Christina Cores Overcomes Adversity on
Her Way From 240 Lbs to a Trim 118 lbs
Sometimes the first step along
the journey to
losing
significant weight is to set down all the emotional baggage you're
carrying. That's what Christina Cores learned as she embarked on the long, hard
journey from a miserable 240 lbs to a trim, vital 118 lbs. Exercise and proper
diet are indispensable to an amazing transformation like Christina's, but
taking a good, long, honest look at yourself and your lifestyle is usually a
good place to start.
You'd never know it to look at her
today, but the girl who now turns heads wherever she goes once had trouble climbing
a flight of stairs. Looking back on her life, Christina now knows that her
first steps toward the obesity that plagued her teenage years began at the
tender age of seven. That was the year her parents got divorced and the
aftermath of this emotional experience took a toll on her eating habits.
"For a while, I lived with my grandmother as things
were settling down," Christina remembers. "She loved to cook and she
could bake, too. Soon, eating became my escape, as I tried to fill the void
with food. I was steadily getting bigger and bigger each
year."
Then, at age 15, Christina faced three
life-changing scenarios that would cause any teen with a history of emotional
eating to further spiral out of control: her father passed away, she moved to a
new town and she started high school. Upon reaching 240 pounds and finding
herself out of breath while walking up the stairs at school, Christina realized
she needed to make a drastic change to help herself before it was too late.
"Everything about being overweight bothered me,"
she admits. "The way I saw it, I could not do all of the things the other
kids could do, because I saw myself as being
fat."
So, Christina began her
transformation by educating herself on ways to
lose
weight and change her lifestyle. After seeing the success of several
family members who were adopting
low-carb
eating strategies, Christina became a convert to that methodology.
She eliminated as many carbohydrates form her diet as possible for six months,
switched from soda to water, limited her sodium intake, avoided processed foods
and learned to read food labels. Christina then began slowly reintroducing such
healthy carbs into her diet as whole wheat toast and oatmeal.
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Of
course, the other half of the low-carb equation is an increase in protein
intake to
support
the muscle growth that makes
fat
loss possible. Here, Christina had an important ally in two key
Supreme Protein products.
"I was eating plenty of chicken, fish, and lean beef," Christina
recalls, "but it's important to have healthy proteins to snack on during
the day, when you're on the run, and bad carbs are calling out to you from every
fast-food outlet and mini-mart.
Supreme
Protein shakes really helped me stay on track. They contain a
high-quality protein blend that
feeds
my muscles, plus
healthy
fats,
vitamins
and minerals. And the taste is just terrific. Every shake is like an
ice cream treat.
Supreme
Protein bars perform the same essential function for me. High-quality
protein and nutrition in a snack-anywhere form. And with six different
delicious flavors to choose from, I'm never tempted by empty-calorie carb
snacks anymore."
But Christina realized that while diet
alone might make her thin, it wouldn't yield the fit and toned physique she was
hoping for--it was time to add exercise into her weight-loss plan. So, in the
spring of 2003, she started a workout that combined cardio and
strength-training moves. Later, a women's workout center gave Christina a
regimen to follow, with variations she could swap in and out as she progressed.
She then joined a gym, where she was able to broaden her training program
without the limitations that at-home workouts placed on
her.
"I noticed that working out
turned into a fun regimen," says Christina. "I had originally thought
I would be tired and fatigued, but it actually worked the opposite--it gave me
energy
and strength. Watching my transformation in the mirror gave me the
visual that reinforced everything I was doing."
It took
Christina two years to lose the weight, but her scale has steadily read 118
pounds for five years. Now 22, Christina works at a fine dining restaurant in
Schuamburg, IL, that specializes in meals that have
under 475 calories per serving. She
no longer needs to fixate on her caloric breakdown each day because she knows
how to listen to her body and make smart choices.
"My
diet largely consists of chicken, yogurt, oatmeal, protein shakes, nuts,
multigrain, whole wheat bread, eggs, peanut butter, fruits and veggies,"
says Christina. "And again, I couldn't have done it without
Supreme
Protein bars and
shakes.
They help me stay full longer and satisfy my sweet cravings. They are also
responsible for giving me that
extra
energy I need at the gym. I don't get that sore feeling like I did
before I used them."
While Christina feels that she's
"basically" the same person she was before her transformation, she
takes pride in the fact that she's armed herself with the knowledge she needs
to keep herself in shape. "I can feel a strong sense of confidence as I no
longer take my body for granted," she explains. "It is now clear to
me that all of my hard work was for a reason. I am glad that with my
success, others are able to take tips and advice from me so that I can help
them with their transformation as well."
In fact,
that's the direction Christina plans to take her career over the next several
years--she's hoping to find a job in the health and fitness field so she can
help others do what she's done.
Christina's
Workout Regimen
www.christinacores.com
"LIKE"
Christina on
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CARDIO
|
Treadmill : Total of 30
Minutes
[10min]
Jogging @5 .0
[10min] Run for 1 min @7 .0 / fast walk for .30sec @ 4 .0 /
the next 8.8 min is split with the above format
[5min] Incline of 15 for 5min @4
.2
[5min] Jogging for 2min @ 5.0 /Run for 1 min @ 7.0 /Walk
for 2min @ 3.0
|
Stairmaster
15min @12.0
|
ARMS
|
Free weights
Range from 5-12 pounds (3x's a
week)
|
LEGS
|
Leg Extentions
100 pounds 3sets of 12 (2x's a
week) |
ABS
|
Crunch Variations
10-15 min (every
workout) |