Category Archives: Spotlight

The Return of an Athlete

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Hello…I am Nathan:

In 2009 I lost everything I had worked for.  I was not allowed to play football anymore because of my multiple serious concussions. I had given up my previous summers since 8th grade training as hard as I possibly could, hoping to secure a college scholarship.  After the injury I had an attitude that there was no point in working out anymore because I was no longer able to compete…health was pointless.  I spent a good three years putting in some serious hours on video games and junk food.  In this time, I managed to more than double my body fat percentage and let my weight lifting ability plummet to below my freshman year numbers.  At the beginning of this summer, I saw a picture of my old body from when I used to play football and I finally snapped.  I made a resolution to not only get back to my old self but improve even more.  The next thing I did was have my best friend join the gym with me so I had somebody to keep me accountable.  What happened was a rude awakening!  I started lifting weights but was embarrassed by the amount of strength I had lost. I also had a body scan and realized I needed help with cardio too.  For the next month I forced myself to lift weights five times a week and do a cardio workout six times a week.  By the end of the summer, all my weights were at personal bests and my body fat was cut down to help me feel confident again.

I want my testimony to encourage you to know that no matter how bad you think your health is, you have to start somewhere. Although it may not be pretty, it’s only embarrassing if you doing nothing about it.  I encourage everyone to get the body that makes them healthy and confident. If you want it, you can have it! Having a workout partner only helps you get better results!
My name is Nate Johnson and I am still continuing to improve.  I hope I see you at the gym!

Love Your Body Again

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Hello…I am Jacel:
I had always been very active as a kid and as an adult.  I was involved in sports and loved being on the go.   In my twenties, I was a member at different fitness centers and enjoyed heavy lifting.  Feeling strong made me feel alive!  Food has always been a big part of my life too.  I enjoyed feeding my friends and feeding my face!   I never really worried about my weight.  I could pretty much eat what I wanted and I really never gave it a second thought. I was just always moving and very busy.  In my experience, life has a way of shaking things upside down.  Sometimes it seems impossible to overcome obstacles.  I had no idea what the future had in store for me, but I’ll tell you this, I wouldn’t change a thing.

 

In 2005 I was married, turned 30 and became pregnant all in the same month!!  Having two kids in three years was really hard on my body and my emotions.  I gained 80 pounds with my first child and 70 pounds with my second.  Within three years I had reached 250 pounds.  I was embarrassed, unhealthy, depressed, unmotivated and very, very unhappy.  I was squeezing myself into a size 17 and so very uncomfortable.  I had lost a few pounds here and there, but never really got to the point where I was proud of myself.  It’s really hard to try to take care of everyone else without first taking care of yourself!   I moved from the city up to the mountains where I eventually isolated myself  and had pretty much given up.  I felt tired all the time,  my back was constantly screaming,  my feet hurt and I was beginning to develop preventable medical conditions.   I needed change, I craved it, but felt like it was so far out of reach.  I couldn’t believe I was in this body.  It’s hard to feel a little like “you” on the inside when “you” don’t look anything like “you”on the outside.

 

In February, 2011 my most beloved childhood friend was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.  Through her journey, she discussed with me the option of  a more holistic approach.  She asked me to look into alternative medicine.  I did a ton of research.  I gathered facts and also found an institution that was having a 92% recovery rate from all stages of cancers and all types of diseases simply by juicing and eating a variety of raw fruits and vegetables.  Months of research, knowledge in hand, facts over fiction I was ready to fight the fight.   Sadly,  in June 2012, my dear friend lost her fight with cancer before she could even open my package.  I was devastated and heart-broken.  Here I was,  armed with knowledge and I didn’t know what to do with it.  My life really felt more hopeless than I’d ever imagined.   I look back now and wonder why in the world I didn’t see the answer to what I needed most.  I needed to recover.  I needed to heal my body from the inside.

 

My family moved to Battle Ground about 6 months ago.  I had recently lost some weight and was feeling better about myself.  I was excited about getting free newspapers and magazines in my mail box.  My family was discovering our neighborhood and what was around us.  I came across a coupon for Resolution Fitness and decided to check it out, no more isolation, besides everything was so close we could walk!  I slowly started dragging myself to the gym a couple of times a week.  I was finally coming out of my shell.   It was hard and I hated it, but everyone was so nice and the classes are challenging and fun!  Recently, I started recalling all that I had learned about internal healing and food and decided to put my own research towards a 30 day challenge for myself.  I started juicing and eating one solid, protein packed meal a day.  Thirty days later I’m 22 pounds lighter, for a total of 57 pounds since January!  Juicing was challenging at first but soon I was sleeping better, waking up early, feeling completely rested and my energy was through the roof!  I also began going to the gym 4-5 days a week and working out at home with my kids.  I forgot just how exciting it is to feel strong!  I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me but I’m up to the challenge and making sure to stay out of my comfort zone.  I’m pleased to say I recently purchased a pair of size 10 jeans!!  I’m now healthy, happy, motivated and more comfortable than I’ve been in a long time.  I’m continuing to notice changes in my body through this journey and am beginning to think maybe all of that research was intended for me.  Love your body and yourself again…it is possible and you’re worth it!

 

Thanks for reading my story.  LIVE STRONG.

Heathly and Happy

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Hello…I am Danielle:

I just turned 35 years this June. My “getting healthy and losing weight battle” began in 2009 when I was fired from a desk job I HATED. I gained lots of weight at this job…70 lbs to be exact. I decided for me and my son I was changing our habits. I was so motivated that I started improving my diet and walking at least 20 minutes with my son around our neighborhood the very next day. It was HARD at first. I weighed too much for my height and my knees were not happy with me. I had to break down and buy a really good knee brace to even walk our block. I felt this was ridiculous and was determined to get around with out the brace sooner or later. After the first couple weeks, I felt better. I started dropping a few pounds, and my son was feeling and sleeping better too. Every time I lost a few pounds, I got excited and walked more, harder or further to build my endurance up. I then started to have my son ride his bike so I could speed walk.

Soon, I had dropped 30 pounds. I was walking with my son during the day and then took extra time at night to go on another walk by myself. After almost a year, I took my knee brace off and I could manage with out it. About this time, I received a gym flyer in my mail box. I felt by dropping some weight and feeling stronger I would be able to handle going to a gym. I never would never have considered this before. I joined Total Fitness and worked out for a year at this gym. I loved it because it was not a meat market and I was very comfortable there. I then dropped another 20 pounds in a year just going every night to work out for about 50 minutes. I tell you one thing, you NEVER get tired of seeing people and hearing “Oh my god, you look great! What have you been doing?”

Total Fitness became Resolution Fitness when Shane and Angie bought the gym. One day I introduced myself to Angie and told her my story and that I wanted to work at the gym. I like working at Resolution Fitness. The atmosphere is calm, the people are very friendly and the owners are always there to welcome you with a smile. I love sharing commonality with the members. After all, we are all here for one reason…to be healthy.

You can be a stronger, healthier, happier you if you just take a little time out of everyday to take care of yourself. You can not take care of anyone else if you are not taking care of yourself.

If you can get yourself to a healthy place, you will then have freedom to live every day happy and feeling good! I think getting yourself healthier is one of the easiest things you can do. STAY HEALTHY, STAY HAPPY! Come work out at my gym! Resolution Fitness can be your Resolution to a healthy happy life!

Gamer Turned Athlete

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Hello…I am Zach German:
In 1996, the Gameboy Pocket was invented and released to kids around the world. I was one of those kids. The Gameboy changed my life in a way that I did not realize until much later in life. Instead of spending my free time as a kid running around outside and swinging from tree branch to tree branch, I spent my time inside playing video games. Over the years I started to get chubbier and chubbier until I realized that if I stood up straight and tilted my head forward to try to see my toes, I could not find them. After having a much-needed paradigm shift, I joined my schools cross-country team and soccer team my sophomore year of high school and slimmed down considerably…but I still had quite a bit of extra pounds attached to my body. However, I was fine with this because I knew that “one day” I would be in great shape.

A year and a half after graduating high school, I realized that “one day” was never going to be reached if I kept on putting it off, so I decided to work really hard and get the body that I always wanted by eating only what my body needed and keeping a rigorous workout schedule. I have come a long way from where I was but, I still have a way to go before I have the body I have always wished I had. Right now I am still eating healthy and get plenty of wights and cardio sessions in at the gym but, to keep myself motivated, I have decided to train to run a Spartan sprint at Washougal in the middle of June. I am on the search for a ‘get shredded’ competition, or something similar, to participate in as well. I hope that my testimony can be an encouragement to my fellow gym members and I look forward to seeing each of you in the days to come!

Mom on a Mission

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Hello…I am Karen:
What is so amazing to me is that this entire journey to health started after I saw a photo that Shane took of me years ago. It was at that moment I realized I couldn’t live in that body any longer! Then Angie came bee bopping down here after doing her first few weeks on the Take Shape for Life program looking fabulous! I was even more motivated to say the least. After a very long and inspirational e-mail from Angie, I also started following her lead and the rest is history.

One of the things that helped me even get started was hearing her story. She shared with me how she started out just like I was then….uncomfortable and too embarrassed to even work out for fear of being the biggest girl in the gym. I saw results very quickly. My husband and I quickly realized we wanted to take the next step. That’s when we joined the gym and started working out. We decided we needed to both be healthy not only for ourselves but to live a long long time for our children and their children. We set a goal together to lose at least 20 pounds and lower our cholesterol before we went through our life insurance exams. It felt soo great to realize we reached our mark!

My next benchmark came when Deb at Total Fitness talked me into a weight loss challenge which helped me drop another 20. Since then I have done a combination of all the nutrition and exercise advise I gained to bring me to my current weight of 128. That’s over 60 pounds lighter than the picture you see below! I still look back and can’t believe how unhealthy I had let myself become.

I never thought I would be able to call myself a runner. My thirteen year old daughter and I ran our first 5K in September. I never would have had the courage to do that three years ago when I started this journey. My goal now is to train for a half marathon after Bekah and I run the Shamrock in March…so excited! It will be my 40th birthday and could not think of a more amazing way to spend this special day than with my daughter celebrating and living life to the fullest.

I feel so close to God out there running and I know without His wind to get me through all of this, I would have not made it this far. I hope if anything someone is inspired to make some changes no matter where they are in their life right now. I encourage you to make that healthy goal a healthy lifestyle. See you at the gym!