Krista’s Success Story

For as long as I can remember, I have been unhappy with my weight. Throughout my childhood and adolescence, I longed to fit in with my ‘skinny’ friends, and the joy of summer was always undermined by the dread of bathing suit season. Not even the holiday season was exempt from my body image concerns - as early as elementary school, I can recall making weight loss resolutions on New Year’s Eve. Time and time again, I tried (and failed) to lose the weight. The more that I failed, the more that I began to convince myself that I was destined to be fat for life. By high school, I had convinced myself that my genetics would simply not permit my weight loss, and I would remain unhappy with my weight forever.

When the time came to begin university, I was still carrying those extra pounds, as well as a pessimistic attitude about weight loss. After my first year, I returned home to discover that I had gained an alarming 30 pounds. I will never forget the moment that I stepped on that scale. I felt completely overwhelmed and disgusted with myself; disgusted with my physical appearance, and even more disgusted that I had let my health deteriorate to such a considerable degree. At the age of 18, I could not even climb a set of stairs without losing my breath! Although I never wish to re-live that moment, in retrospect, I am thankful for it. It was in that moment that my attitude about weight loss began to shift, and that was just the push that I needed to change my life. I decided that it was time to take my health into my own hands, and I was no longer willing to accept being overweight. At long last, I began my journey towards achieving the body and fitness level that I had always wanted. Over the next four years, I managed to lose almost 40 pounds through various dieting strategies and exercise plans, taking me from 190 pounds to 150. As I progressed through my weight loss, not only did I gain knowledge about nutrition and exercise, I also began to develop a passion for fitness. In the summer of 2006, I decided to turn my newfound passion into a part-time career, and I became a personal trainer. This was the perfect fit for me because it allowed me to share my knowledge with others and help them to achieve their goals, while at the same time working in an environment that supported my new healthy lifestyle.

While losing 40 pounds and becoming a personal trainer were surely great successes, I was no longer content with being ‘average’; I didn’t want to feel self-conscious about my body anymore, and I wanted to feel really good about myself. I wanted to push myself to my limits. So, I decided to set a new goal for myself: 135 pounds. However, losing the last 15 pounds didn’t come easily. After re-evaluating my weight loss goals, it seemed that I couldn’t quite make any new progress. I lost and gained the same five pounds over and over again, always getting within ten pounds of my goal but never any closer. As a personal trainer, I knew that I needed a real challenge in order to see further results, physically. I considered hiring a personal trainer of my own to further motivate me. However, as a student and recent university graduate, I also knew that I could not afford private sessions with a trainer on a regular basis. I was stuck, and struggling to get past this weight loss roadblock. I needed help. I needed Booty Camp Fitness. With Booty Camp Fitness, I would able to workout in a class with a drill instructor twice a week, for a reasonable price! It was just what I was searching for. My only question was whether or not it would be enough of a challenge. After the first class, I knew that this was the challenge my body needed – my muscles were sore, but that meant that they were working, which meant that I was excited! I decided to give this class my all for the full eight weeks. I went to every class (even the ones in the rain), and I also did the at-home workouts on the weekends. I was really enjoying myself. I could feel my body getting stronger, which drove me to push myself even more. As the weeks progressed, the classes evolved and the level of difficulty increased. I was always amazed to find out just how strong I had become when a difficult exercise would be introduced and I could actually do it! My favourite part about the classes, however, was something more unexpected: the class atmosphere. The Booty Camp participants and trainers were so supportive of one another, and it felt great to be within a group of women where being strong was encouraged. We were pushed to complete sets of full body push ups, and to add hand weights to make the workout more intense. It was so refreshing to see women trying to improve their strength, never succumbing to an air of fragility.

I have loved every minute, every squat, and every crunch in these classes. I have sweat through some very tough workouts and, for the first time in my life, made some real progress towards my final goal. I have seen changes in my body that I have never seen before, and I have completed drills that I would never have done on my own. With the support of my coach over the last eight weeks, I have lost over nineteen inches, twelve pounds of body fat, and gained over four pounds of lean muscle! Booty Camp Fitness has helped me feel stronger than I ever have. I am so excited to keep building on what I have already accomplished and to continue living an incredibly active lifestyle.