See how Randy & Jennifer from Coppell, TX are surviving raising 5 children with a super-busy lifestyle! How did they cram health & fitness into the mix? Read their interview below, and watch their interview video!
Randy:
We’re Randy & Jennifer. We’ve been married for 21 years, have five children, and I’m a CPA. Jennifer works here at home…as you can imagine with five kids it’s kind of a busy household. I work 13-14 hours a day pretty much year round. We’re very busy.
She always has been able to stay fit somewhat by running around, chasing five kids around, whereas I sit at a desk most of the day and it adds up. We eat out way too much, so that was why we just decided it was too much. I went and got a physical and I was in the poorest category for my age group and that was an eye-opener that it’s time to do something (turning 42) and decided we needed to make a change.
My goal was around 30 pounds of fat [loss] knowing that I would gain some muscle back, so needed to lose 20-25 pounds. I have lost 17 pounds right now and at least two inches from my waist. That’s been the nicest part for me, I have moved a lot of clothes up to another category. If I can’t wear it anymore, I’m bound and determined to wear it again. I’ve been able to move several of those pairs of slacks back so that’s been nice. Your goal is obviously a little bit different.
Jennifer:
Yes, it was 5-7 pounds and just gaining muscle. I have lost 7 pounds and I lost a lot of inches. I have to wear belts now because my pants don’t fit, but I feel a lot better.
Randy:
I’m a stress eater, so when I stress out I’m always grabbing something on the go or treating myself to a nice chocolate chip cookie. When we went over what the goals were and how we would accomplish that, the eating part of it was obviously huge.
So the [Shaklee Cinch] meal-replacement shakes that we’re doing have been really good for me because I’m not a big breakfast eater. Everybody says, “Oh, that’s terrible. You have to eat breakfast,” so to be able to just have one of those in the morning before I go to work has been a lot more achievable for me than sitting down and having cereal and eggs. I get up in the morning, I get ready and I need to leave. So that has been really good.
Sometimes if I work late, I would come home and have a late leftover dinner and eat pretty heavy at 10:30 at night. Now I still want to eat something so I’ll have one of those shakes and be fine.
Jennifer:
Sometimes I eat with the kids and sometimes I’m just on the go. I do the [Cinch] meal replacements—those are great because sometimes I don’t eat lunch or breakfast, so I just take one of those.
Randy:
I’m not a big fan of those [Shaklee] energy chews but she loves them.
Jennifer:
I love them.
Randy:
She doesn’t care for the Cinch bars; I love them. The after-workout shakes have been really good too.
Jennifer:
We like that a lot.
Randy:
Because I’ll tell you, the first couple times when Alexis came, I was sore. I was really sore! “I don’t think I can go to work today.” So those really helped. The more we did it, the more I realized that it was kind of refreshing. It’s hard to explain it. You guys know all these muscles and everything. I’m using muscles I’ve never used before, so that was good refreshment afterwards.
I would say the biggest thing is, we are more focused on our health.
Jennifer:
And what we eat.
Randy:
And exercising, even to the point of trying to get the kids to do more with us and things like that.
Jennifer:
And eat better.
Randy:
Unfortunately we eat out a lot because we’re always on the go. Sometimes for us to sit down and have a meal together…
Jennifer:
We can’t.
Randy:
It’s more like, “Let’s meet at IHOP.”
Jennifer:
There are too many activities with the kids, and sometimes I’m going from 3:00-7:00 and I don’t have time to make dinner, so we just stop somewhere real quick and grab it and then get home so they can do their homework.
Randy:
So we’ve spent a lot more time focusing on what we can eat when we go out, although we are eating out a lot less because we tend to focus on what would be a better thing that we can make quick. If we do go out, we’re focused much more on, “What did I have this morning?” and “This evening I should only have this or that.” It’s become more of a regular routine. It’s not like we’re tracking every single calorie because the discipline of that would be difficult, but we’re just more careful.
Jennifer:
More aware of what we eat.
Randy:
And trying to do more things physically. Six years ago or so, we joined a gym here locally and got a trainer for like five sessions, but it was in the gym. I wasn’t very fit and my endurance or balance…I’m still working on balance.
New Wave Fitness:
We all are!
Randy:
It was not that good and I would sit there in the middle of the gym with all these people working out.
Jennifer:
He was very self-conscious about that.
Randy:
I didn’t enjoy it at all. So having [our trainer] come to the house, it sounds odd to say, but we have a good time even though we’re working hard and sometimes we can’t talk.
Jennifer: Especially with his schedule, because she comes at 9:00 so that works out perfect because with his schedule, it’s hard for him to get to the gym while they’re still open.
Randy:
She’s been real flexible about when she comes and we do about three days as week, two of those at night and one on a weekend morning. It’s been great because it’s so comfortable. You’re in your own house. You’re not doing it in front of everybody. Afterwards you’re right there so I can lay down on the floor for a little while. It’s a no-brainer for me to do it at the house.
It’s just been so much more successful. I look forward to it. I haven’t missed one. We were afraid with my work schedule that I would occasionally have to call and say, “I can’t make it tonight,” but I haven’t missed one. I actually look forward to it. Even though it’s been a long day, I’m coming home thinking, “Oh no,” I am kind of looking forward to it so it’s been good.
We recommend you the following article: Looking for a Personal Trainer in Coppell