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"Making Tyler a FIT CITY one step, one bite and one health-conscious decision at a time" |
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Kristy Magnuson knew better.
Growing up she was super active. “I did it all,” said Magnuson.
She even graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in kinesiology and exercise science no less.
She knew the importance of exercising and eating healthy foods. But while in college bad eating habits began catching up with her.
“I just ate the most awful food.”
Then her mother was killed in a car accident. It was a difficult time. She quit working out and being active, but she didn’t stop eating bad food.
Her exercise rut (she calls it her “funk”) continued after she married and started working in the business offices at Tyler Junior College.
“I got lazy. I lost my mojo.”
And she continued to eat too much food and too many foods high in calories.
“I ate whatever,” she said. “I never even thought about making healthy choices.”
By the start of 2009 she had packed on more than 100 pounds.
She and her husband decided “enough is enough” and pledged to go on a weight-loss journey hand in hand.
Magnuson, too overweight to tackle vigorous exercise, began by riding on a stationary bike for 30 minutes a day – every day.
And she abandoned her “anything goes” attitude about eating.
“We changed all of our foods,” she said.
She downloaded a smart phone app that helped keep track of the calories she was taking in and the calories she was burning off.
It helped her make better choices.
She put herself on a diet of 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day and practiced proportion control.
With the support of her husband and encouraged by consistent weight loss, Magnuson stuck to her eating and exercise plan.
Excited about the physical and emotional changes they were seeing in Magnuson, two of her co-workers joined her on the weight-loss journey. All three began using the workout facilities at TJC.
Under the tutelage of TJC exercise instructor Tony Tadasa, they added free weights and pushed themselves in exercises for a total body workout.
They also enthusiastically took part in a program at TJC in which faculty and staff spent a part of each day walking.
Today Magnuson is 80 pounds lighter. Although she says she still has a way to go to meet her weight-loss goal, she says she is proud of herself and the person she has become.
