Fit to Print Volume 24 Issue 3 September 2015 | Page 22

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

by Dolores Falco

Keep On Taking Off
Surviving Summer With Goal Still In Sight
I am not going to lie, it was never easy.
There were plenty of weeks where I
allowed myself to cheat a bit, and I
paid for it. But I always fessed up to my
cheats before my boys ratted me out to
Eileen (they watch me like a hawk). I
weigh in religiously every Monday
morning at 9 am, and there were a
couple of weeks where I gained a
pound and I would be so pissed at
myself. Then all of a sudden I dropped
5 lbs and told myself no more cheating
on my diet. I want this so much. I owe
this to myself, and I am going to hit my
goal.

W

hoever said, “Summertime
and the living is easy,”
obviously was not a mom of
three young boys trying to
maintain and continue to lose weight.
There is nothing easy about weight loss in
the summer. With all the graduations,
showers, weddings and BBQ's, making the
right food choices is very difficult, and
finding time to get your workouts in is
even harder. But somehow I did it and
survived it all. After coming in third for
Most Improved Individual in the Fantastic
Four Fit for Summer competition, I
strengthened my resolve to hit my goal of
100 lbs lost. At the end of the contest, I
still had almost 25 lbs to go to hit my
goal.
School ended, travel baseball began and
running around all day with the boys
replaced my normal schedule, but my
mission was to make it to the gym at
least four days a week. Well, to my
surprise, I was making it there six days a
week. I was already training with Eileen
2x a week, so I increased that to 3x a
week, started taking more classes (those
5 am classes are rough but amazing), and
rebooting my diet.

22

Then, of course, more parties, and my
middle child was sick with breathing
problems all summer. I had to
constantly remind myself not to stress
eat. Not an easy task at all, especially
when dealing with a sick child and just
life in general. I go to parties with my
water bottle in hand and usually a
veggie platter since I don't normally
drink alcohol. No need to accumulate
calories on alcohol. I no longer crave
the “crap food,” but I don't want to
give in to the temptation of eating
chips just for the sake of eating them.
If I am going to cheat, it is so going to
be worth it. I keep raw almonds on
hand for those moments when I need
something to munch on. Not as tasty
as an Oreo, but at least they're healthy
and won't ruin a good day's work.
I am often asked what I am doing to
lose the weight and what is working for
me. I tell them I am here at Fitness
Incentive 5-6 days most weeks and
usually exercise daily for 2 hours and
follow Eileen's Lifestyle Diet Plan. I
swear if it wasn't for training and
working very closely with Eileen, I don't
think I would be close to hitting my
goal. It is funny because I am now to
the point where I ask for heavier
weights, do additional exercises while
waiting for my turn on a machine and
even do more reps than required. I
even request to do things like the TRX
bands or side planks. In the last issue
of Fit to Print, I was saying how Eileen
never let me take the easy way out and
was always pushing me to do more, and
now I do it to myself. Sometimes I
even train three days in a row, because
I am not completely exhausted from
the other tough workouts. Maybe I am
crazy or just really results driven now,
Autumn 2015 FIT to Print

but whatever it is, it is working for me. I
try to get into Mat Pilates as much as
possible, as well as get into the Pushing
Plates class. Spinning isn't my favorite
thing to do, but I am working on it. I
have been in both Eileen's and Toni
Forman's classes – which are great, just
Spin is not my favo rite thing to do. Maybe
once I try the new bikes I'll be able to
make more of an effort to like it.
I have great support from all the
wonderful people I train with. I like to
jump into different groups from time to
time, just to change it up. I have a core
group of inspiring women I train with
weekly who make our workouts with
Eileen entertaining. We can lean on each
other for support and motivate each
other to keep going. I am so lucky to
have them to work out with, and even
luckier to call each of them my friend.
My loving husband and children have been
great through this process as well. My
children ask me all the time if I should be
eating something, then threaten to rat
me out. My youngest likes to go on bike
rides so that we can get in some extra
exercise. My husband has even started to
make healthier food choices and now
starts his day with a protein shake,
instead of a bagel with cream cheese or
nothing at all.
I have hit a couple of plateaus over the
past three months, playing with the same
3 lbs back and forth. One week it is gone
and the next week it is back. So
frustrating, especially since I am working
so hard and eating right. After several
weeks of the see-sawing, I finally had a
great week and dropped 7lbs. Now I only
have 16 more to my goal. I never thought
I would be in the teen numbers to go.
When Eileen weighed me in that morning,
and I was finally in the teens and broke
my plateau, you would have thought I
won the lottery I was so excited. It was
such a huge moment for me. I haven't
seen this weight since before I became
pregnant with my first son 12 years ago.
I am so close to getting to my goal
weight, and the end is in sight, but my
journey is not close to being over. It has
been a long journey, and I have learned
so much about myself. I have always been
a strong person fighting for everyone
else, I just didn't know how to fight for
me. Well, look at me now, fighting for
each pound lost and pushing myself out of
my comfort zone into a healthier,
stronger me. I remember at some point I
was asked to pick a body type goal, find a
celebrity body I would most want and use
that visual to get me to my goal. Of
course, who doesn't want to look like
Jennifer Aniston or Halle Berry or the
Super Model du jour? I understand the
purpose of doing that exercise, to keep
someone motivated. But if you asked me

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