Derbalife: My Success Story

I never thought I'd do a before & after picture thingy!

I know I will be accused of tricking this image. Myself I look at it and think it totally looks like I pushed my belly out on the left and sucked it in on the right. And I wouldn't blame anybody for thinking it.

But where would that take me? I pushed myself so much during this challenge... My goal was not weight loss. It was simply to increase my strength. I'm 45. Getting older by the second. I woke up one day a little over a month before my birthday and for the first time in my life: I felt old. I couldn't bare to look at myself in the mirror. I was in a transition from working 80 hours per week, living on the road, touring with a racecar team, signing autographs simply because I was the only female "wrench" at my level of competition to ... nothing. Unemployed, suddenly moved to San Diego, and living on a boat. The word transition does not do justice to all the changes I was going through so of course that evil old MIDLIFE crisis was bitch slapping me on a regular basis.

I needed to do something, and fast. So I did what any crazy 45 year old French Canadian would do and joined roller derby. Assuming 3 derby practices per week would be enough to whip me back into shape I quickly realized I needed more. I was no longer a 20-yr old bouncing back without effort.

Then Angela Bergman (cue angelic sounds and bright lights) asked all her Facebook friends to support her and vote for her. She had just completed the Derbalife Challenge. Her results were absolutely stunning! She inspired me to do more...

Like I said, weight loss was not my goal, as you can see from the pictures above... But what have I accomplished? I started this challenge on September 19 and it has just ended. Six consecutive weeks of:

• daily tracking my calories;
• reducing certain "toxins" like coffee - now down to 2 cups per week rather than one a day and an average of one or two cocktails per night max rather than... (the past is the past right?);
• daily routine of crunches, squats and lunges;
• with the help of a heart monitor I started tracking my calorie losses, and in doing so I turned everyday task into a work out from doing the laundry to taking the trash out - I strapped on the monitor and performed my chore with an increased speed and being aware of how I did everything trying to make every action count;
• I rode my bike 2 or 3 times a week, etc.

I look back and see 42 consecutive days at maintaining a healthy routine. They say all it takes to create a new habit is to perform it for 21 days... Well, I've doubled that time during this challenge so my Derbalife Routine is now MY routine.

I feel so much more confident and happy about myself. My track speed may have only increased a slight bit, but at least its better! The buddy system and the coaching support is a definite plus. And of course, I recommend the Derbalife Challenge to anybody who seeks any kind of self improvement.

I still have some of that "bag of jell-o" hanging out around my core area, actually 2 inches less than 6 weeks ago so just imagine where I'll be 6 weeks from now!