Mary's Story

Mary Chisholm is a member of In Shape Sport: Quail Lakes in Stockton, CA. She lost a total 0f 12.1% body fat as a Biggest Winner 2011 finalist. This is her story:

My family has always had a weight problem, of the women I was the smallest not saying much when   my weight is in the 180s or more. Still when I joined the In Shape gym in November 2010  I didn’t join with any plans of losing weight, a friend had joined and told me they had fun classes, I just wanted to get out and do something different, the social aspect of the classes. I had come to accept that as I got older that it was just not worth fighting my weight any more. I have enjoyed taking many different classes and they have been really great and still are.

In January I saw the sign for the Biggest Winner contest, I thought that might be a good thing to do. I know I would start eating better if someone was going to be weighing me and testing my body fat. So I just out of the blue decided to join the contest and start working with a trainer. I am so happy I did!   Lance Pimentel had been teaching the senior stretch classes, one that I had been taking. I liked how he worked with the people in that class so I asked him to be my trainer. I am so happy I did!

I started out weighing 183.5 my body fat was 40% yikes!  I made small goals with larger ones for the future. At first my biggest goal was just to be less than 150 pounds by my fiftieth birthday (in August). I have not been under that weight for many, many years. Lance was very clear on how I should eat, it made it easy to make good choices plus I never felt hungry because I was eating all the time! I work out with Lance three days a week, it did not take long for him to access how to help me, how much he could push me, and what my strengths were. He told me that I should do thirty minutes of cardio after my workout with him so I did.    I was amazed at how well I was doing. I have dieted all my adult life you name it I tried it. Nothing NOTHING has worked as well as this. I have never felt better. There are few things better when you are losing weight to dig out those cute clothes (skinny jeans) that are in the back of the closet because you were too fat to fit into them anymore to see if they might fit, well I had quite a surprise because when I tried them on most of them were too BIG! Pants I had not worn in years too big way too big. Yippee! Lance has a way of making me want to do well, not in your face, but encouraging. I can’t believe the stuff  I am capable of doing, once when I was jokingly complaining that I was too old to do  whatever he was asking of me he said ‘I wouldn’t put you thru it if I didn’t think you could do it’ . That was good enough for me, if Lance thought I could then I could! I have never been the type of person that likes to exercise, but I do look forward to going to my sessions with Lance, well.. look forward to the end of my session with Lance. Mostly I just love how my body is reacting to my new life style.

As I reached my little goals quickly I began to set bigger long term goals, and as of writing this I am already under that 150 pounds. So I’m thinking maybe 50 pounds by age 50 or maybe even wearing a size 5 by then. Who knows, I feel limitless now. Oh yea that contest that got me started I took third place with a 12.1% fat loss!!!! Thank you!