GET YOUR BODY MOVING: SHE TOOK A DEEP BREATH AND LOST215 POUNDS
LisaKay Wojcik was so overweight and out of shape that even 2 minutes’ worth of exercise left her so breathless that she feared she’d have a heart attack. But finding the way to breathe correctly helped put her at ease to do the exercise that eventually helped her lose 215 pounds and regain her self-respect.
LisaKay, of Romulus, Michigan, watched her weight climb to 325 pounds through two tumultuous marriages. The combination of personal upheaval and unhealthy weigh gain left her an emotional wreck. “I had no self-esteem left,” she says.
But LisaKay believed in an old but true cliche. When things get that bad, there’s only one way to go: back up.
“I wasn’t emotionally prepared to tackle the problem with my marriage, but I believed that I could improve myself,” LisaKay says. So she went out and bought a low-impact aerobics tape, slipped it into the VCR, and started following the instructor. “After just 2 minutes, I was sweaty, beet red, and breathless,” she says. “I thought I was going to die.”
Convinced that she was having a heart attack, LisaKay called
911. “When I got to the hospital, the emergency room doctor tersely told me that I was merely out of breath,” she recalls. “And he told me to warm up next time.”
Too embarrassed to try aerobics again, LisaKay switched to a seemingly simpler activity: walking. Her first time out, she walked one-quarter mile so slowly that it took 40 minutes. Three months later, she could do 1 mile in an hour.
Six months later, LisaKay was ready for a more intense challenge: a “fat-burner” aerobics video. With her legs kicking high in the air and her arms moving nonstop, she was unaccustomed to such high oxygen demands—and that heart attack scare returned. Back to the hospital she went.
This time, a different doctor told her that she was breathing incorrectly. “He told me to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth while exercising,” she says. “He said to exhale harder to force a deeper inhale, since this sends more oxygen to muscles.”
That simple tip did the trick. LisaKay continued exercising, gradually adding light weight training and toning and stretching exercises to her workout routine. She made some dietary changes as well, trading in fatty fried foods for salads, steamed cauliflower, and water-packed tuna. Within 1 year, she had lost 75 pounds. Two years later, she had shed a total of 215 pounds.
Today, at age 33, LisaKay is holding steady at 110 pounds. She has joined a fitness club, where she works out on the treadmill and weight machines. At home, she does lots of marching in place, along with exercises to strengthen and tone her body.
Determined to use her life lessons to inspire other overweight women to improve their lives, LisaKay has become a motivational speaker and counselor. “I learned that I matter,” she says. “My message to others is that they matter, too.”
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