Monday, April 13, 2015

ZINspiration Mondays with Wendy

A few years ago, Wendy's health was suffering and depression set in. Since then, she has become motivated, invested in her health, and started feeling great! Here's her story.

 

When I was at my most unhealthy place, I was obese and miserable. I had my little boy and completely let my health go. I had severe acid reflux, back problems, and depression. What I didn’t realize was that all of my health issues were directly related to being so overweight. My health suffered, my marriage suffered, and I was sitting on the sidelines of our life watching my little boy grow up. I couldn’t play with him like a mother should because I was in too much pain. I felt like I had this beautiful family and I was ruining every picture (literally and metaphorically) by being so overweight.

I finally started taking care of myself and lost sixty pounds by controlling my diet. When I stalled out, I knew I needed to work out but I didn’t want it to feel like work. My church started a Zumba fitness class and I decided I would just give it a try.


I was hooked! My body started toning like crazy and the weight dropped even more. I was able to lose 30 more pounds! After a year, I knew I wanted to teach classes and lead others to healthier, happier lives. I received my license in April of 2014 - I just celebrated my Zumba-versary on April 5th!!!

The hardest thing about getting healthy is simply getting started. I was so miserable and unmotivated at first. Once I saw the weight dropping, it kept me motivated to keep going. You have to take baby steps. You cannot expect to go from an unhealthy life to making perfectly healthy choices in one day. Make one change at a time and build on it. Everything adds up to lots of lasting success! Before you know it, you’re a completely difference person inside and out.

Living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t just change your body. Every part of you is changed. You won’t be the same person you are when you started. I have gone from a size 16 to a size 4 and I have never been happier! My life has changed so much in the past three and a half years. I don’t have the health problems that came with being obese. I can enjoy my family and actually run through the yard with my little boy. Every single part of my life is better because I chose to take control of my health.

My advice for others? Share your story! Share the tough parts, share all of the happy parts. My Zumba Divas support me when I’m struggling. They celebrate my successes with me. My family has been there for me every step of the way. I share my story every chance I get because people are so encouraging along the way. I could not have lost over 90 pounds without people cheering me on.


If you want to follow my story, I blog over at Daily Dose of Del Signore and talk about every day life and how I am losing
weight. I post recipes on Instagram and share what works for me and what doesn’t. I love helping others lose weight and get healthy!


Need more ZINspiration? Check it out here!

3 comments:

  1. Really incredible! It must have been really hard work and you should be super proud of yourself!!

    ReplyDelete