Everyone has a story. We met four inspiring people who recently decided to change their stories of unhealthy habits and self-doubt to stories about dedication, goals and amazing victories. Read on and learn about the weight loss journeys of these four individuals.
Photos by Paul Flessland
Related: Loser Lifestyle
AMY SCHNELL [Lost 85 Pounds]
If you think you don’t have time to shed those pesky pounds, check out Amy Schnell’s inspirational story.
For Amy Schnell, there is no such thing as being too busy for fitness. Life has thrown quite a few curve balls at this single mother and MSUM student, but no circumstances were enough to keep her from getting healthy.
Schnell explained how she began to gain a lot of weight when she was 23, shortly after having her daughter. She wanted to hide from the world.
“I just kind of let myself go,” she said. “I was a single mom, I wasn’t ready to be a mom and I was in a bad relationship. There were just so many things going on, I think I just used it (unhealthy lifestyle) to hide.”
At 230 pounds, Schnell decided enough was enough and committed to getting her life back. The 35-year-old, who now works out regularly at Xtreme Measures, knew that getting healthy would be as much of a mental change as it would a physical one.
“You have the inner and the outer, the physical (aspect), and you need both of them,” she explained. “When people start with the physical but they don’t do the inner work, that weight is going to come back.”
It was with this holistic attitude that Schnell began tackling her problem, which had simmered for about 10 years.
“Something just kind of hit,” she said, explaining how she moved to Fargo in 2013 and began to exercise. “I was ready to get my life back on the physical level.”
> Xtreme Weight Loss
When Schnell decided to get in shape, nothing, not even her daily to-do list would get in the way. She reminisced about finding Xtreme Measures through a SaveCoin discount promoting a weight loss challenge the gym was hosting.
She knew it was time to invest in herself.
“I just knew that it was time and I needed to do it for me,” she said. “I’d spent a lot of time taking care of others, especially as a parent, but it was time for me.”
Though she had resolve, Schnell’s introduction to the world of fitness, gym memberships and group classes wasn’t always easy. Laughingly, Schnell recalled trying out different classes and leaving so embarrassed that she wouldn’t return for several months.
“It was so hard to get started,” she explained. “I was so self conscious.”
This lack of self-esteem is common amongst overweight people who are getting into fitness, but Mariah Prussia, the owner of Xtreme Measures, along with the other coaches and members shared their support and Schnell felt like she was a part of a family.
“When Amy first became a member of Xtreme Measures she was very timid and a little nervous,” Prussia said. “You could tell that she covered herself with a protective barrier. As she became more and more comfortable with her own mind and body, she let more individuals in and now has become a mentor for our members and instructors.”
As she got more and more involved in classes at Xtreme Measures and training through Prussia’s various programs, Schnell began to notice a difference in her weight and overall health.
“I saw a difference within the first six months, but it took me a little over a year to get to my fitness goals,” she said, adding that the wait was well worth it. “If it would’ve gone really quick for me, I might have gone back to where I was.”
Another aspect of her journey through weight loss was learning to accept and love herself, turning off the negative thoughts about her appearance.
“I wasn’t comfortable in my own skin. You have to start by loving and accepting yourself where you are and as your are before you can take that step. You say, ‘This is where I am, this is where I want to be and it’s okay.’” – Amy Schnell
> Healthy Days Ahead
Now that Schnell has met her weight loss and health goals, she has worked with Prussia to define new fitness aspirations to strive for. Working out five to seven times a week, incorporating strength training twice a week and doing as much yoga as she can fit in, Schnell has made a complete and lasting change to her lifestyle.
“To me, it’s so much more than what you lose,” she said about her own weight loss. “It’s gaining life — gaining confidence.”
Her life also looks different in the things she eats and even how often she eats.
“I eat a lot more now,” she said, laughing. “I eat healthy and I keep healthy food in my house.”
Schnell said she hopes to be a positive example for her 12-year-old daughter, showing her what it is to work for something and the importance of being healthy.
Prussia echoes the positive outlook Schnell now has for her life, commenting that she is a positive force in the gym and to those around her.
“What I admire most about Amy is that she has utilized her struggles to create her strengths, not only in herself but in others,” she said. “She leaves a positive impact on all who she encounters.”
Schnell lost a total of 85 pounds in about 12 months and is now looking ahead to creating new goals for a new challenge. Looking back on the entire process, she said she is thankful for where she has gotten, but always wants to be trying to achieve more.
“I’ve reached this and I’m grateful for it,” she said. “What’s next?”
PRESLEY HAGEN [Lost 212 Pounds]
This teenager is taking back his health, having lost an impressive 212 pounds in only two years.
Seventeen-year-old Presley Hagen is known to be a celebrity at the Fercho YMCA in Downtown Fargo. His cheery disposition and smile widely received throughout the gym by members, trainers and staff alike.
Despite his young age, Hagen has already invested deeply in his own health, working tirelessly over the past two years to get healthy and lose weight. Before he started frequenting the workout room in the lower level of the Y, Hagen was 390 pounds.
One of Hagen’s mentors, Joe Foertsch, has watched Hagen’s perseverance and passion for getting healthy throughout the entire two-year process.
“It’s funny,” Foertsch said. “He’s like a celebrity there (YMCA). Everybody knows him. That’s been a motivator.”
> Routine Fitness
Working with trainers at the facility, Hagen created workout routines and nutritional guidelines to help keep him on track in his weight loss. Hagen said his favorite things to do at the gym include running on the treadmill or elliptical, biking and lifting weights.
He is also involved in basketball and jokingly added that he could easily beat his dad in a game.
Foertsch said that Hagen is at the YMCA exercising three to four times a week. He also said the Hagen has improved his portion control when eating meals and focuses more on eating healthy foods.
> 200 Pounds Later
Overall, Hagen has lost 212 pounds in only two years. In July, he underwent surgery to remove excess skin from areas where the weight has melted off his body.
After the same day surgery, doctors encouraged Hagen to get up and moving shortly after the surgery in order to decrease soreness.
Hagen will be starting his senior year of high school this fall. His newfound healthy lifestyle and body will be assets to his successes in the future. His advice to other people who might be trying to lose weight is simple: eat healthy, plan meals, get outside as much as possible and exercise daily.
BETH LANGERUD [Lost 120 Pounds]
It wasn’t too late for this mother of three and grandmother of one to take back her life and get healthy.
Just a hair away from reaching a weight of 250 pounds, Beth Langerud made a decision two years ago to change her life for the better. The mother of three began a long process that would ultimately lead her to losing 120 pounds.
She said that 250 mark was the breaking point. Weighing in at 248 pounds and nearing the dreaded number, she finally decided to make a change.
It couldn’t have come sooner. Langerud, who now works out regularly at Core Fitness, recalled driving past the gym where she is now a member and thinking she would go in one day.
“Every day I drove by and it was probably with a burger in my hand or something,” she said laughing.
Finally, she steered her car into the parking lot one day and walked in the door to begin a journey that would challenge and reward over the next two years.
> Twenty-One Days
Langerud got started with a 21-day challenge to improve her diet and exercise regularly with the help of the trainers at Core Fitness.
“He (trainer) sat me down and said, ‘It takes 21 days to make a habit or break a habit,’” Langerud recalled. “That was his philosophy.”
Over the course of the following three weeks, Langerud cut sweetened drinks, pastries and pastas out of her diet, replacing them with healthier vegetables and fruits.
She admitted it wasn’t easy, especially when it came up to giving up her beloved Coca-Cola diet.
“I’m talking six cans of Coke a day, and I don’t mean Diet Coke,” she said.
June 28 marked her two-year anniversary of being soda free, though it is still a temptation.
These changes in her diet coincided with a headfirst dive into the world of fitness. Langerud liked the size of Core Fitness and felt she could hide away on a treadmill, working away in private. She began exercising at 5:30 in the morning with the hopes that the gym would be empty.
Little did she know, the trainers at Core Fitness had much more in store for her weight loss journey.
“She was hesitant in the beginning based off the simple fact that she didn’t know where to start after joining,” James Hensyel, Core Fitness co-owner, said. “I assured her that we would set her up with a personal trainer right away to get a better understanding of what her goals were.”
Setting up a fitness regimen and creating goals with the help of the trainers helped Langerud become more comfortable with the gym and the idea of exercising in front of other people, something she had been very afraid of.
After four months of keeping up with her new lifestyle, Langerud weighed herself and found her weight had dipped below 200 pounds.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be an overnight fix. It took me all these years to put it on. It’s not just going to come off, not in the right way.” – Beth Langerud
All told, it took two years for Langerud to reach a healthy weight and feel that she had reached her weight loss goals. Now, her focus has turned from losing pounds to maintaining her weight, creating new goals and living out the healthy lifestyle she began two years ago.
> Baby Steps and Small Changes
With a three-year-old granddaughter in her life now, Langerud needs the energy to be able to crawl around on the floor, chase after the energetic toddler and play outside. Looking back on the years she was overweight and had all her kids at home, Langerud said she wishes she would have been healthier to do more things with them.
“I was just setting up for being sick and not being able to do stuff with my kids,” she said. “I mean, it’s just the little things in life.”
Throughout the entire process, she doesn’t remember ever being totally discouraged, but it was always a challenge to stay dedicated to her goals. Making small changes in her life was the key to getting down to a healthy weight and living a healthier life in general.
Langerud doesn’t believe that diets or any programs that advertise themselves as quick fixes for weight loss are the answer. Rather, getting healthy is a lifestyle change, one that took her two years to master.
“It’s a lifestyle journey and it’s one day at a time. Just small changes, baby steps,” she said. “If your weakness is (eating) chips, give them up. I guarantee it’s going to be hard because that one weakness that you have is going to be the hardest thing to overcome.”
She assured that it’s worth it, recalling how scary her life was as she neared her 250-pound benchmark.
“It’s really scary and you say, ‘I’ll start (working out) next week,’” she said. “I drove past that gym for six months. And then one day I just got on the scale and said, ‘I just can’t do this.’”
In the two years Langerud has been attending Core Fitness, Hensyel has watched her open up and gain her confidence back.
“She has definitely let her guard down in regards to self-doubt and it shows,” he said. “She is usually front and center in all the classes she participates in from Bodypump to Dance Attack.”
Langerud’s advice to anyone else trying to live healthier lives and get to a healthier weight is to avoid the quick fixes and make small changes, for example, give up soda like she did.
“It’s a journey and it’s day by day and it’s baby steps. Honestly, if I can do this, anybody in the world can do this.” – Beth Langerud
> A Week in the Gym with Langerud
Langerud couldn’t exercise in front of trainers or other people when she started attending Core Fitness. Now, she is involved in several group classes offered at the gym, including Zumba, Bodypump and Dance Attack.
“The first time in Zumba I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, is this America’s Funniest Videos or what?’ she said. “Almost two years later I go to the class every week without fail.”
Langerud’s weekly schedule has her stopping in at the gym, which is located a close two blocks from her home, day after day and sometimes multiple times in one day.
Monday
Lift weights and strength training in the morning.
Zumba group class at night.
Tuesday
Lift weights.
Run on the treadmill.
Wednesday
Back-to-back classes in Dance Attack and Bodypump.
Thursday
Light cardio.
Friday
Bodypump group class.
Lift weights.
Run on the treadmill.
Saturday
Dance Attack group class.
Sunday
Go for a run.
Langerud said her schedule and healthy eating habits are both a part of a larger change she made in her lifestyle. It’s much bigger than going on a diet or trying to find a quick fix. Overcoming her own fear of exercising in front of other people was enough of a hurdle to discourage Langerud from sticking with it.
“I don’t care how awkward you feel because I was 250 pounds and I started. You just start somewhere,” she said. “You change your whole mentality.”
JOAN HAMRICK [Lost 130 Pounds]
Joann Hamrick needed to make some major changes to her life in order to make her weight loss stick.
About 13 years ago, Joann Hamrick lost 80 pounds. Her success was short lived as she slowly but surely gained the weight back and then some over the next nine years.
A former night shift worker at Prairie St. John’s, Hamrick said her eating habits involved fast food, fast food and more fast food.
Her routine consisted of working from 11 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., going home and watching the television until the afternoon, falling asleep and getting up again in time to return to work.
“It is no wonder that I was gaining weight with the way I ate and the lack of activity,” she said.
> Changing Paths
Hamrick said one of the best changes she made was getting off the night shift schedule, as it fostered unhealthy eating and sleeping habits. The change was quickly followed by trying out Core Fitness, which had a deal at the time where clients could have a free session with one of their trainers.
Recalling one of her nightly binges, as she referred to it, Hamrick said she stopped by Core Fitness to take a look around and found out the special ended that night. On a whim, she signed up for an orientation and membership that night.
Hamrick began working with Jenny Trucke, who now co-owns Revolution Personal Training Studio. Because of arthritis in both her knees, however, Hamrick didn’t return to the gym for several months.
Her doctor told her she needed to keep moving, despite the pain, or the knees would continue to decline.
“I had to do something to get my knees to feel better and I knew this path was the one I had to pursue,” Hamrick said. “If I didn’t do something, I would probably have slowly lost mobility and just continued to grow bigger and bigger. I finally got to the point where that was not an option anymore.”
> Letting Go of Shame
Hamrick said she felt a lot of shame because she had previously lost 80 pounds, but allowed the weight to creep back on over the years. While gastric bypass was an option, she believed she could get healthy without a major procedure and began working with Trucke several times a week.
Going to the gym three times a week to workout with Trucke and incorporating cardio exercise on her own helped Hamrick become more and more comfortable with being active and allowed her to feel better mentally.
In addition, Hamrick’s knees proved to be a pleasant surprise. They were hardly bothering her. Starting slow, she remembered being shot after walking only one mile. Now, she can reach up to seven miles in one session.
As she exercised with Trucke and on her own, Hamrick also made a much needed change in the foods she ate. Cutting out fast food and keeping a food journal led to a 50-pound weight loss. She also started the Jenny Craig program, which helped bolster the positive eating habits she had established and continue her weight loss.
Over the past three years, Hamrick has decreased her weight by about 130 pounds. At her heaviest, she weighed 326 pounds.
> Happy, Healthy and Loved
Hamrick continues to work out with Trucke three times a week and does cardio on her own. She attributed her success largely to working with Trucke, who has always been an encouraging and motivating force.
“I am thankful for the guidance, coaching, sweat, tears and friendship I have received from Jenny over the years,” Hamrick said.
Currently, Hamrick’s life looks a lot different than it did three years ago. Instead of stopping at a fast food chain for every meal, she has expanded her palate to learn to enjoy vegetables and other healthy foods. She is careful to watch for hidden sugars and her sodium intake.
Now a preschool teacher at Triumph Lutheran Church, Hamrick has the energy to chase her kids around and have fun.
It’s obvious after talking to Hamrick for a minute that she has come a long way from who she was when she began losing weight.
“I have more confidence in myself and walk taller. I have learned that I am stronger than I think. I wrote in my journal the other day, ‘I am happy, I am healthy and I am loved.’” – Joan Hamrick
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