Weight Loss Success: Jen Moore Started Hula Hooping And Lost 140 Pounds

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Name: Jen Moore
Age: 31
Height: 5'5"
Before Weight: 288 pounds

How I Gained It: My husband Keith and I were seriously overweight most of lives. We became morbidly obese following our wedding in 2001. We maintained unhealthy eating habits and ate to cope with our emotional issues. We ate because we were bored, we ate mindlessly and we ate whatever, whenever.

We had both tried dieting in the past; I was the queen of yo-yo dieting. It just didn't work.

Breaking Point: In September 2009, while at a local amusement park with my daughter, I was asked to get off a ride, because I was unable to secure the safety bar over my protruding stomach. Humiliated, I led my daughter to another ride, only to be called a "fat cow" by the teenage Ferris wheel operator. Enough was enough! I was tired of being taunted and discriminated against because of my weight. I wanted so badly to be a positive and healthy role model for my beautiful young daughter. That day, I pledged to return to the theme park with my child the following year -- this time as the healthier, slimmer, hot mom!

How I Lost It: There is no secret to weight loss. I cannot just pick up a chocolate milkshake and have it now! I have an addiction to food. You wouldn't tell an alcoholic to pick up a drink after 10 years of sobriety. I manage my condition wisely, and it keeps getting easier to make healthy choices.

I've found that it's very much a mental -- not physical -- thing to keep myself in great shape. The physical part was relatively easy, and the weight dropped in little time. The food is irrelevant. It's a healthy lifestyle change, not a diet. I have to be healthy for the rest of my life.

I have a meal plan, but with no restrictions. I still go to Starbucks. But instead of a 900-calorie drink, I split a skinny Frappuccino with my husband. I still eat dessert, but in pre-portioned servings.

I volume-ize every meal with veggies. Keith and I don't count fruit or vegetable calories. If we are hungry we reach for the fruits/veggies. It's a nice freedom to throw so many in a bowl. I eat grapes a lot! They are my favorite snack. I used to mindlessly eat and watch television, or eat and read a book. That hand-to-mouth syndrome was a stress release. Instead of eating chips, now I eat grapes and know that I am going to stay healthy. I even still have popcorn at the movies -- it's just not a jumbo size for myself!

We eat healthy now and make sure our kids do, too. We are cultivating our kids' taste buds to like healthy foods. We don't want our kids to become obese and suffer like we did for so long. We are empowering our kids to make the right food choices. Obesity runs in our family. We never say the words "we were fat." We make sure to use the right words around our kids. We were unhealthy. We couldn't do all the fun activities we wanted to do.

I hoop for a living and teach a lot of Hoopnotica classes a week! Hooping let me lose the weight. It was low-impact and so easy to do when I was obese. It's really hard for an obese person to just start running like a fit person can. Hoopnotica allowed me to lose weight, have fun and be healthy for the rest of my life.

I started to teach myself how to hula hoop from instructional DVDs in September of 2009. I would go to my local YMCA and stake out a little corner on the court while the guys played basketball and snickered. It took me over two weeks just to be able to keep the hoop spinning around my waist, but from day one, I felt a tremendous difference in my core strength, confidence and energy just from the workout involved in dropping, bending over and picking up the hoop. Within three months I had lost 40 pounds, gained confidence and actually started to enjoy exercise. I now also supplement my hooping with some cardio on machines and strength conditioning for my muscles.

After Weight: 145 Pounds!!

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Comments

[lucis]

06:09 PM on 06/21/2012

Did you know that a hula hoop workout of 30 minutes can burn up to 400 calories? Ofcourse this can only be achieved with a weighted hoop and not a traditional hula hoop. See also for more info on http://sportshoops.org/hula-hoop-workout/

[roudy]

02:51 PM on 05/23/2012

Great job, and perhaps the most important in the long run is the wonderful effect it has on your children. They are very fortunate to have a motivated and inspirational mother. The health and positive eating habits they are gaining will serve them well for all their lives.

[kymber23]

01:17 PM on 04/03/2012

Good for these folks and their weight loss success. When there is this current (weird) backlash against heavier people who want to loose weight I applaud these folks for not going for the..."you can be healthy" at any size or the love your "curves" speak. As I said on a previous post, most people don't want to be skinny, they just don't want to be fat. You can have curves at a size 8. You don't have to be a size 12 to have curves.

[UpandComer]

08:40 AM on 03/22/2012

hahahahahahaha I love these before and after things. So mean. Like a normal person inside those bloated bodies finally fought its way out! That guy with the traps, he was the best. The women all pretty crazy different too. Shot.

[WWJJD]

11:13 PM on 03/21/2012

Jen, you are beautiful on the inside and the outside. GREAT job. Do NOT let anyone bring you down, those that say negative things after all your hard work are just envious!!! Keep Rock'n!

[Illustrated Greatness]

09:28 PM on 03/21/2012

That is such an inspiring story, amazing job on your achievement

[Jen Moore]

10:16 PM on 03/21/2012

aww thank you!

JEN

[Len A]

09:19 PM on 03/21/2012

Awesome! And I thought my 65 pound loss was some. Well done Jen!! You're an inspiration!

[Jen Moore]

10:17 PM on 03/21/2012

Your loss is amazing! Anything that anyone does to make a better lifestyle change is amazing, it's not about who lost more or whatever, not a competition about who loses the most etc!!! I love weight loss stories, do you have before/afters?

JEN

[Cynthia Jendrejcak]

11:48 AM on 03/21/2012

Thank you, Jen for sharing your story :) And especially that Hoopnotica link- that looks like SO much fun! I've been obese since puberty, which is in some parts behavior- and other parts endocrine-related. I've been a yo-yo with my weight and it's only been the past few years that I've been able to keep a consistent weight (I gave up beef to avoid adding hormones into my body and most of my endocrine problems dissipated). I've also gone more natural foods and I try to avoid processed food of any kind (the sodium in most processed food alone could kill you). Earlier this year I really started looking at portions and what a real portion of a food was versus what *I* thought a portion was- it was a little scary how far off the two were. I'm working on a two pound a week weight loss plan based on calorie counting and it's working well for me. I eat what I like as long as it's within my calorie count. My goal isn't a "perfect" weight, rather it's to feel healthy and have the energy and stamina to do all the things I want to do. Kudos to anyone else working to be healthy :)

[Jen Moore]

10:19 PM on 03/21/2012

That is an awesome story! A lot of my weight issues started as a child and got progressively worse when i hit puberty b/c of undx'd PCOS, which I didn't find out I had til I was married and couldn't get pregnant. Turns out I had insulin resistance which just made my metabolism suck. If only I knew that decades earlier...but anyway, hooping is so much fun, so try it, find a class near you (lmk if you need help finding a teacher) or if no classes, a dvd is how I learned, so I recommend it. :)

JEN

[Cynthia Jendrejcak]

12:03 AM on 03/22/2012

PCOS is the worst - I don't think anyone that doesn't have it will ever truly understand what it does to a woman's body. I wish I had known twenty years ago (when I was 20) what I know now- I might have been able to have children. For me 99% of my PCOS symptoms disappeared 6 months after I stopped eating beef. I've been reading a lot about the hormones in our food supply and it's more than a little scary. I've been trying to nudge other women I know struggling with PCOS to at least try to give up beef and eat only hormone free poultry. It may not work for everyone, but it's worked for me and it's worked for two of my online friends who were struggling with PCOS related infertility (they have both now carried healthy pregnancies to term!!). I can't wait to try the hooping, it really looks like fun. I bet the mini-hoop arm work out rocks too! I used to be in color-guard way back when and I still love going outside with a flag and twirling for an hour here and there when the weather is nice, my arms feel like mush mind you, but its fun.

[WNCGirl]

11:39 AM on 03/21/2012

I congratulate Jen on her success. 13 years ago I found myself at a weight that wasn't healthy and joined an internationally known weight loss plan, lost 42 lbs. and kept it off until the past three years! Now I've managed to regain 20 of those 42 lbs. and it's time to make a serious change. This story has motivated me to take my hoop out of the basement and get to hooping! I've medicated over the past several years with food/drink, trying to take the pain of losing a job I loved, having a parent with Altzeimer's who recently passed, a parent with serious heart problems...so it's easy to get lost. Jen's story has inspired me, plus I'm going to return to the plan that worked so well before and not lose my way, but lose the weight! This was just what I needed to get motivated! Thank you!

[Jen Moore]

10:24 PM on 03/21/2012

aww you can do it! you have done it, and maintaining is the hard part, the long term, as you know! that is so great you have a hoop already, connect with other local hoopers, or the hoopnotica facebook page etc, it's a great place to chat and share ideas and just have community!!!

JEN

[William Anderson LMHC]

10:05 AM on 03/21/2012

Wonderful, Jen! You are so right, realizing that food is an addiction for many of us who are overweight. I lost 140 pounds after 25 years of dieting failure when I discovered the solution as a behavior therapist and addictions counselor. I've maintained my ideal weight now for over 25 years. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't maintain your success or that it's impossibly hard. It's work, but it's a great job! Please call on me if I can be helpful.

William Anderson LMHC
Author of 'The Anderson Method - Secrets of Permanent Weight Loss'
www.TheAndersonMethod.com

[Jen Moore]

10:25 PM on 03/21/2012

Congrats on your loss/lifestyle change, and moreso really, maintaining it! I will def check out your website!

JEN

[William Anderson LMHC]

06:52 AM on 03/22/2012

Thanks, Jen!

[candyekane]

06:39 AM on 03/21/2012

Good for you Jen! I lost 100 pounds to cancer but I dont advocate the cancer diet to anyone. That being said, my fat behind did save my fat behind when the going got rough. I face another surgery on april 27th for a recurrence of my pancreatic cancer and am worried because i now weigh only 160 and worry i will lose another 100 lbs from the radical surgery. I am so glad you decided to take action and change your own life. Its too bad you didnt do it because you valued yourself too much to let yourself be inactive, but if your daughter was in fact the catalyst for change, thats a beautiful thing. That being said, health at any size should always be the goal for us humans and leaving behind fast food and processed foods in cans, bottles, jars and frozen foods should be the ultimate goal for us all. Eat healthy, move often and be healthy. Congratulations.

[Jen Moore]

10:26 PM on 03/21/2012

So sorry to hear of your cancer experience, thoughts and prayers for your next surgery!!!!

JEN

[LeftRightCenter]

09:21 PM on 03/20/2012

u look fantastic. ur hard work shows. be proud & disregard the fool below me (smart8001) who called u a cow. letz hope they never have food issues.

[Jen Moore]

12:52 AM on 03/21/2012

aww thank you! haters can hate, it's ok :) i am sorry for people who are unhappy and have not made the choice to be all they were created to be, i've been there and it's no fun. easier to jump online and bash other people who have stopped complaining and done something ;)

JEN

[WWJJD]

02:25 AM on 03/21/2012

And you are still a jerk!

[baxtron]

05:43 PM on 03/20/2012

Glad to see people deal with the truth and turn there lives around. Stomach surgery is not always the answer.

[Jen Moore]

12:52 AM on 03/21/2012

Thank you! i definitely am not a fan of surgery, so many issues.

JEN

[bmitche]

03:32 PM on 03/20/2012

YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL JEN.

[Jen Moore]

12:55 AM on 03/21/2012

aww thank you for your kind words :)

JEN