Everyone has different motivations to lose weight, eat healthy and exercise. Many times we need to hear from others what ignites the fire for them, so we can get inspired and also get motivated.
This is what Glenda Cortez reveals in her interview. She got many legitimate reasons to be and stay motivated to be healthy, exercise and eat the right foods. I recommend you read or listen to her interview if you are not motivated and want to continue stay motivated to lose weight. Here is Glenda’s interview:
Erick, “Hi everyone, welcome to Custom Body Fitness. My name is Erick Torres and I am the Personal Trainer in Glenwood Springs Colorado and right now we have a member, Glenda Cortez and she has great results. We are going to talk about her results. She lost 20 pounds which is around 12% body fat. We're going to talk about how she got those great results.”
Erick, “Welcome Glenda, let's talk about your results.”
Glenda, “Thank you Erick.”
Erick, “Tell me about yourself, tell me your story. What motivated you to lose the weight? How did you end up at Custom Body Fitness?”
Glenda, “So I started my journey last December. I took a picture with my brothers and when they sent me the picture I was like, ‘This is not me.’ I cannot even recognize myself, so I felt like I needed to do something. It did not feel good. My health started to breakdown. My jeans were tied and I knew I had gained a lot of weight. But I didn't know how much. No one was brave enough to tell me.
So I just got upset and asked my husband, ‘Why did you never mention anything to me?’ So I remember trying a lot of diets before. There are a lot of trending diets that don’t help at all. So I remember googling weight loss programs close to me. So Custom Body Fitness came into that google search and I just called Sandro. I told him that I just had a lot of problems losing weight. I don’t feel healthy and I am trying to find help. I came and interviewed with Sandro. I remember him saying, ‘We don’t offer anything easy, but it is very possible to do it. I started coming to exercise on February 5th this year (2020).”
Erick, “ remember when you started the first month. It was really hard to get those results. I remember you losing a little bit, but I told you to hang on and to keep working and really figuring things out where the mistakes were. You continue to do it. You did not give up. What made you lose the weight and give you the results?”
I think a lot of education about eating to lose weight...
Glenda, “I think a lot of education around eating. I think I lacked a lot of knowledge about what protein was, how much my body needs, how much my body needs of each group. I was feeling healthy exercising and I was doing my best to eat healthy, but I did lack the knowledge. I think breaking down how much I want to eat and how much my body really needs to eat everyday.”
Erick, “So what exactly did you change in your diet? Because when you started losing that weight there was a big change in your diet and before that it was really hard to lose that weight.”
Glenda, “Yeah I think, like I said, learning a lot about what to eat in each group- protein, vegetables and carbs. I needed to eat more vegetables for sure in every meal. I learned that I have to eat my breakfast. I have to wait 3 hours before I eat my snack and I have to wait another 3 hours before I eat my lunch. I eat 2 to 3 times a day, so I don't feel tempted to eat just randomly. I think that was something that was hard at first because I had the desire to eat, just to put stuff in my mouth. I think there was a point when I was just trying to eat at certain times. I can really feel in my jaws that I need to put something. So, it is not much, but I still put things in my mouth.
There was a point where I needed to put a straw in my mouth to have the sensation of eating. Then I will say, like a month, my body started to adapt to it and said, ‘Every 3 hours she is going to feed me.’ That really makes a difference. Before I had a very heavy snack like a whole banana. Maybe it was chips or cookies. I thought it was only one cookie. It will not hurt me. But it has a lot of sweet stuff and a lot of processed stuff. Things that my body is not able to break down easily.”
Erick, “So eating on schedule was difficult, right? That’s what you're telling me that you have to eat every 3 hours and have breakfast and then you have to wait 3 hours to eat your snacks and 3 hours for your lunch. It was a schedule you have to follow. Discipline your body in a way that you wanted to. It is effective for weight loss, right? You need to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, three meals and then your snacks in between.”
The quantity an quality really counts for weight loss...
Glenda, “And you have to watch the quality of food that you are eating. You are going to eat exactly what your body needs. you are going to be eating like the quality that you need. If you are going to eat heavy foods it is not going to make a difference. The quantity and quality really counts.”
Erick, “So eating schedule, quality of the food you are eating and quantity. You can’t be eating a lot of good food because you end up gaining weight. Too much of a good thing is bad.”
Glenda, “You can’t be healthy. if it's in big quantities, it is not going to help you. I think this is going to help your stomach to shrink back because your stomach expands as you keep eating. The body is amazing because it naturally likes to store fat, so when we get sick it has enough reserve and the stomach keeps expanding. So what you want to do with quantity is help your stomach to shrink back. Just eat what your body needs.”
Erick, “Then you said something else about not eating snacks, not eating chips. You are saying to forget about easy snacks, chips, cookies… Anything else you can think of?”
Glenda, “The fact that our food is healthy, making better choices with healthy snacks, does not mean that it has to be boring. I think a lot of people think eating healthy will be boring. You have to have a mindset not because being healthy is going to be boring. You just have to be creative.”
Erick, “I remember when we started and I told you that you needed to eat more vegetables and you thought vegetables were potatoes. Tell me more about that. You were eating potatoes and rice…”
Glenda, “It has to do a lot with the culture. Eat as much as you want right now because there is not going to be anything else for the next meal. We will just pack meat, potatoes and rice. For me potatoes were like any other vegetables, like broccoli. So a lot of my cooking will involve meat and potato and besides that I would put rice next to it. So I was eating a lot of carbs. Yes, it was healthy, but it was more than my body needed. Like I said, it was a lot of learning regarding food. That was very helpful for me, how the food interacts with the body and how to combine meals.”
Erick, “You have to learn the portion control of what is protein, what is complex carbohydrates. Now you know.”
Glenda, “Bananas are really healthy and I was eating three bananas when my body really needs half of a banana and that equals like an apple. So I was thinking that bananas are healthy, why not keep shoving them.”
Erick, “Tell me about the program here at Custom Body Fitness, weight training. What is it like?”
I did not want to be a muscle person...
Glenda, “First let me tell you when I started and saw all the weights. I did not want to be like a muscular person. I was not sure if this is going to be for me. But I wanted to give it a try. In the beginning I could not lift 5 pounds. I could tell my body was not in shape. I like how you guys combine what other places offer, but with weight it is a little different. I like it because it makes you feel stable, but also because I feel like I am having a great workout.”
Erick, “How are your exercises at CBF?”
They are very good. I want to tell you something I do like here. I like that you have colors. That kind of helps me with my brain. I am kind of an organized person and I really liked how you guys have green color, red color and yellow color and I really like how every week you guys have different exercises. Doing the same exercise over a whole month gets boring. So like I said, you have a specific exercise for the colors.”
Erick, “You do anything else besides your workout here?”
Glenda, “I enjoy walking with my kids and running when I have the space.”
Erick, “What is an opportunity?”
Glenda, “I would say twice a week, Weekends is the time when we can go out.”
Erick, “Weight loss is not an easy thing, strengthening your body is not easy. You have to have a strong mindset. How do you do it to keep a strong mindset and keep moving with your goals when things get difficult and you feel like giving up?”
The best version of yourself...
Glenda, “You have to see, really in a 24 hours day, you only exercise for 1 hour. When you think about that, it is just not a lot. Yeah, it is an hour when your legs hurt, lifting something that is heavy is not easy, but if you think about the benefits that it brings to your body, it is huge. Also I want to be the best version of myself and I know that right eating and exercising will help me with that. I am very aware that I am not immortal and anybody can get sick. I definitely don’t want to spend my days depending on medication. Laziness brings a lot of sickness. I don’t want to get older and depend on medicine.”
Erick, “To summarize what you said, you think about your results, you want to become a better version of yourself, like you said. And you want to be healthy. You don't want to age and be overweight or weak or depend on medicine to stay healthy and that is what motivates you. I think it all comes down to the fact that you are not immortal. As we age we become weaker and you want to stay strong.
To finish, what is a tip you can give to people to lose weight?”
How are you going to look 10 years from now...
Glenda, “I think we all have different motivations, everybody is just different. Think about how you want to age. How you are going to look 10 years from now. Do you really want to lose that weight? Or do you want to say, ‘I used to look that way’ when you see someone younger. Or ‘I used to wear size 4.’ I think there is no age when you can say I am done with myself. Many times, especially, women would say, ‘I have 3 kids now.’ You reach that point when you think it is fine because you're a mom and only think about the body you had when you were single. No, you can still have a nice body. You can still work on yourself and love yourself. If you are good with yourself, you can reflect that with your family. We are the motor of our families and if you are not feeling well, how can you be there for your kids or for your families?”
Erick, “Okay so we went over a lot of things that helped you lose weight, eating on schedule, healthy snacks, eating the right food, eating quality of food and doing your workout; and what motivates you and pushes you to become better, staying healthy, not to be in state where you depend in medicine. Your motivation has to do with your presence. The point is that no matter where you are or how old you are, you can still make those changes. It is not about where you were, but what you are doing now to get to the place where you want to be healthy and do the activities that you do and enjoy it. You are the main source of your family, so it is important that you stay healthy.
Thank you, Glenda.”
This is a very motivating interview. I think Glenda has her priorities and reasons why she is exercising and eating healthy very clear.
This is what I got from this interview:
Eating Healthy does not need to be boring. Like Glenda said, be creative and add some seasoning to your foods.
Really in 24 hours you only need to exercise 1 hour. If you think about it, the time that you invest in yourself is a lot less than you really think.
Be the best version of yourself. The only way to be the best version of yourself is by working on yourself and that means, your body, your mind, your spirit and you can do that by giving yourself time alone, exercising, eating healthy and educating yourself.
There is no age when you can say, "I am done with my body." When you stop working on yourself, that day you start dying. That is a decision.
Don’t say, “I used to have that body when I was single.” If you had it before, you can still have it now. You just need to work for it. You are hiring yourself by just thinking about who you used to be when you can be that person now.
Don’t you think this is motivating? I hope you are ready to give your best from now on and if you are already doing it, keep the hard work.