Jessica Limpert
PHYSICAL FITNESS is often viewed as something only supermodels and professional athletes can attain. It is something desired by many but achieved by a few. That is simply because we strive for unrealistic goals and often give up before allowing ourselves the chance to see results.
My husband and I were selected as contestants on the 12th season of NBC’ s The Biggest Loser. We were individuals who would need drastic changes to our lifestyle if we wanted to live our lives without restrictions. During our Biggest Loser transformations, we focused on two things: working out and losing weight. We stepped away from our real life responsibilities such as work, family, and even the internet, and we replaced them with eight-to-twelve hour days of working out. After five months on the show, we lost a combined 234 pounds. Our lives were forever changed for the better( or so we thought, but we’ ll get to that).
Before we made the cut as two of the fifteen contestants on the show, we underwent extensive medical and mental evaluations conducted by top physicians in the country. As contestants, we learned the importance of counting calories, controlling portion size, how to cook, and how often to eat to sustain our physical activity while training. We started our day with a mile-long walk around the Biggest Loser Ranch campus. Often that one-mile walk would turn into ten-, twelve-, or even twenty-mile walks throughout the day. After breakfast, our trainers would lead us in an intensive, challenging workout. For the rest of the day, we were responsible for our own activities. We would often keep that calorie burn going in the gym, on a hike, or in the swimming pool. We learned the value of changing up the workouts to keep our bodies guessing.
During this time, we also learned the importance of support and friendship to keep ourselves focused and to hold ourselves accountable to each other as we went about the task of changing our lives. This was definitely a key to our success as we discovered that fitness can be a fun activity when you have like-minded people surrounding you.
Following the finale of the show, we were contacted to become the celebrity trainers for a fitness resort that was expanding throughout the country. We were excited at this opportunity and decided to leave our previous careers for a future in fitness. We thought that this was the best opportunity for us to keep up with our new, fit lifestyles. We directed our focus on becoming certified personal trainers as well as spin instructors, and we joined the fitness resort community. To our surprise, we were also contacted by companies asking us to provide motivationalspeaking talks to their staffs to help jumpstart them in healthy living.
Our biggest takeaway from our time on The Biggest Loser was that we could do anything we put our minds and efforts toward. What we did not realize, however, was the mental transformation that was required to be truly successful in the long term. As opportunities presented themselves to us, we started to forget to make our own fitness and healthy lifestyle a priority. We found it was easier to teach and lead others than take our own advice. After three years of maintaining our weight loss, we started to fall back into our old habits. Our weight yo-yoed and our healthy lifestyle turned into a multi-diet attempt for that quick fix we desired. We eventually stopped offering training services and speaking events and supporting our clients. We went back to our pre-Biggest Loser mind-set.
Currently, we are both ecstatic that we have found exactly what our bodies require and respond to. Avoiding the quick-fix diet approach, we now balance a plant-based diet with realistic daily fitness goals. We also make use of Beachbody at-home workouts, Shakeology protein shakes, and Peloton exercise bikes, all while tracking our progress on our Fitbits. And hiking throughout Southern California allows us the time to talk about our progress and future goals.
Weekly schedules ensure that we will not lose our focus and excitement for fitness and health again. Our schedule includes nonnegotiable workouts, and we prep our meals a week in advance. Spending our free time being active together allows us to avoid returning to the old Jessica and Ramon, two people who often found themselves being couch potatoes whom let life pass them by.
We completely committed to this sustainable lifestyle by changing our lives and even the layout of our house! We removed our coffee table because we knew that was where we would eat our meals, glued to the television, often eating mindlessly. Now we sit at the dining room table and enjoy conversation and one another while allowing ourselves to digest and truly taste our food. Removing the coffee table also created a sufficient workout space for our daily at-home workouts, removing the excuse of the gym being overly crowded, not challenging, and too far. We have also instituted earlier wake-up times so that we can spend quality time together before we head out to work. And we make sure we get sufficient sleep to help our bodies repair themselves.
We are proud to say that we now have balance, support, and encouragement in our lives as we no longer enable each other but rather hold one another accountable. Every month, we lead health-and-fitness challenge groups for our clients as well as ourselves. This time around, we are not neglecting ourselves— we lead by example! We will forever be on a mission to“ find our fit.” We are well on our way and are excited to share our enthusiasm with our clients so they, too, can see that fitness is possible. Our advice? Take the first step, allow yourself to be vulnerable, and contact us! We would love to help you find your fit!
Ramon Medeiros
2017 WINTER 21