New Year’s has a special meaning for Robyn Trew. At 300 pounds, she dripped buckets of sweat during her first fitness resolution workout back in 2013.
It hurt, but she was determined to keep going and turn a resolution into a revolution, losing 25 pounds by the time she turned 25 that summer. At the end of her workout, a man approached her. “Good for you,” he said. “That couldn’t have been easy.”
It wasn’t. But Trew, an employee with the YMCA in Toronto, kept at it, using the cardio machines at the downtown location then connecting with a personal trainer. She tackled group fitness classes such as barre, bootcamps and spin classes. She was all-in.
After six months, Trew ran her first 5K, then in 2014 she hit her athletic stride. Trew ran a 10K ran and then a 15K race and she started thinking of herself as an athlete.
Trew had been overweight her entire life and knew it wasn’t healthy. She had tried to change her lifestyle, but it never stuck. So what changed?
“I was really happy with where I was in life,” she says. So she committed to healthy living.
Now Trew works out five days a week, usually in the mornings, when she has no distractions. That sets the tone for the rest of her day. She watches her food portions and keeps healthy snacks on hand. Trew also makes use of fitness technology like smartphone apps and her Fitbit to track activity.
“I feel lost if I leave it at home,” she says.
She works out with buddies and gets out for seasonal activities like skiing. And the result: She has decreased body fat by more than 15 per cent, is down seven dress sizes and lost 120 pounds.
“It’s been a big two years for me, but I don’t regret it. I think I regret not starting sooner, but my head was never in the right place.”
