"Success Story" written by Sara-Lyn Mazza (friend and client from City Gym)

My name is Sara-Lyn Mazza, and this is the story of my journey to reaching my weight loss goal.

When I was in high school, I was in marching band and PE, so I was in pretty good shape. After high school, however, life quickly went down hill. My friends all either moved away or got married and didn’t stay in touch. I didn’t make any new friends my first couple of years at WCC, and I didn’t get a job until my third year. I became depressed, and without marching band or PE I really started to gain weight. I became as heavy as 210 pounds and a size 18 and I’m only 5’0”. I joined Gold’s Gym and lost about 15 pounds, but since I wasn’t fond of the instructors and wasn’t very good at working out on my own, I left that gym.

In January of 2009, my doctor recommended Weight Watchers because they have the highest success rate. Since I knew three people from work who also did Weight Watchers, I decided to give it a try. My first day, I weighed in at 195 pounds. Two weeks later I joined City Gym, weighing in at 188 pounds. After three months of Weight Watchers I decided to drop the program and continue tracking points on my own while corroborating with my weight watchers friends for support. I continued to lose weight and got down to my goal weight of 132 pounds in August of 2010 wearing a size 6!!

But life isn’t always easy and I gained back 25 pounds. However, I didn’t let that get me down. I enrolled in Boot Camp in January of 2012 and came out of it feeling pretty proud of what I managed to accomplish. It gave me new ideas to incorporate into the workout routines that I write for myself to keep things interesting, especially when I can’t take a class at the gym.

Then, in summer of 2012, a very good friend of mine committed suicide. After that, I started gaining weight again. Maintaining a healthy weight is harder than losing it, I’ve learned. I’ve gone back to tracking my points using the Weight Watchers point tracking system that I used in the past, and I’ve already started losing weight again. It feels good to get on that scale and see that I lost weight that week. It’s motivation to keep up what I’m doing because it works for me. I even bring my points tracker with me to the grocery store to help me decide what to buy. In Spring of 2012, I decided I wanted to become a Personal Trainer and help others lose weight like I did and make fitness an important part of their lives. I studied with the American Council on Exercise (ACE) and became certified in Spring of 2013.

Fitness is such a big, important part of my life now that I can’t imagine not exercising. I take Cycle, Body Strong, and Kickboxing regularly at City Gym. I also hike on the weekends and ride my bike during decent weather. Working out is not a “chore” or something I “have” to do. It’s something I love to do, and that’s why I know I can keep it up. Maintaining my ideal weight has proven much harder than losing it in the first place, but I just keep telling myself this: “If I lost it once, I can lose it again.” I still get on the scale but it doesn’t dominate my feelings about weight loss because I know that if I didn’t lose any weight a particular week, I may have lost some fat and replaced it with muscle. I just pay attention to how my clothes feel on me and how I feel when I look in the mirror. If I can look in the mirror and say, “I look pretty good,” then I’m happy. 

~Congratulations, Sara-Lyn! I am so proud of you! You have accomplished so much and you continue to work hard and make great strides in fitness! Way to go! L~