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Personal
Trainer
Finds Her
Groove
By Susan
Hickman
On her
journey from
a 227-pound
woman to a
svelte,
muscular
120-pound
trainer,
Joanne Hale
learned a
lot about
metabolism,
nutrition
and the
psychology
of obesity.
After two
decades of
yo-yo
dieting,
Hale
developed
from a
“chubby”
teen (about
130 lbs at
five foot
two) to a
morbidly
obese
thirty-something
married
mother of
one.
She’d done
her share of
hiking,
yoga, even
tried out a
gym, but
felt
unwelcome as
a fat
person.
“And I went
through all
the diets.
They all
help you put
on weight
and mess up
your
metabolism.”
Hale started
to examine
her food
choices when
she was at
her heaviest
at 227 lbs.
“Unfortunately,
I ate too
much and I
didn’t want
to go on a
diet. So I
modified the
way I ate –
less fat,
less sugar.
And now, I
am very very
careful
about what I
eat.
“The payoff
for being
this size,”
says Hale,
at a slim,
toned 120
lbs, “is
much greater
than the
payoff from
any food I
might eat.
It’s
incomparable.”
It was in
September
2003, when
she lost her
administrative
position at
a local
elementary
school, that
Hale gave in
to a
friend’s
coaxing and
joined Glebe
Fitness on
Bank Street.
“And I
thought,
‘I’m
comfortable
here. I’m
okay here.’
So, that’s
what I did
for a year
and a half,
went to the
gym, worked
out all
morning,
picked up my
son from
school at
lunch, had
lunch with
him at home,
took him
back to
school, went
to work in
the
afternoon,
and picked
up my son
after
school. That
was my life.
I didn’t do
anything
else.”
 After three
months, Hale
stepped on a
scale and
discovered
she’d lost
15 lbs. This
is when she
became truly
dedicated to
her goal,
and hired a
personal
trainer.
“Something
clicked for
me this
time.
Something
was
different. I
worked hard
six days a
week.
Nothing got
in my way. I
had to be at
the gym. If
I could
breathe, I
went.
“And
I didn’t
want anyone
to know
until it was
all over, so
I wore a
heavy winter
coat.”
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