The Story Behind the Blog

My name is Kerri Moore and I am a personal trainer at Hawthorn Sport and Spa in Hillsboro, Oregon. I have just had my first child six weeks ago; a baby girl. I love her with all of my heart but bringing her into this world took a major toll on my body. I just got measurements from my personal trainer (and manager) Byron Hall, and set a goal to get back down to my pre-pregnancy size. I have to admit, this is the largest amount of fat I have ever had to lose. It is especially daunting after an 'all I can eat' attitude for the past 9 months.

I was planning on setting my goal, making plans to reach it, thinking of some fun prizes to give myself when I reached my goals and going for it. I have done this countless times before. I have tried it with Jenny Craig (I tried it so many times with them that they hired me right out of college), Weight Watchers, Medifast, low carb, and anything else you can imagine. I wasn't truly successful until I started working with Byron about a year ago. Now I have a lot of experience in the field. I have a degree in Exercise Science and three national certifications including Weight Loss Specialist. You would think that I would have no problem with my own weight. NOT! I have learned over the years that most people (including myself) don't really need more knowledge about what to do to lose weight.  The most important thing Byron taught me during our sessions together was to keep things simple and have lots of ACCOUNTABILITY. I lost 10% body fat and I don't want to brag but I had a pretty killer bod. Byron didn't really teach me anything that I didn't already know. He did help me realize what was most important to prioritize for my particular goal. But most of all he kept me ACCOUNTABLE. Notice how I keep capitalizing that word?

There I am last year at my goal with a client who was finally down 100 lbs!

Accountability is KEY when trying to change your lifestyle. So beginning this particular weight loss journey felt much less achievable not only because I have more to lose but also (and most importantly) because I didn't have any accountability.

While I was leaving the gym after my initial measurements, Byron asked me if I was going to document my journey. I had not considered it but I thought it might be the answer to that accountability problem. I could start a blog which I would update weekly with my story: successes (and maybe a few confessions), my plans, and some science and experience-based facts and tips to perhaps educate and inspire others in the same boat as me to reach their goals.

So invite anyone you can think of to follow my journey. I figure the more people watching me, the more motivation I have to stick with it. So here it goes:

The goal: I am currently 198 lbs and 35% body fat. That means that of my 198 lbs, 69.5 lbs are body fat. That is the bad news. The good news is that I have 128.5 lbs of everything else - the stuff that burns calories.

I would like to have 20% body fat. Notice that I don't have a goal weight in mind. Everyone would like to think that every pound of weight they lose in a weight loss program is from fat. That belief is incorrect. When you put yourself in a significant calorie deficit, you do not have the energy needed to maintain fat or lean body mass. That is fine as long as you lose more fat than lean body mass. The more lean body mass you keep, the higher your calorie burn. So it is better to weigh more at your goal percent body fat because you will be able to maintain a higher metabolism, eat more, and keep the fat off longer. So for my goal I don't want to lose more than one pound of lean body mass for every two pounds of fat. If that is the case, I anticipate that I will be about 145 lbs at my goal.

Here's the 'before' pic. 

The Plan: Stay tuned for the next entry!