Bio: Erin Crane, 45, is the personal training manager at Colorado Athletic Club Leetsdale. She lost more than 100 pounds 17 years ago and has maintained the loss, fluctuating by no more than 10 pounds. She’s part of the National Weight Control Registry that researches how people lose weight and keep it off. After battling with weight problems and a pattern of emotional eating in her youth, Crane became so passionate about weight loss and exercise that she got her personal-training certification and a degree in nutrition and fitness at Regis University.
“I like the people and the connection,” Crane says. “I’m helping them be happier.”
The Challenge: “I was the fat kid in school and never played sports, mainly because I was always the last kid picked for any team,” Crane says. At her heaviest, 243 pounds when she was 28 years old, she decided it was time to make changes.
“I had been on diets since the sixth grade,” she says. “I finally got the mind-set, determination and will to do it. She began by walking and eating healthier food. “I was an emotional eater. Food was my friend,” she says, noting that it was hard to give up the chips and sweets that she was used to snacking on.
After losing 75 pounds in six months, she was ready for the next step. Crane joined a health club and began taking aerobics classes. After a lifetime of avoiding athletics, she found she loved aerobics.
“Exercise changed my life,” she said. “It gave me a sense of accomplishment, the feeling that I could do something. And I liked the camaraderie.” So much so that she began teaching classes too. After getting her training certification and a degree in nutrition, she began helping others meet their goals of losing weight and eating well.
“It’s awesome to help people make an improvement in their life,” she says. Having been where her clients are “makes me more approachable. I love doing this because I know how miserable it can be to be heavy, and I know what it takes to lose the weight.”
How She’s Doing it: Crane has maintained her weight of about 135 pounds for years by doing 40-60 minutes of cardio exercise four to five times a week, and weight and strength training four or five times a week.
Still Working On: “What I eat,” she says. “I do what I tell my clients to do – have 100 percent diligence as a goal, and never get to zero, but if you come up short, work at doing better. My pet peeve is trainers who expect their clients to be perfect.”
Best Advice: Plan and prioritize. she says. “Make exercise a priority, like brushing your teeth. Put it on your schedule. Even if you have only 30 or 45 minutes for a workout, it’s better than not working out at all.”
– Suzanne S. Brown
Do you know someone who has lost a lot of weight, rebounded after an illness or made a healthful lifestyle change? Send a name, daytime phone number, a description and photo to Fitness, The Denver Post, 1560 Broadway, Denver, CO 80202, or e-mail to living@denverpost.com.
