Jeffrey

{Member}Raleigh, NC

Trax Transformations

My Story:

Like many journeys, my fitness quest began with one step followed by another and then another. I’m not going to go into specifics, but I’ll just say the doctor wanted me to lose weight. I had floated between 200 and 220 pounds for many years even while I was a member of Healthtrax. I was not going consistently, and when I was there I was doing far less than I needed to. The facilities were always waiting for me, and the equipment I needed was always there and available, but, like many others, I just didn’t take it seriously. In the middle of last July, I finally had enough.

My wife and I started going 5 or 6 days a week, and I had established a routine. (Those two years of Physical Conditioning Class in high school came in handy in designing my own exercise program.) Three days a week, we spent an hour on the treadmill at a “fast walk” pace of about 5 miles an hour. The other three days we did a circuit of weight machines and then about half an hour on the treadmill at the same pace. I started to lose some weight, but it wasn’t enough for me. I then took my “weight days” into the room with the free weights, and my progress skyrocketed. As I got used to the weights I was using, I gradually increased the weights I was using by about five pounds every 4-6 weeks. Pretty soon, I was down to a low of 171 pounds, and I both looked and felt better.

But then I thought disaster was striking when I noticed I was starting to gain weight. What was I doing wrong? Then, when I was trying on some jeans, it hit me what was happening. While my weight was going up, my jean waist size was going down. I was fitting into 32” waist in my jeans when only a few years earlier I was a size 38”. I was actually gaining muscle weight and not fat, which was what I wanted all along. At my last visit, the doctor was pleased.

Healthtrax has been so supportive to me in reaching my goals simply by having clean facilities, abundant equipment, and a friendly staff. Now that my fitness journey has become a fitness routine, I make it a point to exercise even when I’m out of town, and I’ll tag @healthtraxfitnessraleigh on Instgram with photos to let them know I miss the usual facilities and staff. Luckily, when I visit family in Rhode Island, my membership lets me use the healthtrax facilities in Warwick. Thanks, Healthtrax!