Debbie is a working mom, wife, hockey player and our 2015 Member Spotlight Winner. She has been a Member of The Motion Room for over 2 years and we are very excited to be awarding her with $500 Motion Room Dollars to use for herself or for a friend.

We spent the day with Debbie earlier this month to hear her whole story first hand. Here is what she shared:

I came to The Motion Room back in 2012 near the end of the year and it had been a really hard year for me. I had the usual family things going on – two smalls kids, working, trying to maintain the house, all those things. But in the summer I found out my mother had breast cancer and that really threw me for a loop. I think physically, emotionally and in every way possible I was upside down. After her treatments were completed I realized how different I looked from five years before. I was overweight, I was out of shape and I had no energy to do things with the kids and I just wasn’t myself and I think all the time I spent with my mom sitting with her throughout her treatment had taken its toll. When she was feeling better I decided I needed to do something for myself, so I found out about The Motion Room and decided I would try it. The first day I came I felt terrible. I didn’t ‘think I could do it and I looked around and thought, oh my goodness, this is too much! But I stuck with it and look where I am now – its pretty great. This has been a huge change for me and a very positive change.

TMR: Take us back to that first workout. What were you thinking going into your first time at The Motion Room?

Debbie: Most of my adult life I had always worked out. I had always tried to stay fairly fit. But what I realized most when I first showed up that day was how I wasn’t able to do things the way I wanted and it was very frustrating for me. I kind of knew the form of what I wanted to do, but my muscles weren’t cooperating. I wasn’t strong enough to do even the simplest of things – squats and lunges. The trainers were really patient with me and reminded me it takes time. The whole program is set up to build things gradually and to, I think, to accommodate you. It’s your fitness journey, its nobody else’s, its yours. They just kept reminding me that I had to follow the program and I would see the results and that’s what happened. I didn’t get it at first, but I get it now and thanks to the trainers I really found my way and now I see what they were trying to tell me. I went home [that day] and I felt that I had started something really special.

TMR: How do you feel doing those exercises you struggled with now?

Debbie: I remember doing a 1-on-1 Check-In session with Emanuele probably a year after I had started and we did a test of pushups, and I had made such significant progress. I remember going home and I  felt like I had won the lottery. That’s when I knew I was back – that’s when I knew the old Debbie was back. It made me feel so great that I had accomplished something like that and it was really thanks to TMR and how the training worked for me.

TMR: How does The Motion Room fit in your life now?

Debbie: I believe that everybody chooses how they live their life and at this point I choose to get up every day early. I think As a mom you need to take time for yourself and you need to do things that make you happy.

Being a mom is kind of stressful and when I come here it helps me relieve the stress of my day. So I go to work after I’m done at TMR and I feel refreshed and I feel as though the stress of the day has been whisked away. At first it is a bit of a challenge, but now it’s just a part of what I do.

I think you lead by example. The kids need to know that physical activity is something that they need to be a part of because it’s good for their heart. I never talk about weight I just talk about how this is what mommy does to keep her heart healthy and I think that is a good way to teach them that physical activity should be a part of their day.

The best thing for me is that my kids see what I do every day and they just think that’s what every mommy does – gets up in the morning, goes to the gym. They check my My Polar Loop when I get home to see if I met my goal , and both of them just think its great every day that I come home and I’ve met my goal on my Polar Loop.