake.
Cut out all sugary drinks and started
losing weight. I rapidly lost 25lbs, but
Summer 2015 FIT to Print

then plateaued there for a long time. I
had seen a difference in my clothes, but
not enough. I was still shopping in the
plus-size stores, and wasn’t happy about
it at all. I vowed to myself I would get to
my goal and not have to be in the plus
size stores anymore.

In July of 2014, I joined Fitness Incentive,
after a good friend had told me about her
gym and how great a gym it was. I was
impressed with the gym immediately. I
started slow, joining a class here or
there, doing the circuit and cardio, a
couple of days a week. I lost a pound
here or there, not really seeing results.
But I was still there as much as possible. I
wouldn’t allow myself to gain any of the
weight back.
One day while on the treadmill, I saw an
ad for the “Battle of the Bulge – Fall
Off”, and immediately thought I should
do this. I signed up the next day.
October 2014 everything about my
weight-loss journey changed. As soon as I
met Eileen, I knew I could do this I had real goals, a plan to follow
and the support I needed. Of
course I had the love and support
of my husband and family, but I
needed it at the gym as well. I
don’t think I was ready for what I
had entered into, but what a
difference working with Eileen had
made. In the first contest, I lost 24
lbs in 8 weeks. I finally had broken
the plateau. It took a lot of hard
work and changing my lifestyle to get me
to do that. But wow, I finally saw a huge
difference in the way my body looked
and how I felt. I then immediately
entered her next contest for the
holidays. That was hard to do, not to
indulge over the holidays but I did it. I
lost another 6 lbs from Thanksgiving to
New Years. I was amazed. People were
constantly telling me how great I looked,
but I knew I still had a long way to go. My
husband was amazed with the amount of
energy I had gained and how good I
looked. I then immediately joined her
next contest, but unfortunately I was
continually sick with sinus infections and
bronchitis. I didn’t let it get me down,
but it made it very difficult for me to lose
any weight. I was now stuck at a plateau
for 3 months. I was perplexed as to how
to beat this plateau.
I was doing all the workouts, taking all
the classes, doing whatever I could, but
the plateau wouldn’t break. I was down a
total of 60lbs by January, but by March, I
was still stuck. I talked with Eileen about
the “Big” contest, not sure if I should do
it – what if my kids get sick, what if I

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