Laura lost 85 pounds and kept it off by changing her lifestyle. Jul/2009
Laura calls herself a gym rat. The 46-year-old mother of three girls lost 85 pounds over six years. How? The good old-fashioned way-self discipline, the right food choices and exercise. Today, she uses kickboxing at TITLE Boxing Club to keep her body fit and tone.
"When I reached 40 I was the heaviest I've ever been at 230 pounds," explains Laura. "An infomercial got me started-some sort of powder that helped me lose some weight. Then I started reading books on diet so I started eating healthier and walking and I lost 60 pounds."
Laura had some ups and downs over the years, resulting in some weight gain. But that all ended when her husband suggested they join a gym together in August 2006. She was hooked, loosing as much as 150 pounds at one point by exercising six times a week: two times at home, two times at a local fitness facility and two times at TITLE Boxing Club.
"I took my daughter to a Kelsey Smith self-defense class in March 2008. My daughter knew Kelsey's boyfriend so that tragedy hit close to home for my family. I wanted her to be able to defend herself while helping Kelsey's Army," says Laura. "Something told me to join so I went back a week or two later."
Kickboxing is Laura's preferred POWER HOUR class. She hits it hard in Ryan's fitness class every Friday and Sunday. According to Laura, Ryan not only keeps her in shape, he teaches her technique and moves she can use in the event she's ever attacked. And she gets to leave her stress on the mat after beating up the heavy bag.
Not only has Laura shed unwanted pounds, she's gained her self confidence back, and she's reached goals.
"I wanted to do the bench press in the 2008 Kansas City Corporate Challenge event, it's the first goal I ever set," she says. "I had a month and a half to train and I did pretty good, placing eighth out of 18. It wasn't so much how I placed that mattered to me. It was that I lifted the weight I wanted-115 pounds! It's liberating to reach a goal like that."
Laura will tell you all about her successes. If you see Laura in the club, ask her about her photos. She is proud of her accomplishments and is eager to share her story by showing you just how far she's come in photos. She is literally half her size. Not from lap band surgery or programs like Slim For Life-by changing her lifestyle, including healthy eating habits and working out regularly.
She concludes, "I'm 140 pounds now and I have a lot less fat and a lot more muscle. I have a two-pack thanks to workouts that include kickboxing at TITLE Boxing Club. I finally lost enough body fat to see it. Everyone has those abdominal muscles; they just have to burn the fat to see it. All the crunches in the world won't give you a pack without losing the body fat."
