Welcome to another night in Carol’s Corner. After I get all my picture stuff out of the way I have another treat for you . I will be doing another feature story for you my readers. Well we left to come back home today and had lunch again at Cappie’s. We took today’s picture in front of their sign. They loved that I was putting the pictures up for the world to see. LOL! Calling today’s ensemble,” Casual Elegance.”

I decided on the name because of my jewelry, and specifically the new watch and bracelet set I just found. I have been looking for some time for a watch such as this. I have extremely tiny wrists and just happened on this one that fits after an extra link is removed.

This is the awesome watch I have been looking for forever. Love, love, love it.

So tonight I will be featuring the story of Kathleen Ramstrom, a member of the Leslie Sansone Facebook group. I ‘ll start with a few of her before pictures and then we’ll hear Kathleen’s story in her own words.

Here is Kathleen’s story as told by her.

My name is Kathleen Ramstrom and I am 51 1/2 years old. All my life I have struggled with being overweight, beginning in the formative years when my mother had 5 mouths to feed and we ate what was on the table….mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, chips and junk food.

Through the years I learned to exercise and in my 20’s had an eating disorder and tried to maintain my weight. It was fine as long as it was all about me and weight watchers, but then marriage, a child and a divorce took a hit on my figure…. and ultimately my health.

I was always able to lose weight and exercise but it was for quick fix purposes, like to get into a pant size and I obsessed,over exercised, ate barely anything and then when life couldn’t realistically keep the pace, the weight came back on and I finally peaked at 241 which is 40 pounds more than what I weighed full term with my 12 year old son.

I always prided myself on my excellent health. My blood pressure was in check and cholesterol was elevated but fine I think at 200. Around me stories were emerging about friends having diabetes, heart attacks and high blood pressure and I thought that’s not me, I am healthy just a little overweight.

The date was March 2, 2015 and it was time for my annual physical( I had one the year before too, except I skipped the blood work, after all, I was healthy). I didn’t look at the scale during the visit because I knew the weight had been packing on, eating and drinking anything I wanted….. and no exercising and squeezing into a size 18, but denial is my best friend. The doctor ( note I have known her for 17 years) came in with this look on her face and it wasn’t a happy face. She said your blood pressure is very serious and too high; lose 30 pounds and come back in 6 months for a checkup. This was me now!! I have high blood pressure and when I did research, boy did I get scared!!

So that day I changed my lifestyle; no more beer, no more heavy food and fitting in exercise somehow. Great is what I thought, as my business was busy and just how was I going to conquer exercise AND change of lifestyle AND run a business…. the gym was not my thing and I used to do the firm, but that was too intense…. so the first week I focused on just eating well and by week two joined weight watchers. But there still was the mystery of exercise…. realistic and something I could sustain. After all this was not a quick fix; my lifestyle had to change and exercise had to be part of it.

So one day I opened a drawer and had some Leslie dvd’s ( note I had always done them before, but the old ones just walking, no strength training because I used the Firm for that) and I popped in the DVD and thought ok, here we go. The first one I did was the power mile with weights, then a kickboxing one , two miles and I was hooked!!

By the time I weighed into weight watchers, week two of change, I lost 10 pounds…. I verified this because I got the doctor’s printout and was horrified at my weight!! So I did Leslie 5 days and sometimes I doubled up….then one day it dawned on me that this lifestyle change was all about balance. So I only did 30 minutes 5 days a week, followed weight watchers and got plenty of rest. The weight just came off and that was 20 weeks ago …. And I am down 51 pounds.

We’ll break here for some after pictures and then let Kathleen conclude her story.

So here is the conclusion of Kathleen’s story in her own words.

I look healthy and toned and love my Leslie dvd’s, the support group on Facebook for Leslie, and weight watchers too. In a few weeks my doctor gets to see me and say wow you did it and with prayers I trust blood pressure will be normal. I did my bloodwork a month into my lifestyle change and thank goodness my cholesterol was at 178 and all the blood work was fine.

There is still 30 pounds to go before I am on healthy weight range and not considered obese…. and boy let me tell you, with the weight off I can run and don’t sweat all the time….it’s been an amazing transformation. The body is am amazing instrument if you take care of it and Leslie has a way of coaching us every day to be fit and walk tall and strong….she is a gift and it’s because of her this success story can be shared with my sisters in sweat !!!

Kathleen Ramstrom

New Hampshire

There you have it; another inspirational and motivational story which I am proud to be able to give you. Thank you again Kathleen for allowing me this opportunity to share your story with my readers. Stay strong, stay focused and walk tall! Till next time, God Bless!