You wouldn’t know it from looking at her washboard abs and wide smile, but Kim Lyons was once overweight and miserable. Lyons, 34, now a trainer on NBC-TV’s “The Biggest Loser” and author of “Your Body, Your Life: The 12-Week Program to Optimum Physical, Mental & Emotional Fitness,” (Sterling, $17.95, to be published in February), wasn’t always the picture of health.
Lyons’ father was an Air Force pilot, so the family moved around a lot while she was growing up. To fit in at each new school, Lyons focused her energy on sports, participating in softball, track, gymnastics and cheerleading. Her teen years were spent at Lewis-Palmer High School in Monument (where her parents still live), and after graduating, she went to Colorado State University to study human development and family studies.
While she stayed active, “The weight sneaks up on you,” Lyons said, noting that a year after college graduation she was carrying an excess 30 pounds on her 5-foot-3-inch frame. “It made me shy, insecure and uncomfortable,” Lyons says.
The journey: With a trainer’s help, she shed the weight and regained her confidence. “It affected me so dramatically, I went into the industry,” Lyons says. She got a job at a health club, but while she was supposed to be selling memberships, she was always on the gym floor passing along advice that helped her get in shape. The gym owner recognized her skills and sent her to school to be certified as a trainer. “I was so passionate about it; I wanted to share that,” she says.
The hurdles: People often put on weight and lose focus on themselves when they go through life changes, Lyons says. For her it was the transition from college to work. Getting married, having children and experiencing divorce or relationship problems all are things that can cause the pounds to pile up.
“A very common thread with people on the show is that they spend so much time on other people, they neglect themselves,” she says, noting that busy mothers, paramedics and other professionals in high-stress jobs are susceptible to weight gain. “Mark Wylie was a contestant who works with special-needs kids and was killing himself taking care of them,” she recalls. “People think it’s selfish, but they just need to stop and tell others that they need to take 45 minutes a day to focus on themselves.”
When it’s finally time to do that, people don’t know where to begin, so that’s why Lyons’ book lays out a simple plan for diet and exercise. “The first thing to do is get rid of the fear of failure and start small,” she says. “It’s as easy as eating pure foods and getting rid of the processed junk.”
It’s also critical to have support. If you have someone to go to the gym with, or a spouse who is ready to start eating healthy along with you, the path is much easier to follow, Lyons says.
Something else she has learned is to not judge others if they’re overweight. “I’m so sensitive to that,” Lyons says. “I will get in someone’s face and tell them they have no idea what the other person has been through.
“Living in Hollywood, I’m immersed in all the crises and drama of skinny actresses. To me, it’s so much more rewarding to help people regain their health and happiness than just get down to a size where they’ll look good in a bathing suit.”
Diet advice: “I tell clients that the food is always going to be there, but if they really want something that’s not good for them, have it one day a week. Monday through Friday, eat healthy, then on Saturday have a cheat meal.”
Exercise advice: Find what you enjoy doing and start small, even if all you can do is walk around the block at first. “I’m not a girl who wakes up every day and wants to exercise,” she says. “But I’ll strap on my Rollerblades and feel so much better. After you commit to it, you’ll get addicted to how it makes you feel.”
Suzanne S. Brown: 303-954-1697 or sbrown@denverpost.com
