Alison Decker loses over 100 pounds in less than 1 year

Client: Alison

Alison Decker, a Success Story – Completely changed her life and gained great confidence, inspiring countless others along the way Age: 38 Weight lost 100 Pounds Words of advice: “Set small goals and do not allow yourself to be overwhelmed.” Alison Decker is a client and dear friend of mine. She is an example for anyone wanting to make a change in their lives. Numerous people approach her to tell her she was their inspiration to make their own changes. Alison and friends finishing a 5K Her transformation was dramatic! Through consistent hard work (not without adversity), she dropped 100 pounds in less than a year. Much more than that, she also made lifelong friendships, gained confidence and found a new lifestyle. I first met Alison in the fall of 2009 for a consultation. I remember a shy person who was, admittedly, well outside her comfort zone. Coming into see a personal trainer was not high on her fun list. I’m sure she had a great societal inspired image of what it would be like. Someone yelling at her, making her work ’til she dropped. Relieved to know that would not entirely be the case, we got started. Alison’s genial personality made her a joy to work with. That and she followed the program to the “T”. In the first week she lost 3 pounds and was hooked. She was gaining strength and losing weight every week. I was surprised by how quickly she was progressing. She had gone from being completely sedentary for a long time to working out at a high intensity, 5x per week in just a few weeks! As her strength increased, so did her confidence. Realizing she was capable was huge for her. As is common for women who lose a significant amount of weight, she developed gallstones. About the time she hit her 100 pound weight loss goal, she had to have her gallbladder removed. This put a damper on celebrating a remarkable achievement. The most upsetting thing to her was being out of the gym for 10 days and unable to lift weights for 1 month. With all the progress she made, her fear was falling back to old ways. Another issue she faced from the start was her hip. Her pelvis was tilted. One side was higher than the other which caused a shearing of the femur in the socket. She would walk with a noticeable limp. Though it did not hold us back, it did come with a few limitations, mainly no running and nothing high impact. Squats and a few other foundational moves were also difficult given how off centered she was. Surgery was inevitable. So in December of 2010 she had her bad hip replaced. At the age of 39, she was a fountain of youth in that wing of orthopedics! What upset her most was not the invasive surgery but the fact that she would once again be out of the gym for 6 weeks. She feared losing what she worked so hard to get. The surgery, thankfully, turned out to be a huge success. It corrected the pelvic tilt and allowed us to do things we couldn’t before. TRX class Alison’s TRX class! Since training with me and joining Anytime Fitness, she has gained a true passion for fitness and continually takes on new challenges. She does a high intensity TRX class (suspension training) once per week. She also swims bikes, does 5k races and triathlons.