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TOTAL BODY WORLD
Work Out - Feel Good!
Dixie's Story:
I am Dixie Stephens. I am 68 years old/young. I am Rich’s mom and watch his younger kids before and after school. Most of my adult life I have bounced from several years of normal weight to being heavy. The first two times I lost significant weight it was a result of stress.
In my mid 50's I was at least 40 pounds over-weight. That is fairly significant for my 5 foot 3 inch frame. I chose to go on a low fat diet and with minimal exercise lost about 30 pounds. Fast foods and I were good friends so I steadily put it back on and then some. In June 2008, I realized that I no longer had the energy to play with my then 3 and 5 year old grandkids. Also I was short of breath anytime I had to walk across a parking lot. I knew that I had a choice to make: I could do nothing and be a fat old lady in size 1X clothes or I could do something about it thru exercise and diet.
Once again I chose the low fat diet. I bought a treadmill. I started tracking and recording my weight, fat gram intake, and amount of exercise daily. My starting weight was 192 pounds. My initial arbitrary goal was to lose 30 pounds. After looking up the recommended BMI (body mass index) for a female my age I reset my goal weight to 135 pounds.
When I first started on the treadmill, I thought I was running at a speed of 2.8 mph. After I got comfortable doing 20 minutes at that speed, Rich challenged me to add 10 minutes. In the spring of 2009, I started walking outside with Rich’s dog. Initially the dog pulled me so that I walked even faster. Now it looks like I am pulling the dog by the time we finish a 3 mile walk. I now average better than 4 mph on the treadmill for 45 minutes. In January 2010, I joined Anytime Fitness so that I would be able to workout with weights and use the treadmill while the grandkids are in school.
I met my goal weight June 1, 2009 and am now 132 pounds. That is a 31% weight loss. I have now maintained for almost a full year. To push myself a little farther, I decided to give myself a 68th birthday present of a 5K run. March 27th I completed the Thin Blue Line 5K in Stillwater in 30 mph winds in about 49 minutes. Rich jogged with me for support. I came in second in my age group for women. (Of course there were only two of us in the 65 to 90 female group! There are some advantages to being older. LOL).
The real success of my story is that I am now able to run and play with my grandkids.
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