Pittsburgh

Member Since November 2008

My Story
I was flipping through some photos of a trip I had taken to visit a friend in California and I came across one that knocked the breath out of me. It was me, posing at a spot that I was so excited to visit, but I didn't even recognize myself! I was so much more overweight that I had ever imagined. Staring at that picture, I had such a huge collection of emotions wash over me: disgust, disappointment, sadness, regret (did I really need to eat that slice of cake after dinner?), dissatisfaction, and frustration, just to name a few. But among those negative feelings, there was a TINY spark of something positive; I felt motivation. A few days later, I visited my local Curves and began my journey to erase all those negative feelings I had about myself. My mom had been a member a few years ago, and she had great results, so I knew that I could do it.

Before my first workout, surprisingly, I was nervous! Will I look silly on the machines? Will I hurt myself? Will the other members talk about me to each other because I was the new girl with no self esteem and no clue? It was grade school all over again. I almost feel silly about those feelings now. The staff and other members were so welcoming from the moment I first stepped in the door to join and they have been just as fantastic, if not more, ever since.

As I work out, there are all sorts of motivational comments and phrases posted around the gym to keep you coming and working your butt of (literally!), but thats not what keeps me coming back each time. Im a Curves Smart member, so I have this tiny little tag that I call my personal trainer. It doesnt yell at me to keep going, it doesnt tell me just one more! And it doesnt tell me to feel the burn! All that my little personal trainer does is blink orange and green on every machine to tell me if Im working out to the best of my ability. I really cant let my personal trainer down, so I Go for green on each and every machine! And at the end of my workout, the thing I look forward to the most, it tells me how many calories I burned in just 30 minutes. Being the competitive person that I am, my motivation is to burn more than I did on my previous workout. I average about 800 calories a session, however, during one Herculean workout, I burned 1,018, my personal (and from what the staff tells me, a club) best! So everyday I work to hit that mark, and I truly do see a difference. And not just in my body, but also in how I feel about myself.

My Photos