Amanda Brown

“You’re fat”, “you could really stand to lose some weight”, “don’t you think you should maybe start exercising”, or my all time favorite “well…at least you have a pretty face”. Throughout my life, these are some of the many comments that I heard. You often wonder how society has become so judgmental to those who are overweight. It used to be that if you were heavier in the hips, men would be extremely attracted to you because you had “child bearing hips” which is what they wanted. I guess for me I learned to be confident in the person I was, rather than what I looked like. Until one day I went in to try on a pair of pants and discovered that I was a size17. I started crying uncontrollably and didn’t know what to do. At the time, I was working at Starbucks and one of my regular customers happened to be this fired up Aussie who was a personal trainer. I had her card in my wallet and I called her immediately. I explained my story trying to talk through my tears and sobs needing her help and her prayers. She told me that for one week I had to stick to a specific food plan which she provided and write down everything that I ate, down to the morsel. Then I would meet with her at the end of that week and we would start my training. When I finished that first week I had shaved off 7 pounds. I was so excited that I could maintain the lifestyle and have her full support all the way through it. Five weeks in to my training, only meeting with her once a week, I had shaved 25 pounds and got down to a size 8. Can you believe it? I went down 9 dress sizes in a matter of 5 weeks and turned my body from something “fat” into something healthy. We all start out completely insecure and wanting to look attractive. When you start training with Jenny, she begins to change the way you look at things and all you want to do is be healthy. I think once I realized that, my journey became so much easier. I am still here nearly 4 years later, maintaining my weight and lifestyle and have accomplished so much. In the summer of 2007 I finished “My First Triathlon” in Harrison Mills and my beautiful trainer was there cheering me on at the finish line with her wonderful husband and 2 gorgeous children. Life is what you make it but sometimes you need support and it makes me smile to know that she still supports me to this very day even though I am no longer training. Thank you my gorgeous Aussie friend.

Amanda Brown