Melissa Davis

I have struggled my whole life with my weight.  I have struggled my whole life with my self –esteem and insecurities. When I look back at old pictures I am astonished.  Why? Because now looking back I wasn’t fat or overweight.  There were some years where I was actually too thin. I think my body image and weight issues all stemmed from my mind and what I thought and how I felt about myself.

I was always dieting and trying to find a fun exercise plan to stick with from the time I was a child. Nothing ever stuck.  My mom and I would do all sorts of diets together to motivate one another but again, I never really stuck with anything.

When I was 20 I left home to do an internship in Illinois.  It was my first time really leaving home.  It was also the first time that I felt pretty good about myself. But then I started not caring about what I ate or if I worked out like I should. During that first year away I quickly gained probably 40-50 pounds.  When I came home for the summer I did the Atkins diet hard core with my mom and shed 40 of those pounds in two and a half months.  When I went back to Illinois I kind of maintained the weight loss.  Then when I was 22 I left home for good and moved to Erie, PA.  Again, I was in place where I felt great about myself and was happy and didn’t worry too much about what I ate or if I exercised.  Then, I met my husband and I started working out and trying to maintain a good weight and stay in shape, but still the weight kept creeping back up. When we got married in 2005 I was so embarrassed when I had to get such a large sized wedding dress. But I was happy so tried to dismiss it.

In 2008, my husband and I moved home and again things were great and I felt ok about myself but still tried to maintain a good diet, but I wasn’t exercising like I should. When I got pregnant with our son, my doctor told me I could not gain weight that I needed to eat right, walk, and maintain my same weight with my pregnancy.  I did that and after I had our son I quickly dropped about 12 pounds and was almost immediately in my pre – pregnancy jeans. But then life got in the way and I ballooned to as big as I had ever been.  In February of 2010 my parents confronted me that they were worried about my weight.  So I scheduled an appointment with my doctor and started seeing a personal trainer and got my booty on the “straight and narrow”.  I immediately started feeling better as I got in shape and the weight started coming off.  But after about 8 months my weight loss stalled and I got frustrated and gave up. The cost of the personal trainer and driving to Lexington (45 minutes away) 4-5 times a week was just getting to be too much.  I just gave up!

Once again I ballooned up and was weighing my heaviest. In February of 2012 I was sick of it and wanted to do something.  So I started seeing if some of the ladies where I work wanted to get together and workout to DVD’s.  I would charge just a little bit for my time and purchasing the stuff I needed to facilitate these “classes”.  So in March of 2012 I launched Fitness Classes at Poole Training Center where I worked.  With the fitness classes, accountability and logging everything I put in my mouth I would lose. But sometimes I would quit logging my food and would gain again.  Up and Down Up and Down is what it has been like for me since I started in 2012.  But I’ve not “thrown in the towel”completely since then. I just kept on and if I fell I would dust myself off and get back up and go again.

In September of 2012 I decided that I enjoyed facilitating these classes and that I wanted to start teaching myself so I pursued a Group Fitness Certification through LMC Health Directions.  When I took my classes I felt silly because I was the “big” girl there, but I kept telling myself at least you are there and doing something about it!

In January of 2013 I started teaching all of my own classes throughout the week.  I had a steady few that have supported me from day one.  In the summer of 2013 I started offering Water Aerobics and my classes started to really grow.  In July of 2013 I decided that I loved Zumba and I wanted to get licensed to teach so I did that.  In September of 2013 one of my great students and supporters snagged us a great location to have Zumba at twice a week and my classes continued to grow!  

Since all of this i is I have had two children and lost over 125 pounds! I also have gotten many new certifications and licenses.

I continue to teach classes at a local gym and around my community and I love every minute of it.