Editor’s Note: Today we want to introduce you to Heidi Holloway, a Navy wife with an inspiring story of determination and success. Enjoy!

I have lost over 50 pounds. I went from being an exhausted, overweight mom who was tired just chasing toddlers, to being a personal trainer. Over the past year, since sharing some progress pictures, and becoming a personal trainer, I have had many people ask me how I did it. And, could I please help them do the same.

So I decided to share my story in hopes of helping more people to realize that anyone can do it. It’s not easy, and it won’t happen overnight, but it can be done! So here goes.

And before I start, I am not a dietitian, Nutritionist, or Doctor. I am just simply sharing my story, and some opinions, and how I got to where I am today. I would always recommend that anyone who is looking to start a health and fitness journey, that they talk to their doctor first!

I was hoping to start off with a good ‘before’ picture of me from the beginning of my journey, but due to the fact that I hid from the camera then, those are limited. So I will start off with my starting stats and the best picture I can come up with.

At 24-years -old, I tipped the scales at 227 pounds. This was right after delivering my first child. At the time, I was not happy with myself but that was pretty much the extent of my thoughts on it. I knew I wanted to lose weight, but it was not high on my list of priorities.

I mean I was planning to have more babies so why bother if I was just going to gain it again right? Man, what I wouldn’t give to find a time machine to go back and kick my 24-year-old self in the butt! It wasn’t until two years later, after having my second child and still keeping the scale at about 215 pounds that I finally felt that something needed to be done. I wanted a change, not just for myself, but for my family. I knew that I should not already be out of breath and tired after chasing a toddler around at such a young age. So that is where my journey began.

It sounds like that was such a simple choice to make, and then act on. I wish it were that easy! It was completely the opposite. I had no idea what to do or where to start. So I did what anyone would do, I turned to the internet!

And to spare you the many details of mistakes and wrong turns that lead me through, let’s just say I have not done everything right. I have tried many fad diets, fat blockers, pills, vitamins, shakes, bars, you name it I have probably at least tried it once. My point here, none of that worked. There was not going to be a shortcut to my getting healthy, I was going to have to work for it. But the mistakes didn’t end there.

I finally got some decent advice, and decided to start learning to count calories and monitoring my food intake. I used www.myfitnesspal.com which is an awesome site to track with. However, in my experience, there is a fine line between tracking calories, starvation and obsession to tracking. So while I still recommend to this day that tracking is the best place to start, keep in mind that it is just a reference point, and should not be more important than the air you breathe.

I have a tendency to become a little obsessed with things, especially numbers. My husband had to point it out a few times for me to realize I  was going overboard.

And also, it may seem that when the site sets a goal of, let’s just say 1500 calories a day, you are doing great if you are always coming in under your goal. This is not always the case. So much for that math!  When given a goal for calories, you should be meeting your goal or very close to every day, it is actually not terrible to even go over it by a few calories here and there.

I know crazy right, wouldn’t that be over eating?!? Yea, well, while our bodies are machines and for the most part work on a ‘simple’ calories in and calories out formula. That doesn’t mean the formula is the same for every person.

For instance, the formula used on MyFitnessPal to calculate how much you should be eating is a generalized calculation that works to give a guideline for most people to follow. Health and fitness is not a one size fits all program!

I learned much later in my journey, that it is better to eat a little more than it says and slow progress temporarily, than to eat well under every day and slow your progress significantly in the future by teaching your body to burn muscle rather than fat. This is a hard problem to correct! Trust me! Again, weight loss is not a one size fits all program, so talk to your doctor, find what works for YOU!

So, after I got the calorie tracking thing down, I had lost about 50 pounds pretty quickly, and by quickly I mean over the course of about a year. Thank god for being young, once you hit 30 and 40, the struggle is real!

I then hit a plateau. Restricting calories more than I already had was not an option and yet I wasn’t making any more progress, now what?!  The next thing on the agenda was adding in workouts. And again, I found that I had no idea where to begin.

So, I bought workout videos, used Wii, I attempted the C25K program several times, did some online workouts, etc. And guess what?  This time, It all helped! Exercise is the one category where, aside from injuring yourself from overdoing it too quickly, I feel like you really can’t go wrong.

As long as you are moving, you are burning calories, and that is good news! And the best part is most of these activities can be done with your whole family instilling these healthy habits into your kids as well! It’s a WIN – WIN!

The next question I am often asked, is do I recommend you start with a trainer? Well, as a trainer, YES!!! I want to work with all of you and help you all! However, in reality, it really depends on you. Trainers are not always for everyone. How motivated are you to get up and do the workouts every day without someone there to make sure you do them? Be honest with yourself!

Do you know what you are doing enough to be able to work out at the gym without direction? If you can do it on your own and can find a program to follow and actually keep up with it, then go for it! If you need the accountability or have some special considerations to work around, maybe you have an injury or a heart condition, a trainer can be a great help to get you going in the right direction.

Even more so than a personal trainer, I highly recommend getting into group fitness. Personally, that is where my life and journey really changed. An outdoor boot camp program for military spouses here in Hawaii lit a fire for fitness in me that will never be put out! If you’re ever in Hawaii check them out, Dumbell Fitness.

I found that the camaraderie, encouragement and enthusiasm from a group fitness class were exactly what I needed to continue to excel. And it never hurts to have a little healthy competition here and there!

Bottom line is, when it comes to exercise, get out there and start moving. Take a walk, take a bike ride, go for a swim, turn off the TV, turn off the computer, after you are done reading this of course, and get outside and have some fun! And yes, your workouts should be fun! I mean think about it, if you hate what you do every day, what are your chances of continuing long term? Yea, not going to happen!

So, try lots of different things, and find something that you enjoy, there are so many options to choose from you are guaranteed to find something that keeps you coming back. I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be work, but you should still enjoy it on some level! This journey is not temporary; it is the rest of your life!

My final point to make and it’s pretty high up on the importance scale… DON’T QUIT!!! Whatever you do, however many road blocks you hit, plateaus that you reach, or setbacks you come to... NEVER QUIT!

Once you are going in the right direction, don’t look back. You can take short detours, but you can never give up and just go back to where you started. The feeling of accomplishment, of invincibility, (yes I said invincibility) the thought that no matter what someone throws at you, knowing that ‘you got this’ - that feeling is worth more than any job could ever pay! That is the feeling I want everyone who starts out on a journey to feel someday!

 The journey is long, the journey is hard, the journey never really ends. But, it is SO worth it!