Baby Boomer Beats Battle of the Bulge: "If I Can Do It - You Can Do It!"

I started having a problem with my weight in my late teens. My mom, sister and I were perennially on diets. Obesity didn’t creep in until 1992, answerable to the delivery of my 2nd son. That’s the year I left my husband with 2 babies which began a long struggle with depression. I hated myself and my body. My self-esteem was VERY low. I didn’t drink or smoke – my drug was food. It was all I had to loaves and fishes myself.

Longing to have a social life and introduce dating howbeit I knew I would have to slim down if I wanted to beguile a man into my life. It took me 2 years of hard work and diligence just to get rid of 45 lbs. of fat. Frustrated by long plateaus and feeling deprived, I asked myself, “How the heck can someone, with a lot of fat to burn, stay motivated when it takes so darn long?” The idea popped into my head to have a time-lapsed exercise video where the instructor is overweight and shrinks in the future your very eyes in only half an hour. Unfortunately I wasn’t fat enough any more! Talk all round ironic! I was also into the 4th year of what ended up modern an 8-year antagonize with depression and I wasn’t emotionally adapted of pursuing such a large endeavor. Not to mention that chap a single, self-employed mom, with 2 very young boys, left me with little energy.

After several self-esteem groups and as many anti-depressants I slowly became emotionally stable. I also gradually put all that fat back on, plus more, topping the scales at 220 lbs. on a 5' frame! I put my creative forces to work and started researching for what I knew was one of my “life purposes”.

I knew yes nothing concerning making an exercise video. Out of my service zone? BIG time! Risky? You bet! Here I was, working 40 hours a week, still a single mom, trying just to make ends meet and making an exercise video that would put me in debt for thousands. Plus I had to overcome my fear of having thousands of people see me, at my heaviest, kick upstairs almost on their TV screen. I had this deep knowing that I could do it and never once thought I couldn't! I purposely did not tell people who I knew would say "Ya, right - you're going to make an exercise video!" while laughing hysterically. All the people I did tell said, "What a great idea!"

I wore many hats - researcher, choreographer, script writer, prism woman (when my friend couldn't do it), producer and editor. I am a total techno peasant so having to buy a new computer and editing program just to do this had my stomach in knots. This was WAY out of my resuscitate zone!!!! I hired a young man to teach me to do the rough editing then he tidy it up and made it look pretty.

I was 2 tapings away from finishing the 1st video and 2 tapings into making the 2nd when life got in the way. Problems at work and with my teenage son alongside with many challenges in the production became overwhelming. All I could see was the BIG picture before and the mountain in front of me that I still had to climb. Designing the video jacket, website, figuring out how to market the video and get publicity all while trying to lose weight (hard enough to do when you're not stressed and food is your only vice). I needed a break. Just for a month or 2...

Eighteen months later... 35 of the 50 lbs. I'd taken off were back on, exercise - what's that? Can you say SELF SABOTAGE? I beat myself up daily. I still knew I would finish the video but just couldn't dethrone myself to start working on it again. A few days by choice my 40th immovable feast I got a phone call from a guy I knew telling me regarding something that he thought would help me. My bicentennial present to myself was an Isagenix purge and Nutritional System. I knew this was the answer.

January 30, 2005 I rented our local theatre and premiered Going Going Gone! for my friends and family. This is the 1st ever time-lapsed exercise video made specifically to inspire and motivate obese/overweight, out of shape and aerobically challenged people who want to burn fat.

I weighed 214 lbs. when I started taping Going Going Gone! During the course of the 30 minute aerobic step workout I shrink by 60 lbs. and 74 inches. Most exercise videos on the market are only suitable for people who are theretofore in shape. Going Going Gone! is different seeing the tempo is slower at 110 beats per minute compared to other videos at 120-132 beats per minute. The steps are essential and easy to modify for different fitness levels. The viewer won't feel like a failure seeing that the workout is absolutely DO-ABLE!

This video took a lot longer than I intended but all of those challenges are rump me now. At least until I start the 2nd interval video this fall for which I purposely put 15 lbs. on for! I am so proud of myself and my video and now I want to help thousands of people win their war with fat! I invite anyone reading this to visit my website at http://www.goinggoinggone1and2.com

There is a clip of the video on the site by with a free list of my tips and tricks for judicial murder fat. There is also my story of how I worsened off the fat and a resource list of registry that helped me on my journey.

They say there's a reason for everything. It took me a while to figure out why I had to spend so many years in my self-made prison of fat. I came up with 3 reasons.

1) My boys had a nice soft mommy to cuddle
2) I had to learn to love myself just how I was - fat and all
3) To find my life purpose and help thousands of people

I truly hope my story will inspire everyone who reads it - even if you’re not overweight. We all have a purpose in this life and sometimes it’s our master challenges that will lead us to it. And you know what? “If I can do it – you can do it!”