I am going to launch my blog with the story of why I have been drawn to do personal training after a decade of being a physical therapist and how my own weight loss saga weaves in and out on the picture. GO Training came to be as I fell in love with pushing my own abilities and my professional life followed suit. Let's start with my love for flinging around objects, chasing after them, and add it metabolic whackiness after, shall we? We can end with how being a therapist leads to being a great trainer.
I love to move my body! I also love snacks. And herein lies a lifetime of athletic obesity!
I have been overweight since I can remember. I know the pain of not wanting to swim with anyone else around because of the bathing suit issue, dressing room sadness, and general low self esteem. I have also always been a solid athlete, with some definite moments of success. I have been involved in organized sports since I was 5 years old. I played high school softball, tennis and volleyball and was the captain of every team as a senior, and an All-State softball player. Not a mind blowing athlete, but definitely had a glorious moment or two. And I LOVED it, I love every part of athleticism. The camaraderie, moving your body, seeing yourself get better, uniforms, equipment, cheering, all of it, to this day! I was running last week and cheered on some kids playing basketball! I can't help myself!
Endurance sports started to sneak in right around the high school college transition. I ran my first 5K the summer between high school and starting at Michigan State University. While at MSU, I was on the club level lacrosse and rowing teams, and always worked out via running, and weight lifting but continued to overeat as well. I continued to run and lift throughout graduate school and ran more and more races. As an adult, I continued to do 5 and 10 K's, as well as moving recently into half marathon and most recently a full marathon. I have done a LOT of sprint triathlons as well!
I did...however, receive a diagnosis freshman year of college as being hypothyroid, meaning an underactive thyroid gland. Looking back in high school and college, I would have serious moments of brain fog, lethargy, and symptoms that are indicative of being hypothyroid including mild to moderate depression. But when that is your norm, how would I know I could have been a perkier Pam? I didn't realize I could have been better. I chose, at that time, not to take the medicine (!!!!!!!!!!), because I was 18-19 and didn't want to rely on medication. Way to go Teenage Beth! (Sarcastic Guns in the air salute!) When I was cognitively compromised and felt so dog tired, I would reach for caffeine or food to up my mood. I do not in anyway want to indicate that this alone is responsible for my weight issues, but it certainly didn't help.
But athleticism and not so hot metabolism also do not bode well when mixed with not-so-good eating skills. As a teenager, I unfortunately would slink away and have a romance with ranch dressing and wheat thins after sports practice and new by heart the 5 PM - 7 PM sitcom line up on the average weekday. In high school, college, grad school, and plain old adulthood, I would have bursts of time where I recognized my obesity and I would up my workout regimen and zone in on my diet and be successful BUT never to a healthy weight.
A conversation with a friend a mere 3 years ago, when she asked me when I was going to get on the baby-creating highway led to a bit of a breakthrough. I said I wouldn't even consider it until I was a healthy weight...I also realized I was 33...when did that happen! And 50 pounds overweight...and I hadn't started my business in North Carolina because I had gotten off target and gained 30 pounds instead of losing the 20 I had to go to feel ready to be a personal trainer.
I had a pretty great cry, and then started to pull it together, got on the right thyroid meds, got on a serious exercise regimen, and off it came slow and steady, right up until about 10-15 pounds to go. I hit a wall, and also didn't feel awesome. As much care and attention as I put into my diet and exercise, I got sick often, and had a hard time recovering between workouts.
I was getting frustrated! I wanted to fell vibrant. In addition, despite my Thy Thy (that's my pet name for my thyroid gland) T 3 level being well within normal, I felt crappy...frequently. Sinus boogs galore, puffy sometimes, Cromagnum scary PMS, and more and more frequent illness. These things would interfere with my health groove, and as my marathon training ramped up last year, the worse I felt. More fatigue, more boogs of the nose, and kinda stuck on the scale. When I got stuck, my tracking of calories also stopped, and became sporadic. I began to feel just a bit sorry for myself. Wah-wahhhhh.
I have to admit, ironically as I started my business, and had some other life transitions my diet tracking did waned a bit more, then stopped. The essential habit I preach went out the door. Whoopsie.
I decided to try out an integrative doctor. An M.D.who just looks at your labs and symptoms does it differently. It was a major decision. BEFORE you even start with this doc, you go to a introductory session to make sure your up for the changes. Luckily both my hubby and I signed on so we could make changes as a family.
We did a month of eliminating things from our diet (easy to do without a doctor), two weeks without dairy, sugar, wheat, and corn and the boogs are almost gone! Then you reintroduce the stuff to see how you feel. But the depression and fatigue and lethargy... still in town. And when I say this, I need to say, I am a pretty perky gal. I wake up and get excited and generate a lot of gusto MOST of the time. I don't let the soggy feelings mess up my groove, but sometimes I would feel as if I was walking in cement to maintain this energy level.
After saliva, blood tests, taste tests and a rigorous physical exam, it turns out I have Hashimoto's disease. This is an autoimmune disorder. Essentially, something either a gene defect or a food sensitivity or an illness sets off an inflammatory response and your antibodies kick your own bodies butt. In my case, and many other females (more so than males, the ladies get to have this adventure) the thyroid gets picked on and the thyroid is a powerful hormone responsible for lots and lots of metabolic stuff. SO not JUST hypothyroid, but autoimmune business. OK now what? The doc gave me a lot of supportive pharmaceutical grade supplements to increase my very low vitamin A and D, and introduced fish oil and some other nuggets of health. I feel much better.
Another common finding in Hashi-land a gluten sensitivity. Gluten stirs up inflammation and the body responds by attacking tissue, and the thyroid takes it for the team. I have all kinds of antibodies all stirred up so my doc advised me to eliminate all the common bad guy allergy stuff, sugar, corn, anything GMO'd up, gluten, dairy, and peanuts too.
Let me tell you, I have no signs of GI dysfunction or rumbles at the tummy junction when eating these foods! Totally tasty and fine but fire develops on the inside! I DO have mild joint pain BUT I push my body frequently so I kinda started to think it was normal.
That sounds like a lot to give up, and I did have a moment where I had to emotionally pour one out for cheese, especially you feta (blowing you a kiss, you little stinker!). But I will gladly exchange these things for health, no question. I also felt a little sad knowing that with stronger self esteem, mental strength, emotional strength and metabolism I may not have had as much pain in my life and may have been a stronger athlete and student. However, I think those emotional log rides have fine tuned my empathy and communication and make me a better physical therapist, and a better personal trainer.
I share this story for those who have brain fog, and difficulty with workout recovery and just not feeling fantastic. I am fully responsible for the majority of the lack of weight loss this year and especially weight gain, because even with all the metabloic madness I lost consistently when tracking. I am pretty sure my metabolism is slower than average, but should be humming along pretty close to normal now. And even while I am excited to get my metabolism up, to not feel cold allllllll the time, and have a less puffy face, and no more hair loss (All related to underactive thyroid gland)! Woot!
Lastly, why did I chose to pursue personal training? I love physical therapy. However, SO MANY would patients come in to the hospital or clinic, get better YET they could do so much more. AND there shoulder issue would be resolved but the individual would be so far from healthy. I would start to see an athlete blossom, and our time was up. Granted...a huge, HUGE part of physical therapy is educating individuals so they can keep it up on their own, but often they would not. And often a shoulder issue, is linked to a thoracic spine and/or hip issue/ and or ankle issue.. And unwinding these relationships, and correcting the whole body is key.
I want to bring out the athlete is every person. I currently have clients who have severe arthritis or cardiac issues, and some who are issue free. Whatever their medical history, I feel my medical background and ability to see safe and unsafe positions sets people up to progress and stay healthy for their lifetime. I have a passion to find a rigorous challenging routine that is novel and interesting and fun for every one of my clients. I want people to get to the end of a workout challenged and successful. I also am a running coach and have couch to 5k programs as well as one on one running plans.
I also love being my own boss and being in charge of the flavor and attitude of my business without the not-so-fun parts of health care.
Hence, GO Training came to be, I love being an in home and online personal trainer. In the next year, I hope to grow my online training and have videos available for streaming! And fully rock an allergen free diet, and resume a proactive tracking habit and kick these last 15-20 pounds! 2013, if you know what I mean!
