Portfolio Items

Rachel Gerard

    Personal Information

    I have been a local Realtor for 7 years with an inner passion to learn what I can about health, nutrition and wellness. For the last 2 years I have been in nursing school working towards my RN degree, and will have this completed by the end of 2010.  I am a Mom of two daughters, both in their early 20’s. I LOVE helping others learn about health and fitness, enjoy quality time with friends, tending to my gardens, and love stretching my mind to consider new ideas and then help to inspire my friends to try on new outlooks whenever possible as well.

    What are your greatest fitness accomplishments so far?

    My energy level has gone through the roof! I’ve lost more than 30lbs since I started working out four years ago, I’ve reduced the 9 point caliper check by over half, down to the low 20%, have gone from a tight size 12-14, to a very comfortable size 2-4, and my blood pressure went from my “normal” of 140/80, to a new normal of 118/70. I was diagnosed with symptoms that were pointing to Raynauds, and hospitalized with no real underlaying cause other than “stress” being named as the culprit.  It’s been over a year since my last symptoms of Raynauds showed itself, and with regular workouts and proper nutrition, rest and stress management, things just keep getting better with persistence and time.  My next goal is to step on stage later this fall and compete with the best of them!

    What changes have you seen & what has helped you make the transformation?

    While I was in my 20’s, I looked fit.  I think I was more of a “skinny/fat”, that quickly gave way to just plain good old fashioned fat once I was in my early 30’s! Once I said to my friends, “I need to lose weight”, and I no longer heard the polite, “No you don’t, your’e fine”, I KNEW I was really fat!  Then in the summer of 06, just before my 38th birthday, two things happened. I saw pictures from a cruise, and I looked directly AT the pictures of our group, and didn’t know that WAS ME! The next turning point was shopping for a new outfit to wear to my daughters high school graduation. I wanted something that fit, that didn’t make me feel like a stuffed sausage. That led to me the rack at Ann Taylor (where the sizes are “friendly” to women), and I walked out with a size 12 skirt and top! At Ann Taylor!!! I knew if I’d bought that elsewhere, that 12 would be more like a 14.  That WAS it!  I started with reading books like, Fast Food Nation, Supersize Me, and then several books by Dr. Weil.  After a few weeks of starting with what I was eating, converting my household over to an organic lifestyle and driving them crazy with all the new info I was absorbing, I went back to the gym.  The trainers at the gym made the deadly mistake of asking, “When are you due?”  WHAT!!!!  That just spurred me on more!  I told myself with each rep that I was an athlete, even if I didn’t feel or look like one.  I started from the inside, and it has worked itself out.

    What do you enjoy most about fitness?

    The one thing that I love about fitness is that it’s really all about mind over matter. I LOVE to walk out after a great workout and have black and white numbers, written proof of what can happen over time. It’s an awesome feeling to have one thing that you can could on to make you feel better no matter how you feel when you walk in to the gym, no matter how out of control other parts of life may seem, its the one area you can show up for and SEE the results.  They are not dependent on anyone else doing their part…. YOU just have to show up, put in the work, and your body repays you.  I love the effect it has on others, and the feeling that comes with being able to help someone else, or when someone asks me for advice on fitness, and I can actually share what little I have learned over time.

    What are your fitness goals?

    My latest goal is to walk on stage fall 2010 and compete in my first show.  A new mental challenge.  To me, a show is a physical representation of mind over matter.  I’ve been told all my life how “strong” I am mentally.  A fitness goal is one way to look into the mirror and laugh back at the “random self talk” that goes on in all our heads, that we have to be aware of, and it all simply squash it into place.  We truly are the results of what we think about, what we allow our minds to dwell on.  When I felt like a “fat sausage”, I looked like one, and behaved like one. When I told myself I was an “athlete” …even when nothing had changed yet physically, in time my behavior saw those thoughts through.  That’s how I am looking at my next fitness goal.  To the outsider, I may not yet “look” like the competitor, but I’m telling myself I am one.  That’s all I need to know right now, and I know that my behavior will continue to lead me that way, and in the months to follow, I will look like one.  I can’t wait to see how I can help others with that new platform as well!

    What motivates you to maintain a healthy lifestyle?

    The simple health benefits.  Working my clinical shifts in the hospital is heart wrenching at times when you are caring for someone not far off from your age, and they are losing a foot, or a leg due to type II diabetes.

    What is the best part about working with Julie?

    Julie really listens to me, and tells me like it is.  She tells me, I’ve got some hard work ahead of me, but also believes that it will be done.  I love that Julie has personal experience that she doesn’t mind sharing on a personal level. I love the feeling of our little fitness family that comes from meeting with all the women on Julie’s team when the season starts.  I love getting a personal quick response from Julie when I have a personal question and need a real answer, not a textbook answer… but a reply that has to do with me personally.

    What is the worst part about working with Julie?

    I will let you know if  I come up with something.

    Favorite 'diet' food:

    Beverly International’s UMP, ice, peanut butter, skim milk. YUM!

    Any other comments or anything else you would like to share

    My favorite quote, “Thoughts becomes things, choose the good ones” is true.  It’s easy to think the women who are into fitness are somehow different than those that arent while you are on the other side of the fence.  No one is really different when it comes down to it, it’s just a matter of aligning your thoughts with what you want.  And it starts there.

    “Thoughts becomes things, choose the good ones”

    FITBODY Inspiration

    After

    Julie Lohre FITBODY Profile Rachel Gerard

    Before

    Julie-Lohre-FITBODY-Profile-Rachel-Gerard-2

    Working with Julie

    Julie really listens to me, and tells me like it is.  She tells me, I’ve got some hard work ahead of me, but also believes that it will be done.  I love that Julie has personal experience that she doesn’t mind sharing on a personal level.

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