CJ Kealey

Hi, WarriorBabe community. My name is CJ Kealey and I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Go Pens. Go Steelers. I'm 53 years old and just recently changed my career moving from an HR professional of 20 plus years to now a senior consultant and principal in the health and benefits practice of a large global consulting firm. I'm married for over 25 years and am the proud mama of two amazing adult children. My 24 year old son graduated from college in 2020 and he's now a minor league baseball player living at home in the off season and my 21 year old daughter is finishing her senior year in college and will graduate this May with a degree in early childhood education. I've been on my health journey for about 15 years now and I've tried all different programs to lose weight and have an active lifestyle. I've done the Atkins diet, the grapefruit diet, Weight Watchers and those produced temporary results but nothing long-term and the weight always came back. I've also enjoyed fitness classes such as strength training, yoga, Zumba, kickboxing. I used to be a runner and did several half marathons but now much prefer hiking and walking and during the pandemic, I was struggling to take control over my nutrition and my body and gaining weight. I put on about 20 pounds as a result of making very poor choices with food and having minimal activity other than walking. Earlier this year in February when I went to see my annual OB-GYN visit, I was talking with my doctor about my weight gain and the feeling of being out of control. She said, "you know, once you hit 50, you gain about eight pounds a year on average" and I said, um, no, that's not what I want. She said I really needed to focus on my macros and to find a tracker to help me do that. I didn't even know what macros were. She recommended WarriorBabe and said she had been following this program and was seeing results. So I went home, I Googled WarriorBabe and found the Blueprint program. I really liked what I saw in the success stories and the before and after pictures from women my age making the changes I wanted to see in myself. I decided to get more information and set up a time to do the interview to learn more. I was concerned with how to structure my meals with feeding my family and how I would get the activity in with no access to a gym. The coach I talked with let me know she was able to eat what her family eats and that there are at home workouts that can be used especially with the pandemic limiting our options. I decided if I wanted to make this change, it was worth the investment in myself to do this. So I signed up for the program in March and immediately embraced the information shared in the modules. I took a ton of notes and worked on defining my why so that I could set my goal and envision how I would look and feel in the future. Having the right mindset and focusing on the end results have been so important to my success. This is the very first thing I needed to do, focus on my goals and realize and understand it would be a process to get there and it was not gonna be a quick fix. I learned I'm an ecto-endomorph and found my macro plan following the guidance from Nikkiey in the modules. I was not an undereater so I started in the Tone and Shape program. I did Weight Watchers in the past for many years so I was familiar with tracking food for points but not with tracking macronutrients. So I was new to that part of the process. It was a tough act at first. I found a combination of daily meals that worked and then ate the exact same foods every day for a week. Once I got the hang of it, I introduced more variety into my meal plans and staying within my macros. Meal prepping is key and planning macros for the very least the next day has helped me to stay on track. Tracking macros is now so much easier. I now quickly know what foods I need to get to a certain number of fats or carbs or proteins. The Macro Mastery module is key to learning how to do this. For my activity, I started with the six week At Home Burn program and since my son is an athlete, we had some weights and I had a mat and a yoga ball and some bands. I expanded the home gym equipment and purchased a bench, some additional dumbbells and set up a home gym in my garage. It was a slow start watching the videos of how to do the weight exercises and it took me a little while to get comfortable but I gradually increased the weights and the number of reps and could start to see results. I'm so proud of what I've been able to do over the past seven months. I've lost 28 pounds and reduced my body fat 4.3% not only reaching but exceeding my goals. I'm now in the maintenance phase and made my first adjustment to my macros and as Nikkiey recommends, during maintenance, it's still so important to set goals. My goals are to maintain my current weight and increase the weight I'm using to exercise. Above all, I want to continue to be consistent and maintain control. Sometimes it's difficult for family and friends to truly understand and relate to this change in my lifestyle. The WarriorBabe Facebook community is full of support and helpful tips and inspirational stories. I've really enjoyed the experience and learning from the other babes and applying their knowledge and guidance to my personal journey. This has been so helpful for my own personal accountability. If you're serious about taking control over your nutrition and fitness and reshaping your body to match what you envision for yourself, I highly recommend WarriorBabe Blueprint. It's so important to understand that this is a process and it takes commitment and as Nikkiey says, "trust the process." The outcome will be a positive change in your mindset and your lifestyle and you will see the results. Thank you.