My Fitness Journey: Lea Hartman

I feel like I could write a book on my fitness journey because like most bad habits, it developed over a lifetime. I’ll just cover a few false lessons I learned that I think directly contributed to the condition of poor health I found myself in when I first walked into Farr Fitness. It’s still likely to be long winded, but trust me, this is my condensed version!

I was a skinny kid growing up but my genes did dictate my shape and I got teased often for my rear end. In the 90’s when the ultra thin waif was the ideal, my J-Lo shape was a constant source of torment to me. My own family teased me most of all. “Bubble butt,” and “birthing hips,” were just a few of the common comments I received on a regular basis. By the time I was 17, I was struggling with having a healthy view of food. That summer, I dabbled in modeling and landed a gig for a major national women’s magazine. When the team came from New York to style the shoot, I found myself standing in a room with two of the magazine’s editors as they selected my wardrobe and commented negatively on my body. I’m 5’10” and I weighed less than 130 lbs. but my hips were too big. A few months later, my family moved away and the isolation of my new home was the final push toward developing an eating disorder. I became anorexic. I never ate unless other people were with me and I couldn’t avoid it. Sometimes, I’d go days without food. I blacked out often. My family never really ate meals together so it was easy to hide. I got down to 112 lbs. At the time, I was proud of that. 
FALSE LESSON I LEARNED: To lose weight, you need to stop eating.

There was a guy from my church that was interested in me. We only really hung out in groups. I’d never had a boyfriend before and I was very cautious. I wasn’t in high school anymore so relationships carried more weight. Though I wasn’t sure where this was going (we weren’t a couple), I still wanted to impress him. I cut my hair differently, colored it, bought new clothes…all at his suggestion. In retrospect, I think he liked who he thought he could create me to be, not who I really was. One day I ran into him at the mall and he commented, “I’d love to see how you look in a slinky black dress.” As you can imagine, any possible budding relationship ended that moment but the impact stuck with me. 
FALSE LESSON I LEARNED: What you look like is more important than who you are.

My family moved again when I was 19-years old and though I had planned to stay behind, God made it very clear to me that I needed to go. Less than a week after arriving, I met my now husband of 15 years. For the first time in my life, a guy was interested in me more for who I was on the inside than what I looked like on the outside. He was so vibrant and full of life. He was also an avid hiker and the mountains of Colorado were his playground. We went hiking at least once a week, often more. I wanted to keep up with his level of activity and I couldn’t do it starving myself so I started eating.

Fast forward several years and I found myself married with three kids. I never had any trouble losing the baby weight after the first two but the third one did me in. I had experienced pre-term labor with my second child so when I started contracting heavily with my third baby at only four months, I was put on modified activity. Basically, I wasn’t allowed to do anything except care for my other two children. Our daily walks to the park, bike rides and hiking stopped and I became very sedentary. I began that pregnancy at a healthy 150 lbs. and ended it at 210 lbs. On the day I delivered I still weighed over 200 lbs. I never really regained my active lifestyle and I had also become an emotional eater.

In 2014, I was at my wit’s end. I felt horrible, both physically and emotionally. But I also felt helpless because I didn’t know what to do. I joined the YMCA and began exercising three days a week. It was a start, but I knew I needed help. Unfortunately, other coaches didn’t want to touch me with a 10-foot pole because of some prior injuries I had sustained. I joined Weight Watchers and began learning how to eat healthy foods to fuel my body. But still, after five months, I had barely made any progress (and I was always hungry). I poured out my heart to God and asked him to bring me a women with knowledge and skill to help me. Exactly one week to the day, I met Morgan! And boy, did she have her work cut out for her!

Farr Fitness became my second home and a few months in, when I experienced intense personal struggles, it was my safe haven. I was surrounded by a group of women who came together, not to tear each other down, but to build each other up. I could show up in tears, barely holding it together and be encouraged. Morgan didn’t just teach me to care for my body, she showed me how to have self-respect. She took the false lessons I’d learned as a teenager that had shaped my entire adult life and flipped them upside down! Losing weight wasn’t the same as being healthy and what’s on the inside radiates outward, regardless of what you look like. I needed that encouragement. I needed to have a place where I was accepted, just as I was. Morgan took me, pre-existing injuries and all, and structured a training plan around my limitations. She expected me to work hard but never asked me to do anything she wasn’t willing to do herself.

Though my schedule changed with the acceptance of a new job which no longer allowed me to visit Farr Fitness, my husband and I purchased our own gym equipment and transformed half our garage so that I could continue to work out. Morgan is awesome about listing workouts on the Facebook page so I was able to continue training with her even when I couldn’t be physically present. I’ve lost 35 lbs, 27 inches, 14% body fat, and dropped 3 pant sizes - and I’ve kept it off! But more than that, I learned that I had value, even when others in my life made me feel like I didn’t.

Pslam 139:14 says, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works and that my soul knows very well.” For the first time in my life, I am comfortable in my own skin, stretch marks and all. God used Morgan to change my life and I am a better person for knowing her.

New Year, New Coach

Can I tell you the one thing I truly dislike about the holiday season? 

The end of it. But not for the reasons you may think.

I cannot stand seeing all of the "coaches" on social media trying to get people to buy their particular brand of snake oil. They all say pretty much the same thing which is along the lines of: 

Eat too much over thanksgiving? Join me for a 10 day group for the new year. New year, new you! And then they have the audacity to call themselves coaches. 

THIS IS NOT COACHING. 

This is food shamming and just plain guilting. You are an adult. What you decide to put in to your mouth is your business. 

It doesn't matter if you had sweets, carbs, or a  lizard tail at Thanksgiving.
 At the end of the day, WHO CARES? 

Life is short.

Eat the dang cupcake. 
Enjoy it, savor it. 
Just don't worship it. 

Coaching is explaining the science behind food choices not just "eat this amount of this and only a small bit of that". That isn't coaching because it isn't sustainable. Your coach won't be there at 1 am when you have the half pint of rocky road in your hand. A real coaches teaches you how to deal with difficult emotions that make you want to eat the whole pint rather than saying, "sure you can eat it, but only eat "this" much!" 

A coach teaches you how to do something on your own. They critique, push, and motivate you. Most of all a coach believes that you are worth something. You are valuable and worthy of having time (the most valuable commodity) spent on you. A coach believes in you even when you don't believe in yourself. 

So while you are watching funny cat videos on Facebook this holiday season beware the fake coaches. Don't fall for the ploy of buy this shake, this workout program, this vitamin. Find a real coach that will teach you how to fuel your body, train your mind, and discipline your spirit. Find someone that believes in YOU.  

Sleep and How Badly Do You Want It?

People ask me often how I am motivated to train, especially with two little boys under the age of two. I'll be honest with you, there are says where I DO NOT feel like training at all. There are days when the last thing I want to do is get my incredibly tired self out of bed and go throw my body under a lot of wight a bunch of times.

But, then I think about my goals.
My goals push me out of bed, when my willpower isn't enough.
So what are my goals?
Here are a few of my BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals):
I want to be back at 22% body fat. 
I want a double body weight backsquat,
I want to run a marathon.

Being an athlete well rounded enough to squat twice my body weight and be able to run 26 miles?
Those are big goals.Those are get-your-rear-end-out-of-bed-and-get-moving kind of goals. So in order for me to reach those goal, means there are no days off. That is right, I train my body EVERY SINGLE DAY. Now does that mean I train at the same intensity level every day? No way. So how do I decide when to train and when not to train, since I have two little kiddos and tired is just part of this season of life?

If you look at the picture for this article you may recognize it from the dashboard of the FITBIT sleep tracker. This was my sleep pattern this last week and it is actually a great example of all three of my "levels". So lets break them down one by one.

Level 1 is where I get 6 hours of sleep a night. (I am pretty sure when this happens the angels sing and little forest creatures dance around like in sleeping beauty.) This week was a surprisingly good week because I had two whole nights where I got 6 hours of sleep. When that happens I train at 100% of my ability level. That means I lift as heavy as I can, I go hard on conditioning, and I hit the elliptical during my children's nap time. These are my absolute favorite days.   

Level 2 is when I get between 4 and 6 hours of sleep a night. As you can see, this week there were three of those days. When I get this amount of sleep I recognize that my coordination may be a bit off due to my lack of sleep. Because I don't want to risk an injury, I usually drop all of my weights to about 75% of what I would normally lift. I do conditioning, but at a much more scaled version, and I don't do the elliptical, so I am not over stressing my body. These are the most common days for me right now. 

Level 3 seems to be where I was for most of the past month and a half. These are the nights where my 6 month old son won't sleep at all. I have learned that he does best when I am moving, so I strap him in to my Ergo carrier and I get on the elliptical and I get moving. I cannot begin to guess how many miles I have gone on the elliptical in the last two months, but it has been a LOT. The next day when I get up, I still go in to the gym, I still move m body but I do about 25% of my numbers. I don't do conditioning at all. In the evening I take my boys for a long walk through the neighborhood. And that is it because that is all that my body can take on those days. You have to train smart, or you will end up with injuries, and sometimes that means having several level 3 days in a row and that is alright. Thankfully I think that these days may be coming to an end for our family so I will soon be ramping back up to level 2 or 1 every day,

Essentially when I am saying is that when you are the parent of tiny humans, training can be incredibly challenging. However, it absolutely can be done. I watched a mom this week do her entire workout using her 15 month old son as her weight because her babysitter canceled.

Now THAT is dedication.

The best thing that you can do is sit down ahead of time and decide what your threshold is. How many hours of sleep do you need to feel great? How many do you need to feel so-so? How many is just not enough for real training? Decide these ahead of time and then follow your plan. Be smart, and let your body recover and rest, but at the same time don't use having a baby as an excuse to be out of shape. Because at the end of the day the question remains, how badly do you want it?

Parenting vs Coaching

As a coach I carefully watch each athlete's movements. I keep detailed records of each one of my athletes. I can tell you that athlete R has a goofy elbow, athlete M has horrible shin splints when she runs, and athlete C is never fully confident that she is going to get the lift, even when the lift is over. I can tell you which days in the last year (that they have been training with me) that the athlete was sick and what they were sick with. I can tell you when their anniversary is, and what their favorite pass times are. 

A good coach knows more about their athletes than just their numbers. 

A good coach knows their lives, their stories, their dreams. 

Parenting is no different. 

The definition of a coach is someone who instructs or trains a performer or team. The definition of a parent is to raise, bring up, look after, take care of. Being a coach and being a parent really aren't that different, and yet I struggle more with one than I do with the other.

People ask me often if it is hard to run a garage gym ministry and have two children under the age of two. I will be honest, there are days where it is very challenging. The selfish side of me would love to get through coaching all of my classes without my son interrupting. I would love to get through my own personal training without having to stop to nurse the 4 month old. But that is just my selfish sin nature talking.

When an athlete comes in my gym I ask them how they are feeling, if anything hurts. I ask them about their weekend. I listen to their marriage struggles, personal difficulties, and parenting challenges. 

Do I offer the same dedication to my children? 

Today I was convicted about exactly that. I was trying to coach my beginner athlete class. It is loud, hot, and I am tired from being up with the 4 month old in the middle of the night.   

As I was rubbing my pounding head, my not quite two year old went outside the garage and picked up a handful of crepe myrtle flowers from the ground and brought them to me. Instead of graciously accepting his precious gift, I barked at him to get out of the gym. Seeing his little face fall, as he is still trying to give me his flowers, my heart broke. God spoke to my heart through the big blue eyes of my oldest son. Today God reminded me that my job is to care for, teach, and minister to my family first. I need to remember my calling from God, and not worry about what other people will think. I can't make an idol of coaching exactly the way we would in the classes where there are no children. 

That just isn't reality.  

I had a very wise friend remind me recently that God has given me these precious little boys for a short time, and that time is flying by. 

Lets do a little math right quick:

There are roughly 52 Saturdays in a  calendar year. 

That means that we have roughly 936 Saturdays from the time your child is born until your child leaves for college. 

William is 20 months old. 

We have used up 87 Saturdays of his life already. 

We only have 849 Saturdays left with him. 

That is it.

So now my focus is going to change a bit. 

Don't worry, I will still correct form, I will still be an aggressive coach for my athletes, but secondary to being a godly parent for my sons.

C-Section Saturday: 8 Weeks Post-Op

Welcome to the Farr Fitness' C-Section Saturdays. 

As I have mentioned before I will be using Saturdays to discuss, teach, and learn about C-Section recovery for athletes. Be prepared, some of the information that we discuss will be graphic, but I assure you that I will do my best to cover each topic with the grace of the true southern lady that I am. With that being said lets jump in! 

Weeks seven and eight have been a bit of a blur. I was cleared to train last week so I've been working hard at that. Henry is sleeping through the night (mostly). He typically does cluster feeding from 7-9 and then goes down for bed at 9:30. He wakes up at around 4:30 in the morning and we do a dream feed and he goes back to sleep. At this point it is usually somewhere around 5:30-45 in the morning so instead of going back to bed and awkwardly waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle, I go train.   

Running with a whole bunch of loose skin on my stomach feels pretty gross. I am not a fan of it at all. In fact it was so difficult for me at first that I almost quit running all together. But that kind of defeats the purpose of running doesn't it?!? So, instead I am using these special underwear designed for C-section recovery. My sister-in-law, Dr. Kate is a Physical Therapist that specializes in Women's Health. After my first C-section with William, Kate told me about compression clothing and how helpful it can be postpartum, especially for C-Section moms. I didn't believe her and I thought they were ugly. No way was I going to wear old lady compression clothing....

Now however, I am a convert. 

Don't get me wrong, they are not going to be gracing the cover of Victoria's Secret anytime soon, but they do a great job of helping to pull my belly button to my spine and engage my abdomen. Which makes following my training plan much more enjoyable. I strongly encourage you to consider purchasing at least on pair of these for your post C-section recovery. 

While we are on the subject of training, make sure that you are wearing good shoes and clothes that fit well. The last thing you want to do is fall when you are recovering from a major surgery. 

Here are some of the things I wear when I run:

Underwear- C-Panty
Sports Bra- Motherhood Maternity
Pants- Danskin Capri
Shirt- A tank like these 
Headband- I have thick curly hair, this is a necessity!
Socks- These are great
Shoes- I LOVE THESE SHOES!

So here is the scary part. Ever two weeks or so I will post up pictures of my physical progress. Part of this is accountability and part of it is to help other C-section moms see what normal looks like. Four weeks post C-section, this is what I looked like: 

Weight- 203 lbs

Body Fat Percentage- 44.93%
Waist (narrowest point)- 39.5 inches
Navel- 39 inches
Hips- 46 inches
Thigh- 27 inches
Neck- 15 inches
Bicep- 12.75 inches
Forearm- 10 inches
Wrist- 7 inches

I will admit that seeing this is hard for me. But I don't have to stay here. Yes I had major abdominal surgery so I need to train smart and safe You can read the training plan that I am following here. 

The real question isn't if I can do it, it is how badly do I want it?

Psalm 139;19 says that "God knit me together in my mother's womb". Isn't it amazing to be a part of the miracle of birth? Isn't it amazing what God made our bodies to do? Your body will look different. Your body will feel different. But your body is incredible and don't you let anyone tell you otherwise.

My Fitness Journey: From Breathless to Athlete

My name is Carrie. I was born six weeks early with a twin brother, spent 10 days in the NICU and came out with four auto immune challenges. The major limiting factor was asthma. It became my lynch pin and dictated how my day would go and what activities I could participate in. I was never very athletic in junior high or high school. I played basketball and ran cross country, but never excelled. I focused my energies on academics and showing livestock (I was raised on a cattle ranch) because those were two areas where I could win.

Fast forward to now - I am 34 and have gone through years of learning how to orchestrate health and healing through a combination of modern and natural medicine and diet. I started working out at a gym in 2013 when my husband deployed. I needed an outlet and wanted to get in better shape. He is a very active person and I wanted to be able to keep up with him when he returned home.

A few months before we PCSed to Ft. Bragg, we joined a small cross fit gym. He really wanted me to try it and I was terrified. I had seen those athletes on ESPN and I knew I couldn't keep up. Despite my fears, I gave in and agreed to try it out. What I found, instead of fire breathing athletes, was an amazing culture of encouragement and positivity. The coaches were sticklers for form, but open to scaling everything down a level I could manage and yet still be challenged with.

I fell in love with this new way to exercise!

The workouts were challenging, but no two days were the same. I began to get stronger and build confidence in myself.

Once we moved to North Carolina, I started looking for a gym to attend. My husband had met a Chaplain at a different post whose wife ran a cross fit gym out of their garage. He mentioned how he hoped we could find something like that for me when we got to Fayetteville. We arrived in August and I tried a few gyms out.

Nothing reminded me of what I had found back in Oregon.

I was slightly discouraged, but knew that something would open up.

In September, I attended a Protestant Women of the Chapel event and it was there that I met Morgan Farr. Morgan and her husband, Brian, run Farr Fitness out of their garage as a gym ministry. It was perfect. Morgan's background is power lifting, so she programs workouts to increase my strength. Brian watches form and works to refine movements and increase mobility. Combined, they are a perfect team.

It has been eight months since I started attending their gym. I knew I had been getting stronger, but didn't realize how much so until this past weekend. My husband came home from work excited to say we had an invitation to go rock climbing on a mountain. A few of his classmates had the gear and were willing to take two newbies along.

It was on this Saturday that functional fitness got a victory. I was able to climb three walls, one of which was 80 feet high. My upper body strength has increased dramatically - and while my climbs weren't as finessed as the season climbers, I was able to keep up and enjoy the day. It was a major win in my fitness journey and I can't wait for more. This is just the beginning!

My Fitness Journey: Denise Jolly

Hey y’all,

My name is Denise and I am here to tell you about my fitness journey. To be honest, when Morgan first asked me to share my story with y’all I was convinced that she had sent the text to the wrong person.  After I picked my jaw up off of the floor and I realized she was serious, I went into full on panic mode. After a good dose of panic, I then went into straight up let the enemy get the best of you mode. For me that looks like:

“I still have so far to go.”

“I can’t do it”

“No one’s going to look at you and think you’ve accomplished anything.”

“You’re the fattest one in the gym.”

The list goes on and on. After a little bit,  I took a step back, and talked to the One who has all the answers. And just like that, after a silent and still calm that only comes from Him, I heard “You are more than enough, you gave this struggle to me, so write your story to glorify the kingdom”.

So here we go.

To say the word fitness journey, would be like saying a flight from Australia to Canada is a short trip. I’ve been the chubby chick my whole life. At times I’ve been okay with that, even tried to “OWN IT”. Like people tell you to. But 97% of the time I wasn’t really happy in my own skin. Most of my life has been spent struggling to be healthy, and until the age of 32 I never realized I was on the wrong track. I say wrong because I was doing it for everyone but myself, and without a purpose. So I don’t lose you here, I think it best to describe my journey/struggle/ reality in phases.

Phase 1 or “I’m fat, and I don’t know how to deal with it”

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve always been on the heavier side. Standing 6 feet tall, and with the bone structure of a linebacker, I would look fun-house-mirror-crazy at a size 2 or even a size 8. I was also always the girl who developed faster than her peers as well, so that didn’t help things much. Thankfully, in school I played all kinds of sports so that helped to control my weight. When I quit sports and joined the choir my weight REALLY packed on. Add that to the fact that I wasn’t truly taught healthy eating habits until my weight was already a pretty serious issue and you have a recipe for trouble.

Phase 2 or “ You’re  fat, now let’s all try to fix you!”

After the initial high school weight gain, I pretty much maintained my size. Then came college, the-sit-on-your-behind-for-hours-straight college which resulted in less of the freshman 15 and more of the freshman 80. This is when the family interventions, doctors, and random people giving you diet pills and tips started. It really hit me when I realized that I could only shop at 2 stores, and then the depression hit which brought on even more weight gain. Thankfully then something amazing happened. God brought me the love of my life. I got to do everything that everyone said would never happen for a “big girl”. When it came to love, God gave me an awesome guy that loved me just the way I was!

You still with me?

Good!

I promise we are getting to the point.

Phase 3 “Girl you’ve got to do better!”

So there I was, happily married, traveling the country with my amazing soldier and the weight just kept packing on. To be completely honest at this point I had given up on ever being able to buy my clothing anywhere besides Lane Bryant. When we had our first and second miscarriages I took that pain (you know the hideous hurt and anger that comes with that) and decided I was going to lose the weight. The doctor told me that the reason I couldn’t carry a baby was because of my weight, added motivation. Then a third miscarriage and I gained all the weight back. I do have to say that during this time my husband was my rock. As I cried in his arms he said to me ”Baby you are wonderful, nothing you say do, or how you look will make me love you any less.”  And that got through to me. He loved me no matter what. I had to love me too. So once again I committed to being healthy. For me that looked like two-a-days at the gym and chicken and rice all the time.

At this point we lost our fourth baby and I was at my mental and spiritual lowest. I prayed and recommitted my life to God. Then He blessed us with two beautiful boys. Our family was complete, and my heart was whole but I was at a standstill with my weight and my body.Doctor after doctor couldn’t explain to me why I could gain and lose 30 pounds in a month with no diet changes. When God sent us to Fort Bragg I found an amazing doctor that just wouldn’t give up on me. She fought for me, and taught me to fight for me. It turns out that I was mere months away from stomach cancer because of long standing years of horrible acid reflux. I had a special surgery to correct the issue and then God sent me my squat loving, laugh at pain, deep-in-the-heart-of-Texas strength and conditioning coach, Morgan.

Between diet, exercise, and figuring out the acid reflux I was at a crossroads.

I could take the gifts and answers I’ve been given and literally run with it, or I could walk away and be miserable.

I refocused my life on being a  better spiritual, emotional, and fit version of me. I have found peace in deadlifts, tire pulls, and squats. I was blessed with a sister in Christ who will challenge me and call me out when I am being a cry baby. I found a place where I could be honest about my struggle. But most importantly I found truth, love and fellowship in the gym.

Seven months post lifesaving surgery, I’m down 87 pounds of body fat. It wasn’t easy. While I can deadlift 175 pounds, front squat 115 pounds, box jump 16 inches after starting on just a 1.5 inch platform. I know what it’s like to puke because you wouldn’t give up on your conditioning. I still have a long way to go, each day presents its own struggles. I have bad eating days, bad gym days, just plain bad days. But I made a promise to myself, my family, and my coaches. I seek them out when I want to improve, when I need encouragement and motivation.

I leave you with this:

Please don’t ever give up on yourself. Instead, fight! Fight for who you want to be, who you should be. Fight for who Christ wants you to be. Find a Christ like family who will love you at your best and worst. A great community and God’s love will help you to march through your journey, even if it takes you 33 years to get there.

2016 Fort Bragg MWR Bench Press Competition

Congratulations to our intern coaches, Anna and Rachel for tackling their very first physical competition. 

Not only did they tackle it, but the dominated as well. 

Anna took home first place in her weight category and Rachel took home second place in her weight category.

We at Farr Fitness are SO proud of both of you.

Way to set the bar high ladies! 

New Year, Old Gimmicks

It is the start of the new year and you know what that means... resolutions. Can I just say as a gym owner I REALLY dislike this time of year. It isn't because of all the new people in the gym. I love the new people and I am glad that people are wanting to take an active role in their health and fitness.

What I dislike is all the scams being peddled to people.


I have seen a lot of advertisements recently on social media for pills, powders, and potions to help people get rid of the unwanted pounds. Let me tell you a little secret....

THEY ONLY WORK WHILE YOU TAKE THEM.

As soon as you stop your special fiber drink, your weight-loss shake, and whatever else they have you buying you will add the weight right back on.

Do you know why?

You can't shortcut fitness. It takes work, a lot of work. If you don't believe me, ask my friend Rachel. She lost 50 pounds in 2015 and didn't have to spend a dime to do it. She lost the weight by making good nutrition choices and working out regularly. She had accountability partners and set goals. No one handed her a packet of anything and said, "drink this every morning!" Instead we worked on eating protein, good fats, and limiting carbs. If you are wanting to get fit this year, please don't buy a bunch of crap that you don't need. Don't be fooled by empty promises.

The only way to get fit is to change your dietary habits and get your body moving. Want to know more about how to do that? Check out our workouts that can be done at home and our 14 days of dinner recipes that are healthy and delicious. Need more help than that? Feel free to email us at FarrFunctionalFitness@gmail.com and we would be happy to help you achieve your fitness goals, no gimmicks, nothing to buy.

My Fitness Journey: Rachel Brown

Hello! My name is Rachel Brown. This is my story of fitness, health, and improving my quality of life, despite the challenges.Over to the right you can see a comparison picture of me from when I started this process to where I am today. To give you an idea of what I had to do, let me give you a little of the background information. 

I am an army wife, (married 12 years!) a mother of 3 and I just turned the big 3-0 this year! When I was younger I was super active. I always played a sport or was playing outside. Then, I got married fresh out of high school (like 5 months after graduation) and became a mom a little over a year later. 

Needless to say, I wasn’t nearly as active after getting married as I use to be.

I didn’t do the best at keeping my body healthy and my health ever so slowly deteriorated. Before having my first child I was a fit 145lbs. After having my 3rd child, I was a not-so-fit 180lbs. Let me add, that I’m also only 5’4”. I have always said, ever since having my first child, that I wanted to get back in shape and lose weight. I always felt that I was very serious about wanting that, yet I never really did much about it. I worked out with a friend for a couple months and was starting to see results, but that ended and the pounds came right back. After my 3rd child I did one of those hardcore workout programs I borrowed from a friend and lost 10 pounds in a month, but then my baby’s sleep schedule changed and I “couldn’t fit in” my 1 hour workout, so those pounds came right back too.

People kept saying that once I saw results, that’d be motivation enough for me and I’d keep going. Or they would say that after doing it for a month, then it’ll be a habit and I’ll start to really enjoy it. That never happened for me. Even seeing 10 pounds gone and a pant size gone, it wasn’t enough to keep me motivated and wanting to keep up with it. I could never figure out why that was.

Why wasn’t I doing what I said I wanted to do?

I want to lose weight, why can’t I just do it!?

I was becoming frustrated and wanted to just throw in the towel and give up. I started thinking “I just need to be comfortable in the skin God gave me, and start being more confident.” That’s true. I believe we should be confident where we are in life and what we look like, but that doesn’t mean we have to stay that way. God didn’t create me overweight, I did that to myself.

So, as I was trying to be confident as a size 16 and 180 pounds, I was also asking myself the hard questions as to why I was still overweight and paying for a gym membership I never used. What I came up with was a few things. Overall, when I was real with myself, it was laziness. I could come up with a bunch of logical sounding reasons excuses why I didn’t have time. I have 3 kids (10, 8, and 3), a house to clean and a husband to spend time with.... not that I felt like I was doing any one of those things very well. Any mom will tell you that there are a lot of little things that go into those 3 responsibilities I listed. Time seems to run out and there just isn’t any left for us moms. Plus, what am I going to do with my kids? Then I realized that I sure did make time to catch up on my favorite tv shows. I would stay up late if I had to, to watch the latest episode. So what was really most important to me? Next, I thought about what I was eating. Oh man! Through my whole life I never really paid much attention to what I ate. If I wanted to eat it, I did. Don’t get me wrong, I would choose a salad every once in a while or water instead of a Pepsi, but for the most part, I didn’t really say no. I love dessert! I didn’t pay attention to how much processed food I ate, or carbs, or protein. It didn’t really cross my mind and I always felt that “crunchy” people were annoying and that they just read too much from the internet. I always thought that if I just worked out, I would lose weight and be healthy.

One last thing that I realized about myself was that I needed help. I knew that if I tried to go to the gym on my own, that I would get on that treadmill and get to running. When I started getting tired I would convince myself that I had done a good job and that I had run long enough, and I could stop. I felt like I walked around the gym with my hands in the air saying “what do I do with my hands?” I didn’t really know what a good workout looked like or how to even do most of the exercises. My awesome and extremely encouraging husband loves to workout and lift weights. He would do his best to give me movements to do and tell me how to do them, but I was still going by myself and I just wasn’t having success. Again, I started feeling discouraged. What do I do when that happens? I eat, and not the good stuff.

Then came Morgan Farr! God had been working in my life for a while about taking care of my body and being healthy  and He knew exactly what he was doing when he put the Farrs into my life. They are passionate about what they do, and have the knowledge to back it up. So,

I started asking questions.

I would question why they thought a certain way, or what about eating this, that sort of thing.  I heard about a women’s class that Morgan was starting up, but again, the timing didn’t work out for me. Did you catch that? Another excuse as to why I couldn’t commit. Then she added a second women’s class and that start time worked perfectly for my schedule. I knew God was saying “Ok Rachel, what’s your excuse now?”

Well... my kids are my excuse, they always are. What was I supposed to do with them? Thankfully Morgan allowed kids to come, so I did just that. I brought my 3 year old with me and he played in his little kid area. When my two oldest were on summer break, you better believe that I woke them up at 6 in the morning and they came with me. Why would I make them get up instead of sleep in during their summer break? Because they needed to see what hard work and dedication looks like. It was a lesson of “you can give up your sleep because this is something good for mommy, and I need to be healthy.”

Something else you should know about me is that I don’t like to disappoint people. If I commit to do something or being somewhere and I know someone will be expecting me, then I’m going to show up because I don’t want to let them down. I knew that committing to Farr Fitness was going to be great for me, because I knew If I didn’t show up, Morgan (or a gym friend) would send me a text to check up on me, make sure everything was ok, and hold me accountable. I did not want to have a lame excuse for not being there. That was what I really needed, a sense of accountability.

I started working out in January of 2015. Functional fitness (similar to Crossfit) and weight training was all new to me. Having been an athlete my entire life, I knew that whatever she told me to do, I would do it. I would tell her “I’ll do whatever you say.” It was quite funny in the beginning because my mind would say “yeah, I can do that movement” and then I’d go to try it and my body would be like “just kidding!!” I was definitely out of shape! But I kept going. A few months into it, my midsection was changing and not in the way I wanted. I felt like my stomach area was getting lower and more saggy. I almost wanted to gain the fat back just so I didn’t feel so gross. I was encouraged that if I just kept going, things would get better. I knew that my coaches were right, so I tried to ignore the negative thoughts I would have about my body. In April we went back home for Easter and when May rolled around and I measured myself, I had actually gained 5 POUNDS!!!!

Awesome... now I’m at 185 and maybe an inch or so of fat lost all over my body.

I was started to feel discouraged yet again.

So I talked with Morgan and Brian (who are a little “crunchy”) and I learned 2 things.

The first thing, was finding my goal. Talking to them about what a reasonable goal looked like and what my goal was, and then saying it out loud made me say “yes, I really do want this and I know I can do it.”

Secondly, I always thought working out was most important and then eating right. What I learned was getting the right amount of sleep was first priority, then eating right and then working out. So I started thinking about how I could change my eating habits. I knew eating was going to be a lot like working out, I needed something or someone to tell me how much to eat. Portion control was my biggest problem, next came willpower (or lack there of). I eliminated most junk food from my house except a few things for my kids that weren’t hard for me to say no to, and then I found something to help me visually see what good portion size looked like. I also started listening to those “crunchy” people I was talking about earlier. I learned more about what carbohydrates, sugar, and good fats/oils do to your body and I started making better choices.  That was it! Magic! When I started thinking about everything I put in my mouth and if that was going to help me reach my goal, that made a huge difference in my attitude and my results.  I would ask myself “is this worth hindering my process?” Honestly, sometimes the answer was yes. But for the most part the answer was no because I had a goal and I was serious about reaching it.

It is now August and I have lost 25 pounds, 13.5 total inches and about 7% body fat! I am down from a size 16 pant to a 12 (and those are kinda baggy)! I keep track of pounds, inches and body fat because I like to see all sorts of results, but the thing I care about the most is body fat percentage. I have definitely gained muscle and I am much stronger than I use to be. I can lift things, like my kids, a lot easier than I ever could. And guess what!!!? When I sit in my van, I can actually see the sides of my seat, my legs don’t take up the entire seat anymore! That’s a big deal! I’m not done either! I have a lot more goals that I want to attain and I know now, that it’s possible.

You might be reading this and think, that’s fine for you Rachel, but I was never an athlete, or I can’t even lift my cat’s food, let alone a weightlifting bar. That’s great! That means you have so much progress that you’re going to make. You just need to stop telling yourself you can’t. Start telling yourself that you are going to do it. You have to be serious about it and not just say you want it. Actually do it. I knew I needed someone to tell me what to do, how many to do, and when to do it. That’s ok if you need that too. Find it near you. Do it for yourself, not for your family or your husband, but for you. You are worth it. Your family will benefit from it later, but the benefits you’re going to get are going to be so much more than you can imagine. I never would have dreamed that I could do a box jump as high as I did a month ago, but I did it. And it felt amazing!!!! Struggling with my will to do the workout and my own laziness and procrastination was really hard. But, now my kids can see what hard work looks like. Make the choice for yourself, I promise you won’t regret it. 

A note from Coach Morgan: A special thank you to Samantha Metheny for the photos (minus the one in the blue shirt, that poor photographic quality was ALL me!) of Rachel's results. Sam is a seriously great photographer and if you are in the Fayetteville/Fort Bragg area and you are in need of pictures, we at Farr Fitness highly recommend her services. You can see more of her work here.