Marshall: Encouraged

This is the halfway mark for our A New Way to a New You participants. Six weeks down and six weeks to go. We asked each of them to share one word that describes their current state of mind and what they hope that word will be after the next six weeks. Marshall's word is ENCOURAGED.

The A New Way to a New You journey has given me a sound plan for meal planning and fitness that has been very effective. It is proving to be a process that can be incorporated into one’s schedule and lifestyle for on-going results.

Six weeks ago, I was hitting and missing on exercising. I had no consistency and no solid plan for fitness. I believe I was exercising out of guilt. (What I should have been doing but wasn’t doing it.) My eating habits were based on convenience of time and convenient food choices. Exercising and eating properly were not priorities. That was demonstrating that my health was not a priority.

I changed my priorities. Below my faith, my health has the highest priority. Without good health, I would not have much to offer my family and friends. I have been provided with a sound meal plan, a sound and solid fitness plan, instructions and guidance on how to create a workable lifestyle for optimal health.

At the end of the next six weeks, my word will be Encouraged. Achieving my goals over the twelve weeks will prove to me that better health through a better lifestyle is possible for most if not all. I am encouraged that with a proven plan, proper efforts and the discipline to stay committed to the plan, most, if not all can achieve better health.

"We cannot go back into our past and have a new start. But anybody can start now and have a new ending." - Author Unknown

Marshall working out.

A healthy cobb salad prepared by Marshall.

"Inspired and encouraged" at five weeks

It's time to catch up to the A New Way to a New You participants where they're at. We started by revisiting their first week, and now we rejoin them after five weeks on the program. Today, we'll look at Marshall, Lisa, and Holly.


After five weeks, Marshall has lost 17 pounds, making his current weight 211 pounds.

After five weeks, it feels like I am definitely getting more fit. I upped the intensity of my workouts to more cardio and strength exercises with less rest in between. The cardio is much stronger and I feel stronger throughout my body, which helps me get through the workouts, which I couldn’t have done at the beginning. So, that’s been a great sense of accomplishment.

People are starting to notice. They say they can see weight loss in my face and I’ve been noticing more definition. I feel stronger in my posture and even in my walk.

It makes you feel more comfortable with yourself. I was getting a little self-conscious because my body was beginning to take on a different shape. Now my clothes are fitting much better so that gives me more confidence and more self-acceptance.

Following the plan has been an adjustment, but it hasn’t been a problem. The priority I’ve placed on it won’t allow me to let it be a problem. The more I get into the meal plan, the more I’m enjoying it. The more I get into the fitness program, the more I’m enjoying it. It’s becoming a part of my day and I can see the change in lifestyle taking place.

It is very inspiring and encouraging to see what I have been doing and the results that I have been getting and understanding that I can reorganize and make adjustments to the way I’ve been living to continue living like the A New Way to a New You program is designed.

It’s not just something that I am doing. It’s not a separate entity anymore. I am striving to learn as much as I can to program this into my day and my week and make the necessary adjustments to organize my life and incorporate the meal planning and fitness into my life in a way I wasn’t doing before.

After five weeks, Lisa has lost 11 pounds, making her current weight 174 pounds.

I've pretty much lost a pound or two each week. I'd like it to go faster, but it is going in the right direction and that's a good thing.

I went through a plateau around the third week, so I quit weighing myself every day and went to once a week. I've really focused on how my clothes fit and I'm measuring my progress in my workouts too. I can do a few more push-ups each week than I could do the week before. I can extend my intervals on the heat (cardio) portion of the 4-3-2-1 a little longer than I could the week before.

It's very exciting - I'm into the smallest pair of jeans that I have!

I've been working out with my daugthers Rachel and Becca. My 12-year-old Becca told me the day after a workout that it hurt to sit down and this is the girl that's been playing basketball and is very active. We laugh and we have a lot of fun doing it so it's been a great family time for us. A significan turning point for me just this past week was realizing that I was looking forward to going and doing my workout. Over the past four weeks I never thought 'I don't want to do this,' but now I'm looking forward to working out and that's a significant change in my mental attitude.

From a shopping standpoint, the first couple weeks getting my shopping list together was incredibly hard. I never had been that organized and to have menus and recipes and to put all that together, it was a big task to do that. Weeks three, four and five have really been so much easier because I have the staples in my kitchen now. When I shop, I'm just replenishing the fruits and vegetables, and proteins. That first week I probably had five hours into understanding the meal plan and understanding the recipes and another three hours of shopping. Now, it's 30 minutes putting together my shopping list and probably less than an hour at the store.

Lisa ending a workout with her 15-year-old daughter Rachel.

After five weeks, Holly has lost eight pounds, making her current weight 149 pounds.

One of the biggest things I notice when I'm losing weight is that my rings slide off and they're starting to do that.

Honestly, I wish I would have dropped more weight by now, but the blog going live was the biggest motivator ever. I needed that extra boost when all the "before" interviews went up.

The 4-3-2-1 workout is amazing. I get two 15-minute breaks at work, so I've been doing the 4-3-2-1 on my breaks. I can't believe how much 10 minutes can do and I'm excited about doing that a little bit more. I want to challenge myself to go up to three sets.

You can do the 4-3-2-1 anywhere, even if you're traveling. That has been really exciting because I've never had that benefit with exercise before. I've always felt like I have to go to the gym to get a good workout, but with the bands and just the minimal equipment you need for the 4-3-2-1, you can get a really good workout.

I got down to a different pant size. We went for a walk and my pants were sagging on me pretty bad, so I tried on a smaller size and I went from a size 8 to a size 6 in one of the brands that I buy, so that was exciting.

Holly's first week: Fitting it all in and seeing progress on the scale

Well, I have to say the first week went fabulously! There wasn’t a single recipe that my husband Aaron and I didn’t love. My favorite so far on the meal plan has been the Tuna Melt. That was amazing! Quite frankly, we were having a hard time getting all the food in! My favorite thing to say now is that besides exercising, I am pretty much preparing food, eating food or shopping for food! Seriously, I know that is just for right now as we are adjusting to a new way of life, but it has been fun learning so much!

The plan has been totally easy to follow and as I get better at preparing ahead, it gets even easier. So far, I have been sticking right to the plan, so no creativity or exchanges yet, but definitely in the future. It has been amazing in just seven short days how much we have learned in terms of what can be done with veggies alone such as the soy sauce with the Beef Stir Fry… that was totally like having Chinese food!

Ahhh, physical changes… for sure, a ton more energy. I seem to be a bit more tired now due to the increase in exercise but overall the increase in iron and clean eating has made a tremendous difference already! So far, I have lost four pounds but more importantly my clothes are getting loose (especially I noticed that in a pair of pajama pants, that had been getting tight… now, totally loose!) and my rings are getting loose as well. And a pair of knee high dress boots, those also zipped up easier the other day… I say that because I appear to store fat evenly distributed over my body so I have noticed all kinds of little things like that … very exciting!

Exercise has been going well, I was able to stick with the 10 minutes a day for the first days and now I look forward to increasing my workouts. Saturday was the first day I was able to make it to the YMCA and that was awesome (I do a BodyPump class there, but haven’t been back since November!).

For the first week, a few challenges were 1.) learning how to get a handle on preparing (fitting this into our life), 2.) sleep (in terms of getting enough) and due to the lack of gracefulness I seem to possess, 3.) I rolled my ankle. I know, totally embarrassing… but it got better quickly, I just had to use lots of ice!