S3 Reaches beyond Bootcamp – The Wolfe Family Story
I know it’s the weekend, but this inspirational letter was just too good to keep to ourselves! Thank-you so much to Paulette, Matt and the whole family for taking the time to share not only your results, but so clearly telling us what got you there. Please, please, please take the time to read and absorb what this letter has to share, and then take action. I know it will get to you like it did us! – Coaches Nancy and Dean
Coach Nancy,
I wanted to let you know how thankful I am for you, Get Fit NH Boot Camp and for the S3 contest. S3 couldn’t have come at a better time for our family. It was just the tool we needed to get our family’s health headed in a better direction. It was never about the points or the prizes of the contest for us – it was about helping us improve our family’s health.
Our daughter has been under the care of a doctor for nearly a year for her weight and we had tried everything we could think of to get her to improve her eating and exercise more, but nothing seemed to work. As the number on the scale climbed higher, her confidence and motivation plummeted. Her next doctor appointment was just days before her 13th birthday and I was expecting to go to that appointment, throw up my hands and ask the doctor where to send her for help because I couldn’t help her myself.
I felt just like any parent would feel – it broke my heart to see my child struggle with this and to watch her health and happiness decline as her weight increased.
Then we learned about Get Fit’s S3 Contest. The timing couldn’t have been better! I had gained some weight last summer and hadn’t been able to drop those pounds and Matt was getting frustrated because, although he wasn’t gaining weight, he wasn’t losing any either. We felt we had nothing to lose by following the S3 food plan.
Our family has a couple of mottos: “Go Big or Go Home” and “If You’re In, You’re All In”, so when we decided to commit to S3, we decided to go “All In” as a family.
Our new eating plan was certainly met with resistance from our 9 year old son (our “Carb King”) and my diabetic elderly mother (who lives with us and lives vicariously – sugar wise – through my children). But, I was surprised that our daughter was excited to start the plan.
We needed the structure that the S3 plan provided –it took the pressure off of us as her parents – we weren’t the bad guys anymore, we were just following the program.
The week before S3 started, I studied the eating plan (panicked more than a little as I focused on all the foods that weren’t on the plan) I peppered Nancy with questions that all began with “So, we can’t have . . . ?”).
But, once I stopped over-thinking the eating plan and started focusing on the foods that were approved instead of the foods that weren’t, things got so much easier for us.
My friend, Deb and I attended Nancy’s workshop on Meal Management and I began to feel like I could actually do this meal planning and food prep thing. PPW and eating every 2-3 hours became automatic after a while and we felt like it took the emotion out of eating. As an emotional eater, this was a HUGE help to me!
We kept track of our measurements as well as tracking our weight throughout the entire 8 weeks of S3, and the three of us lost a combined 42 pounds and over 24 inches overall. By tracking our measurements, I could see that even if I didn’t have a good weigh in, I was still losing inches. That definitely kept me motivated.
The success we all were experiencing began to perpetuate itself. The more weight (and inches) we lost, the better we felt and the more we wanted to stick to the program. Matt and I certainly experienced success, but it was all secondary to how proud we were of our daughter. We watched her literally transform before our eyes (both physically and emotionally) in just two short months!
We’re so proud of how well she’s done and all that she’s accomplished and her doctor is as well! And, even our “Carb King” son now enjoys lettuce wraps and more veggies than ever!
A few things that helped us succeed with S3:
We did it as a family: Our family made the commitment to the program, so it made meal prep easier because ¾ of our household was eating the same things. Our son ate what we were eating almost half the time.
We were “All In”: We tried to stay on plan all the time. There were no “cheat days” or “cheat meals”. Although not every single thing we ate was 100% compliant all the time, it was easier for us to stay on track if we aimed for 100% compliance.
We made Meal and Food Prep a priority: S3 was definitely an exercise in organization. If we had sufficient amounts of compliant food in the house and it was washed and prepped, then we knew had a better chance of success and we were less stressed over what we were going to eat and when.
We kept our food logs: We did our food logs every week. We only did the required 3 days per week, but we kept our food logs in mind the other four days. We didn’t want to eat anything that we would feel guilty about writing down and having Nancy see.
We ate at home: We found that eating out was too stressful (Nancy talks about not having control over your food when you eat out) and too expensive. For example, salads taste better (and are way cheaper) when they’re made at home.
We followed the PPW principle: We tried to make sure that every meal contained protein, produce and we drank lots of water.
We had Great Support: We had the support of each other, of our trainer (thank you, Nancy!) and our friends (thank you, Gretch and Deb!). Having people around us that were not only encouraging but were working toward the same goals we were was great motivation.
We didn’t stop when S3 ended: We’ve continued to stay on the S3 eating plan even though the contest is over because we have more work to do, more weight to lose and a lifetime of health and happiness to enjoy.
– Matt and Paulette Wolfe
There is no good reason you can’t Make This Happen too – Get Some!