November 24, 2015
Tired Of Making Excuses, She Lost 77 Pounds And Proved Anything Is Possible
When she first started her journey, Paula Hannah sounded like so many of us. She found any and every reason to avoid working out. These excuses were often rather silly. "The most ridiculous one was that I didn't want to mess up my hair!" said Hannah. But weighing 227 pounds and suffering with severe asthma, she knew it was time to make a drastic change.
So, what did she do? She joined three fitness centers. She joined the gym at work, one a 20-minute walk from home and another on her bus route. Having made sure she couldn't avoid the gym, she made herself a promise. "I made a vow to myself to do whatever it takes," she says. "If I traveled by bus to get to the gym, then I was going to do the work!" In the past, public transportation would been one of her excuses, now it was a motivator!
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She now weighs 150 pounds and has a whole new outlook: "I'd take being fit with bad hair over looking flawless and being unhealthy any day," she says.
Blow through milestones
Hannah knew she'd crossed a major threshold when she lasted an entire spin class! She explains, "Friends texted me, one by one, to say they weren't coming. My instinct was to leave - I don't like doing things by myself." Instead, Paula stayed, planning to duck out early. "When the instructor yelled, '15 minutes left,' I started to cry. I did it!" Before she started her journey, she would always tell herself that eating healthy was too expensive but even that excuse ended up being pretty flimsy. "I looked at the cost of having to shop in the plus size section and compared it with the cost of buying lean meats, fresh vegetables and whole grains," she says. "It was such simple math!"