After

Before

For as long as I can remember I have been interested in health and fitness, wanting to take good care of my body and encouraging others to do so. I grew up “out in the country” in a family of 10 children and enjoyed being a very active farm kid.

Although I was an athlete and cheerleader in high school, an avid power walker through most of my 20’s and 30’s and had played on a women’s softball team for 10 years in the 1990’s, I began to slowly pack on the pounds throughout my late 30’s. Earnest calorie restriction and power walking that helped me to avoid obesity no longer was an option. The low calories only produced fatigue that lead to low energy and depression. I had a hard time fitting my walking routine in for about a year and when I tried to get back into it my knee hurt when I walked more than a few blocks. I turned to diet shakes and supplements that claimed to help me lose weight by increasing my body’s ability to use energy, but instead upset my digestive system and gave me a near panic attack and tachycardia. An intensive weight training program alternating with using cardio machines at a local gym and a high protein 6 days per week eating plan left me feeling exhausted and started to bulk me up. I was not looking to try out for the football team any time too soon. Having been told that women don’t bulk and that exercise would help me to have more energy, I was discouraged by the results I was getting. Frankly, I did not enjoy the sweaty smell, heavy metal music or waiting to use my choice of cardio machines at the gym so I purchased my own equipment. Over time, they became high priced clothing racks. Next I enthusiastically joined a club that uses hydraulic resistance machines. It was a fun atmosphere and I liked working out with other women. In about a year I lost 12 pounds and my clothes were fitting better. When the club changed ownership, I lost interest in the program and stopped going to work out, gaining back all of the weight plus 4 pounds in just a few months. (My husband graciously took me on a shopping trip to buy some attractive clothes in my new size when I burst out of all of my clothes into the largest size I had ever worn.) I later realized that the machines did not help my neck and back pain or my knee issue, instead they aggravated these problems, resulting in frequent trips to the chiropractor.

My first wake up call came in 2005. At the age of 41, while seeing the doctor for an upper respiratory infection, I tipped the scale at 5 pounds more than my highest full term pregnancy weight and the nurse had to use the large blood pressure cuff on my arm for the first time in my life. To top it off, my doctor said that my cholesterol was too high and that I would have to go on medication if I did not get it down. My before picture that you see here was another wake up call. That picture was taken at my son’s homecoming dance. I did not realize that I had a double chin. I had successfully avoided the camera for quite a while. As a nurse, I knew the many consequences of obesity and I did not want to experience them. I felt like my weight was spiraling out of control and I didn’t know if I had it in me to try one more thing.

That August, my husband and I decided that I would home educate our 4 youngest children. My desire to improve my health and fitness was simmering on the back burner as I poured all my energy into preparing to teach Pre-K, K. 1st and 3rd grade. In September, while looking for educational software, I came across T-Tapp on former T-Tapp Trainer, Carol Severson’s homeschooling website. I don’t think I would have bought the workout, except for the fact that I had met Carol at a home educator’s conference a few years before and was absolutely impressed by how she had transformed her 40-something body. After talking with Carol, I was even more sure that this was what I needed to do for me. (I also did the math and realized that I could quickly cover the cost of the Total System by eliminating even a few of my trips to the doctor and chiropractor and by not having to pay for cholesterol lowering medications.)

I kept going back to Carol’s success story and before and after pictures as a source of motivation but I didn’t get started until October. Within a few days, doing only the first 5 minutes of the T-Tapp Basic Plus workout, I immediately experienced an increase in energy and mental focus that made me want to continue. My pants actually got a little tighter in the thighs in the beginning, but my husband encouraged me, “Stick with it, Babe, this isn’t McDonald’s drive through.” I found relief of chronic bouts of neck and low back pain. (20 years—residual effect from a car accident and weak abdominal muscles.) The change even showed up clinically with significant improvement in my chiropractic spinal x-ray. When I stopped walking like a duck, I could enjoy my beloved outdoor walking again without aching knees. After doing T-Tapp consistently and making a few dietary changes, I reduced my cholesterol to within normal limits and avoided going on medication. Attending the 2006 T-Tapp Retreat in Tampa with Teresa and working out with T-Tapp Trainer, Annette Kunde were key pivotal points in my progression. It took time, persistence and assistance from Teresa, her staff and other trainers for me to develop an increased understanding of how to apply T-Tapp principles. Although I was slow to lose, I eventually lost a little more than 4 pants sizes. I am happy to have discovered that I do not regain weight nearly as easily as I used to. With the right choices for my body and by working out smart, I can lean out to a size smaller. I enjoy an active lifestyle with my family (my husband of 25 years, Matt, and our 6 children). I even took up golf and snowmobiling to spend time with my husband and kids. I hope to coach sports for my little girl well into my 50’s. I don’t worry about my weight anymore. I am thankful to have found T-Tapp when I did.

In my years of nursing practice I saw the need for preventative wellness, witnessing damage done by poor health choices including lack of exercise and poor nutrition that brought physical and emotional suffering to people and their loved ones. Medicine is not an exact science and some of the side effects of treatments seemed worse than the disease itself. For a long time I have had a desire to help people to obtain their optimal level of wellness. I believed that T-Tapp would be a tool that I could use to do this, so I endeavored to become a T-Tapp Trainer. (I went from only being able to do T-Tapp for 5 minutes to being able to teach it for 6 hours at a time.) After intensive study and practice, I became an ACE Certified personal trainer and a T-Tapp Trainer in 2007. I continue my ongoing study of the human body, nutrition and movement. I love to teach and have really enjoyed helping people attain not only health improvements but sustainable inch loss in a short amount of time.