Meet Tracy

I’m so happy to introduce you to Tracy Odell, one of my amazing, fit, wonderful clients. Seriously, I love my clients and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be featuring Tracy on Fit Mama Friday. Tracy and her husband Ian have two boys, Spencer, who is 6 and Owen, who is 3 years old. As well as being a mom, Tracy oversees all the editorial content at CafeMom.com, including The Stir, Que Mas, and all their video. And because all that doesn’t keep her busy enough, she is in the process of building a brand new site for CafeMom that will be launching in June.

When I met Tracy, she was at a turning point in her life, having realized her weight and her own body image were making her live an unhappy life. Some of the best clients are those who have come to some kind of critical juncture, when they know getting fit and healthy and taking control of their lifestyle is the only way forward. They are motivated and determined, which is a perfect combination for a successful personal training relationship.

I was somewhat fit before kids. I’d go to the gym or yoga a few times a week and worked to maintain a healthy weight. When I got pregnant for the first time, it was shortly after we’d gotten married, so I was still in good shape from my “must look good in my wedding photos” exercise blitz I’d embarked on before the big day. And I continued to do yoga throughout my first pregnancy and stayed relatively fit. I credit the yoga with helping me have a relatively easy, natural birth.

Let’s skip to your second pregnancy, because I know you were not expecting your second baby, Owen, to be as big as he was. Was that a tough pregnancy? Were you still doing yoga and working out?

No, my second pregnancy was a WHOLE different story. I started the pregnancy at a very healthy weight, but my weight gain quickly spiraled out of control. I had horrible morning sickness and the only way I could keep it under control was constantly snacking on crackers and other carbs. I didn’t exercise. I don’t know how much weight I gained – at a certain point I had to stop looking at the scale – but I’m sure it was over 60 pounds. It was a very hard pregnancy both physically and mentally. With my first son, Spencer, I went into labor 2 weeks before his due date. Owen was born 2 weeks after his due date. And I was HUGE. All pregnant women say that but I really was. I had people stopping me on the street asking me how many babies I was carrying.. And, well, they weren’t too far off the mark – Owen weighed 11 pounds, 2 ounces when he was born.

Let me just point out right here that you had a home birth with no drugs for Owen’s birth, so it can really sink in for the readers that he was 11 pounds, 2 ounces!!

Yes and as they say, what doesn’t break you makes you stronger and that pregnancy and birth are now something I look back to when I need confirmation of my body’s physical strength and resiliency. I birthed an 11-pound baby at home with no pain medication – nobody can take away from me. I think that women don’t give their bodies enough credit during the birthing process – we are quick to turn to medical interventions instead of giving our bodies time to do what they are made to do. When I wanted to give up, I’d visualize all the women who’d come before me and given birth and would tell myself that if they could do it, I could too.  I think that same kind of thinking can be brought into the gym – when I’m ready to give up and feel like my body just can’t do it, I can focus on the woman who can and have done it before me and use them as a source of strength.

You are really focused in our training sessions, for sure. Even when I know something is really difficult for you, you don’t quit, ever. Take me through the couple of years after Owen was born, until you decided to commit to getting fit and healthy again.

After Owen’s birth, I had a hard time losing the weight I’d gained. And after 2 years the scale started going in the wrong direction – back up. I tried Weight Watchers twice during that time – it’s a program that worked for me in the past, but I just couldn’t stick with it this time. It was too hard to track what I ate when I was working full-time and taking care of two little kids. I didn’t have the mental energy I needed to plan my meals effectively.

My climbing weight pushed me to a dark place mentally. I hated how I looked. I hated the size clothing I was wearing, but my negative mental narrative kept me pinned in place. I knew I should change my eating habits and start exercising, but I was speeding down the road in one direction and I didn’t know how to turn around. Looking back, I think I was scared to really try losing weight – my fear of failing (again) was keeping me from really giving it a go.

And then something happened that upset you, but ultimately made you realize you wanted to change, right?

Yes, my push to get back to the gym came from a really unexpected place. It happened one night at dinner. My husband and I went to a Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood for a date night. This particular restaurant is small and charming (ie crammed with little tables close together.) We were shown to our table and I tried to slide between the tables to get to the back booth. Apparently my coat brushed across the table behind me as I tried to squeeze in. I think even a toothpick of a person would have bumped the table – they were that close together. But, that didn’t matter because the man at the table decided to make a big deal of it. He started saying things to his partner, loud enough for me to hear, about my weight. About how I was so eager to stuff my fat face I had knocked into their table in my rush to start eating. And he kept talking about me like that for a while — until I burst out in tears and the restaurant’s manager kicked him out.

As we walked home from the restaurant that night, I couldn’t stop crying. The man’s words had cut deep. My husband asked me why I cared. The man was obviously an asshole and unhappy in his own life. I knew I shouldn’t care. I should be stronger than that. But, I think his words came eerily close to the negative thoughts I’d had running through my head for months. I viewed myself as fat and hated myself for getting to that weight. I realized I had a choice – I could continue to be sad and hurt and play the role of victim or I could get angry and use the experience as a spark to start changing my life.

The next day I went to the gym, grabbed a handful of cards for personal trainers. Two days later I had my first personal training session with you, Carly. When you asked why I wanted to work with you, I told you what had happened in the restaurant and how it had pushed me to finally take the first steps towards change. As we sat in the locker room and you squeezed my fat with calipers and I stood on the scale and faced the number, it feel good in a weird way – almost freeing – to just admit where I was starting from and knowing that I was going to take charge and be the boss of my health. It didn’t matter how I’d gotten there – only that I was now going to work towards positive change. Almost immediately the negative voices in my head ceased and I viewed myself differently when I looked in the mirror.

I was really moved by your story. I knew how vulnerable you felt and even though we had just met, I was so furious that someone had made you feel that way. I felt really privileged to be the one to help you get your body back and be happy in your own skin again.

Tell my readers what a badass you are now and what your workout schedule is like!

I now work out with Carly twice a week and on my own 2-3 times a week. In these past 6 months, I’ve become so much stronger, healthier, happier and of course, thinner. I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made and totally surprised by how my attitude towards exercise has changed. I miss it when I don’t do it now. I look forward to my time at the gym. (Who am I???) I love looking in the mirror and seeing muscles where once I just saw fat. And while I haven’t focused too much on my diet, I have found that working out makes me so much less inclined to eat junk. I don’t want to ruin my hard work in the gym with a brownie that will make me feel good for 30 seconds.

And we meet early! When you first got in contact I wasn’t sure it would work out because all I had available were super early mornings, but early really works for working moms like you.

That’s right. I do almost all my workouts early in the morning, before work, before the kids wake up – it’s the only way I can fit them into my life. I also find that the list of excuses you can come up with for why not to go to the gym at 5:30 am is a lot shorter than the list at 7:30pm. Basically, your only excuse when the alarm goes off is “I’m too tired” and getting that one extra hour of sleep isn’t going to change how tired you are in any material way. You’ll still be tired at 6:30 when the kids wake up, so might as well feel good and tired versus bad and tired.

And what do Spencer and Owen think of their Fit Mama?

My kids greet me every morning when I get home from the gym and ask me about my workouts. They are fascinated that people ride on bikes that don’t move and run in place on treadmills for exercise. Sometimes I’ll show them an exercise I did and they’ll give it a try. (Especially when it has a cool name like Supermans or Spiderman Climbs!) They are so active now that I can’t imagine them ever living a sedentary lifestyle, but I know things could change as they get older, so I hope seeing me making fitness part of my life will help encourage them to stay active, too.

Now, what’s this, Tracy? Is this a photo of you running your first 5K?? I’m so proud of you! You were not a runner when we started, is that fair to say?

I’ve never considered myself a runner and have often listed running as one of my least favorite activities, akin to torture, yet here I am doing it several times a week and kind of, sort of liking it. (Gawd, did I just say I like running?!?) I found that as I progressed in my workouts, my focus shifted from the number on the scale to challenging myself physically. I still care about the weight, but it’s not something I think about every day any more.

Running is both a mental and physical challenge for me and I’m enjoying watching my progress as I build stamina. I also like the competitive aspect of running (I’m just a wee bit competitive!!) Until last week when I ran my first 5k, I was just focused on challenging myself with running a little further or a little faster each week. (I’m addicted to the RunKeeper app and love to see my stats when I finish a run!)  I ran my first official 5k on May 11 and have signed up for two more in June with a goal to improve my time with each one. My son Spencer was so inspired watching me finish my first race that he now wants to run a race too.  I signed him up for a  kids’ race at one of my June 5ks. I suspect he’s just in it for the medal, but who isn’t?

Tracy, thank you so much for sharing your fitness story for Fit Mama Friday. It’s a joy to train you and I’m so happy to be part of your mental and physical transformation. You rock, Mama!!