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My Teacher Teased Me And Called Me Muscle Mom

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 27, 2007

Melinda Sheer, 39, Carrollwood

Height: 5-foot-4

Starting weight: 145

Current weight: 128

Why I did it: We're a pretty active family. My husband and I have always been active. We're joggers and keep physically fit.

The last couple of years, life threw us some curveballs. Life got hectic, and we stopped exercising and were eating much more. We both got out of shape and put on some weight.

How I did it: All three of my kids take karate at Tiger Schulmann's mixed martial arts school, where they were doing a 90-day fitness challenge. I signed up for March 15 to June 15.

You had to attend the school four hours a week, and they would help you with your diet. The incentives they had were grand prizes and free classes. If you could lose at least 15 pounds, you'd get a free class for each pound you lost.

Like any structured program, if there's someone sort of keeping track of you, you tend to do it. It was a good push to do something I needed to do to get back in shape.

They provided some nutrition guidelines. I'm not the best dieter in the world. Diet-wise, I just did common sense stuff.

I kept a journal, which helped me make sure I didn't cheat. The weight came off within the first 45 days. The rest of the time, I was just getting back in shape. I actually have abs. I have muscles.

In the beginning, I was trying to keep it to 1,000 calories a day for the first couple of weeks. I just knew if I didn't lose several pounds quickly, I would lose interest.

I don't like to restrict myself, so I tended to exercise more. I exercised every day whether or not I was going to karate class, but I made sure I did four classes. After a couple of weeks, I was in good enough shape to jog again.

Now I do karate and I jog.

I'm probably one of the more shy people in our school, and next thing I know, my picture was on several posters at school. The posters show the success stories, before and after photos that show the average Joe that anybody can do this. My teacher teased me and called me Muscle Mom.

Hurdles: I think it was too short of a period to feel like I hit a plateau. I did buy a scale, but I wasn't weighing myself very much. I figured if I was exercising a lot and not eating junk, I was moving toward my goal.

Going the distance: My goal was to lose at least 15 pounds. From there I had a few bonus pounds.

My goal once I did that was to stay in shape. I enjoy exercising and had gotten to the point where I couldn't exercise, I couldn't jog anymore. I recently went jogging and did six miles.

For years I had done the Gasparilla race. The last two years, I couldn't even bring myself to do the 5K. I just e-mailed my husband and told him that I'm up for the 15K this year.

The contest was sort of a goal to get me to my goal — to be able to do the exercise that I like. I still enjoy karate and go about two to three hours a week.

It definitely felt good to get back in shape. It was an accomplishment. And the kids were excited that I was doing something they were doing.

Best advice: With any kind of program, if you have another person helping you or counting on you, it gives you incentive. Unless you're incredibly self-motivated, you should have a trainer or a buddy at the gym to keep you going on a regular basis. Just find the program or person to help motivate you.

I think anyone can do anything.

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