Charlene is a local attorney that also run a disc jockey service. Just from that you can tell Charlene is serious but also a lot of fun. Charlene's weight gain began as she progressed into her adult years. She put on ten lbs. in college, more in law school, a bit more when she got married. After the birth of her first son, Charlene couldn’t believe the number on the scale. She had an “aha moment” when a one size fits all robe at a spa didn’t fit her. This throttled her into working out with home workout tapes and then eventually training with a former Ms. Olympia, Carla Dunlap. After losing 96 lbs., Carla had encouraged Charlene to send her story in as a success story, and it seems that decision, shifted her life for the better.
From there, Charlene was selected to be in Gilad’s Bodies in Motion Infomercial and website, and then the Collage Video Catalog featured her story of strength and perseverance. About a year later, Collage contacted Charlene saying they had been contacted by Good Housekeeping Magazine and that they had been interested in doing a feature on a great fitness success story with someone who did home video workouts. After the feature in Good Housekeeping, she got inundated with people messaging her to ask “how did you do it?” Charlene started answering all kinds of questions on Facebook, and eventually became know as FBJ (a nickname which was short for Facebook Jillian, after Jillian Michaels as Charlene was always trying to encourage and inspire people to lose weight and to get fit and healthy, just like Jillian).
In a short amount of time, being a fitness success story took on a life of its own and Charlene created a separate Facebook page called FBJFit where she gives fun, friendly, but firm fitness and diet tips and advice. It’s grown to have over 1700 followers. Amazing! Her page continues to grow today, especially with the edition of her new blog.
Throughout her weight loss and fitness journey, Charlene was a huge fan of Luna Bars, and she wrote to them to say how if you Google her name, pictures of Luna Bars show up. Luna did a feature on their website about Charlene's story. With that support, she was chosen as a success story for PopSugar.com and got a tremendous response to the story they featured. Additionally, on a local level, the Reading Patch did a story and showed a picture of when Charlene got to meet fitness icon, Jillian Michaels, and the Reading Times and Chronicle also did a front page story detailing her success.
Charlene continues to write for her FBJFit social media pages, and while she is still an attorney, fitness has become her true passion. She hears from people all over the world about their own struggles to be fit and how her story resonates with them, and that is something that keeps Charlene inspired to share her continued success and help others reach their fitness goals!
In Charlene's first blog post, she shares her story and then some great advice on how to kick the excuses to the curb. Even after reaching her fitness goal, Charlene continues to work at making the right choices. She believes that having been on both sides of the spectrum gives her an appreciation for the struggles of one trying to lose weight, and the work and effort put into being a fit person. Everyone has a vision of where they want to be physically and mentally, but getting there can be a complicated road. Through social media, without any sort of judgment and by using nurturing but firm advice, Charlene helps others set a strategic plan for achieving their own fitness goals by coaching others and sharing information and encouragement that she wishes she had available when she began her own journey. Charlene uses this fit persona to be a champion for living out loud. She can honestly say that she has learned many lessons the hard way and from repeated failures, but Charlene is thrilled that she is no longer on the sidelines of life and able to share her story with you all! Here are just some of her many tips to get started at your own success story:
Tips:
1. Remind yourself, “You’re no busier than a fit person.” We’re all busy.
2. Make your workouts like “brushing your teeth,” something you just do without question.
3. Always plan: Keep a Luna in your pocketbook for emergencies, check the menus online before heading out to a restaurant, bring a healthy treat you enjoy when attending a party.
4. As a general rule, unless it’s cauliflower or White Chocolate Luna bar, if it’s white, don’t eat it.
5. Think of food as a choice, and not as a reward or a punishment. You don’t “deserve” a decadent dessert, nor are you “depriving” yourself if you don’t have it.
6. Don’t get comfortable with some success. There’s no finish line or touchdown dance. As Charlene was losing weight, and every time she went down a size, she would only buy one pair of jeans, one pair of tan pants, and one pair of black pants. Charlene wouldn’t spend a lot, and she would tell herself, “Don’t invest in this size, as you’re not going to be staying here for long”.
7. BLT’s count: bites, licks and tastes add up, and sips too (so try your best not to drink your calories!)
8. Recognize the sabotages. You’ll need to be able to resist the “just this once,” “just a taste or bite won’t hurt you,” and even the “you’re no fun anymore” from some of the people closest to you.
9. Switch up your routines regularly, and chose something you genuinely enjoy! Charlene loves taking Latin and ballroom dance lessons, running stadium steps with her girlfriend Sunday mornings, going for bike rides with her boys, and taking walks with my 85 year old neighbor (she’s her inspiration, and Charlene can barely keep up with her!)
10. Eat foods in their lowest common denominator: Think orange, not orange juice, and shop the outside aisles of the supermarket; it’s where the least processed foods are.
For just ten tips, that's a hell of a lot of helpful information. And you better believe Charlene shares a whole lot more on her Facebook page and her blog. So when you're ready to start your health journey, whether it be for your wedding or not, take a moment to read what Charlene has to offer and devour the details of being fit and being you!
Here are some articles that feature Charlene's weight loss adventures:
Good Housekeeping: http:/
PopSugar Fitness: http:/
Luna Bar Website: http:/
Local Cable interview: https:/
FBJFit Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FBJ-Fit-111399848940511/?fref=nf
FBJFit Blog: http://fbjfit.com/
Thank you so much for the great article!!
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