I’m Annie Normand. I’m going to be a trainer at FBBC Denham Springs when they open in a few weeks and I couldn’t be more excited to start this journey with all of you! But first, I’ll tell you a little about myself, and how I found myself here.
I met the love of my life when I was fourteen years old, and I married him when I was twenty. Over the past six years we have worked hard building a beautiful life together, and we have the coolest four year old to show for it. Over these past six years, I’ve struggled with my weight, and with weight gain, I’ve struggled with loving myself. After giving birth, I struggled to lose weight and to keep it off. I struggled with diets and keeping up with at home exercise programs. In January of this year, I made it to my heaviest weight. The same weight I was the day I checked in the hospital to have my son. Except this was almost four years later and I wasn’t carrying a child. Every time I looked in a mirror at my body, I cried. Every time I saw a picture of myself, I cried. I would tell myself how fat I was and how I needed to lose weight. And, I cried thinking those thoughts. One day I decided to look at myself in the mirror and say, “Annie, you have great hair.” And the next day, “Annie, you have nice eyes.” And everyday I told myself something positive until I started believing myself, until those negative thoughts about my body stopped. If I was going to lose weight, if I was going to get healthy, it was not going to be because I hated the way I looked, it was going to be because I loved myself, and I appreciate my body and everything we have been through together. Since deciding to love myself, I’m down 40 lbs. I feel good about the way I look. More importantly, I feel good about the way my body feels and the way it’s working. Changing this aspect of my life has helped to change my whole life in general. It’s made me truly realize the importance of a healthy body. Because my body is working better than it ever has, it’s given me more life.
So, why did I choose to get my personal training certification? Because I can’t be the only person who looked or looks at his/her self that way. I can’t be the only person who struggles with loving themselves. I want to help people learn how to love themselves, how to see their self worth, because I genuinely care about people. And if I can do that by giving them the tools they need to live a healthy lifestyle, that’s what I want to do. I hope that if you’re feeling the same things that I was feeling, you’ll join me on this new journey at Fit Body Boot Camp in Denham Springs. I hope you will let Heather and I help you reach your goals, let us encourage you, motivate you, and give you the tools you need to succeed in your journey. Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I can’t wait to meet each of you.