Eryka's Story
How one women overcame a health problem
and took her health to another level.
I’m getting married in two days, and I guess you could say that my wedding was the motivation behind pursuing the best physical fitness I’ve ever had in my life. I’ve struggled with weight since I was in middle school. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs—land of meat and potatoes. Of course I didn’t eat right. I learned bad habits as a kid. Soda was served at every meal and salad was always iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing. Healthy movement wasn’t really role modeled for me. Once in a while my parents went on a walk, but I rarely saw weights, a gym, or sweat. And as a kid I accepted what my parents modeled for me as healthy.
I had this other factor that made weight even harder for me. My sophomore year in high school I was diagnosed with a form of hypothyroidism called Hashimoto’s Disease. Hypothyroidism is a slow or under active thyroid gland (the thyroid is responsible for a majority of your hormones and bodily functions including your metabolism) and Hashimoto’s Disease is an autoimmune disease paired up with hypothyroidism where the immune system attacks itself when the thyroid is malfunctioning. In other words, my body wasn’t making enough hormones and I caught every cold or flu bug that came along. And hormones run the entire body. Before diagnosis, my metabolism was unreasonably slow. I remember never being hungry, being told to eat anyway, and feeling weak and tired all day long every single day. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know how to listen to my body well enough to express the need for help to my parents. I accepted how my body functioned as normal because I didn’t know any better. Thankfully someone in my life spoke up and led us to a doctor. Diagnosis of course was good for me, but it was also in the middle of my high school years and absolutely gut wrenching because at a young age I had to admit that my body was in trouble. At my heaviest, I weighed in as a tenth grader, 4 feet 11 inches tall and 170 pounds. But the upside was I had answers to some of my weight gain and water retention. Two months after I was diagnosed and treated with proper medication I had lost 40 pounds—much of it was water weight.
Thus began my weight awareness. Loosing weight for the first time sparked something in me. The 40 pounds I lost was because of the shock my body went through when it was introduced to my thyroid medication. This translates to the weight didn’t stay off. Over the course of the next ten years, I would yo-yo back and forth between 149 pounds and 125 pounds, at 5 foot, 3 inches tall. At the time I didn’t have a solid reason for why I yo-yoed. I didn’t understand why I gained, or what it took to keep weight off. I didn’t understand “healthy eating” and “healthy living,” the catch phrases that in my mind meant eat some veggies with your mac and cheese. Sometimes I was trying to shed a few pounds and other times I was a hungry college student. Sometimes my weight gain was due to the wide selection available in the college cafeteria buffet and other times it was heartache.
The answers to some of these questions came when I signed up for my first gym membership in college. Having never had fitness modeled for me as a kid, and a great fear of weight machines, I didn’t know where to begin but thankfully the gym I joined gave me a free training session with a trainer for signing up. And I’m not going to lie—it wasn’t instant love. The process took me years to appreciate health and wellness, but that free training session was the catalyst that started my quest towards fitness. I had to learn WHY movement and elevated heart rate was so vital to my life. I slowly began to read books, watch fitness shows, catch infomercials, and try workout videos. I talked with friends who exercised, was fascinated by all the fitness I saw in my new city of Seattle, and I secretly wanted to wear a bikini beyond my bedroom. But I always focused on the movement and never truly realized how important the eating part of health was until just recently when I met Shannon.
All thanks to Shannon and her Bikini Ready series, for me, the key to my success has been the combination of food and exercise. Shannon taught me to eat five meals a day instead of two or three. She explained counting calories is key. And don’t huff at that! As time consuming and annoying as counting is, calorie tracking is vital to success. Because Shannon had me tracking calories, I learned there are a lot more calories in food than I realized! She encouraged me to measure food— not obsessively, but to learn how much 4 ounces of chicken really feels like, and how far two tablespoons of salad dressing will really go. Shannon encouraged me to keep a food journal, again not to be obsessive, but because I wanted to be in the best shape of my life badly enough to commit to it, and a food journal helped me really understand how much snacking I was doing. Looking back, I can honestly say, had I not committed to the food part, I would not have the success I have today.
The exercise part with Shannon was an easier piece of the puzzle to grasp thanks to my prior learning experiences with my gym membership. But it was still no joke. The workouts were hard. They were fun! But they were hard. One small trick I learned was the louder my iPod was, the more sweat I produced. And the results were fast! I saw serious results in the first four weeks, especially in my face and arms. My clothing fit differently. I walked with more confidence. My success truly came because of the variety of movement in the Bikini Ready series and my solid commitment to the workout schedule. This particular workout is serious stuff, and it was a challenge, but the results are absolutely amazing. I feel fantastic. And loved ones say I look fantastic.
The reality of it is, I did not stick to the schedule every single day. I tried to, but it doesn’t always work out. I did cheat on eating about once a week. At one point I did overwork my body and with Shannon’s guidance the solution was three day’s rest. Balancing a demanding work schedule, wedding planning, and attending classes at a university doesn’t leave much time for workouts some days. I definitely had to make choices and priorities. But my goal was fitness and I wanted to look amazing on my wedding day!
Back to my getting married in 48 hours from now. My fitness life has changed forever. But what does reality look like for me beyond this journey? I still eat chocolate. A small Dove bite everyday to curb the craving, and if I still need sweet, an apple packs enough natural sugar to satisfy my sugar tooth. My (future) husband loves pizza. So I will be eating pizza. But I’ve learned control. I’ve learned how to snack appropriately. I’ve taught my body to crave healthy. Meaning I listen to my body much more closely now and I realize I feel different when I eat a cheeseburger than when I eat grilled chicken. I would not have learned these things had I not counted my calories and kept a food journal. I’ve also learned that I feel different if I don’t workout verses when I do and I really like feeling good in my skin. I crave that feeling right after you finish an excruciating set of burpies or your highest speed level of interval training that leaves your heart pounding so hard that you’re sure everyone in the gym can hear it too. I feel strong after working that hard, and blood pumping in my veins that fast motivates me to pursue that feeling next time I visit the gym.
The future holds a lot of things for me. Generally, that includes a daily commitment to fitness and wellness and trying new activities to stay challenged and motivated. Specifically, it may mean I will work toward a half marathon, take up martial arts, or learning how to rock climb, all of which I want to do eventually. My future husband is a huge motivator because he also loves working out, the outdoors, and winter sports. He is very patient with me as I learn some of these newer activities, and he wants to share them with me. We already run together in the mornings and workout at the gym at the same time which is a huge help on the days I’m feeling less motivated. I also want to try other new things like some of the classes that are free at with my gym membership, and I plan on visiting Shannon’s website regularly to get her latest workout to keep my body challenged. But most of all, I plan on taking it one day at a time, enjoying my journey, committing to loving myself for who I am and the shape I am, and starting each day fresh.
Eryka Before:
