Angela Moyer was not happy with her life and her appearance. Below is an interview I had the honor of conducting with Angela. Read her amazing story.

1. Angela, what was it that finally motivated you to get into the gym and start eating properly? Correct me if I’m wrong, but if you’re like most people, you haven’t been happy with your appearance for a while.

If this is correct, how long were you dissatisfied before you decided to take action? What do you think kept you from acting all that time?

After being diagnosed with toximia and advanced gestational diabetes, I spent the duration of my pregnancy on mandatory bed rest. I gained 90 pounds and delivered 240 pounds. My husband was away serving in the Middle East.

I battled postpartum depression along with loneliness and disgust with my appearance. I intensely longed to return to the body I had when my husband and I first got married, and I wanted to build that body before he returned home.

2. How did you start with your new lifestyle? In other words, what changes did you make or plan to give yourself the best chance of success?

I was a size 18 with a size 9 goal and he had given me three months to meet it. I joined a local gym and signed up for my first Body for Life challenge.

I planned out my workouts and entered each one into my newly created training logbook. I took note of every improvement I made, no matter how small. I regularly took photos of myself and pasted them on the cover of the book as a
motivation tool.

I made significant changes to my diet. I excluded fast
regular food and soft drinks, as well as ate more protein and fewer carbohydrates.

I stopped letting myself go hungry by eating meal replacement bars between meals. If I wasn’t as hungry when it was time to eat, I ate less of the actual food. I exercised six days a week a mandatory step
towards achieving my goal. I did resistance training four days a week and cardio two. In three months I reached my goal of 150 pounds, wearing size 9 pants!

3. What problems did you have to overcome to keep up with your new fitness program? Some of the popular excuses I’ve heard from people I’ve trained include “not enough time” (both to exercise and eat right), “eating healthy is too expensive”, “I don’t see results fast enough”, “weights it will make me big and bulky”, “I will have trouble sticking to an exercise routine”. What were the obstacles you had to overcome?

Some of the obstacles I encountered along the way were: Where do I go from here? Now that I’ve reached my goal, what’s next? How do I maintain the same level of commitment when my husband returns home? How do I maintain a clean diet for myself and still prepare meals that my husband (who was not on a diet) would also enjoy?

4. How did you overcome those problems? What specific techniques did you use to make your dreams come true?

Upon his return, my husband was very proud of my achievement. He was very supportive and encouraging. Fortunately, this made it easier to overcome what I once thought were obstacles. He brought with him lots of wonderful foreign chocolates and beers, which I got to enjoy in moderation, but other than that, planning healthy meals wasn’t as difficult as I imagined.

I just changed the way I prepared the food that we normally eat. He roasted, broiled, and baked meats instead of frying them.

I used virgin olive oil and spices for seasoning instead of butter. I also switched from canned to frozen vegetables to control portion sizes so we wouldn’t be encouraged to eat leftover amounts of prepared foods just for the sake of it.
It was there.

I continued to set goals for myself and completed a second challenge, finishing at 127 pounds wearing size 1 pants. Balancing schedules with my husband, I managed to make it to the gym at least 4 days a week, if not the 6 I wanted.

I allowed myself breaks from my routine that span
anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks to enjoy family time, but kept the staying power to get back in the gym when my break was over.

The most significant advance I made along the way was encouraging and convincing my husband to join me. It was a breakthrough for me because I found him very motivating to work with and my weights lifted have increased tremendously with him there.

We are currently working on what is my third challenge and his first. We are now competing as a couple! Instead of leaving him home every day, she joined the gym and now we go together six days a week! teaming up with me
My husband has made another of my dreams come true.

I finally found a balance between the two main things competing for my time, the two things I love the most, working out and spending time with my family. The two hours I spend at the gym, my husband and I now enjoy that time together, and when we’re done we take the kids to the park on the way home. Bringing the family together through fitness has been a dream come true in itself.

5. Moving forward and knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently?

Knowing what I now know about fitness and how the body responds to the things you eat and do would not have allowed me to get to the point I was at during and between my pregnancies. Now I see that many of my
The health problems were the result of my own unhealthy life and could have been avoided if I had applied sooner.

6. What would you have done in the same way and will you continue to do in the future?

If I had to do it all over again, I would continue to do each workout with the same burning desire to change and the same commitment to intensity. Especially it would have included my husband. If I had done it again, I would have
included it earlier.

There are so many positive changes coming up in our
life as a result of including the family in fitness. I will continue to keep that part of my life open to my husband and children as they grow. It certainly benefits us all.

7. Do you think that continuous feedback and motivational tools would help to maintain a fitness program?

I feel that continuous feedback and motivational tools are a fundamental part of maintaining a fitness program. If you’re not very sociable, journals and photographs can give you the information you need to move on.

I used my camera’s timer and took most of my photos myself. Pictures can be very inspiring because they are the most honest description we can get of
what others see of us. I discovered that mirrors do not capture a person in the same way that an image does.

Another great source of inspirational feedback
It’s teaming up with someone. Let yourself be pushed by them and they by you.

A support system is very motivating. If you can, bring it to the family. A fit father sets an excellent example for children, and working so hard alongside your spouse will present them with a new
respect for you

You can also open the lines of communication and trust a little more. Exercising with your partner can definitely bring you closer.

8. If you had a close friend or family member interested in following in your fitness footsteps, what would you advise you to tell them?

If I were to advise someone on how to follow my fitness steps, I would say above all else to stay in touch with how you really feel about yourself and your desire to grow and improve.

Do each workout like it’s the only thing they have to do, the only thing that’s getting in the way of them and their dreams, because it really is.

I would tell them not to underestimate themselves by setting a goal of what they think they can achieve. They need to hold on to their real dream because they still have no idea how much they CAN achieve. And please, give the same level of commitment to excellence that you might have to a best friend or to your job, to yourself.

Be that committed to yourself and give yourself plenty of time to see the results. Do not give up! After you see those results but still haven’t reached your goal, don’t settle. do not give up

And once you reach that goal, to maintain those results, don’t give up. I tell people all the time that you don’t have to be who you’ve become, you can become who you want to be. If you’re not happy with who you are, become someone else, it’s that easy. And above all, don’t give up!

Thank you Angela and congratulations on your success. Check out Angela’s before and after photos below.

Please don’t just read the interviews as Angela. Think about them. Angela and other success stories have invaluable information that you can use to become a success story. She is no different than you and her success can be yours.

Paraphrasing a wonderful comment in his interview, “You don’t have to be who you’ve become, you can become who you want to be.”

Visit http://www.buildleanmuscle.com/success-stories3.html to see Angela’s amazing before and after photos.