After Her Mother Died, This Mom of Two Changed Her Life, Lost Weight — and Won a Bodybuilding Contest: ‘I’m At My Best’ (Exclusive)

One day five years ago, while staring into her closet, Jouleen Dering almost gave up on her hopes for a healthier life.

“In a fit of anger and frustration, I put all my tight clothes in bags,” she recalls. “Tears were running down my face. I thought, ‘Why do I have them in my closet and they mock me when I’ll never fit in them?’ ”

Dering threw the bag in the trunk of her car and donated the lot. “I lost faith in myself,” she says of the bad moment.

At the time, she was still reeling from yet another loss. Her mother had died suddenly a few months earlier, and Dering, who weighed 163 lbs., had a 4-month-old son of her own.

“I’m left with memories of the adventures my mom and I had together and the joy she brought me,” says Dering. “I looked at my life and thought. ‘Was I the mom I wanted to be for my son?’ I didn’t at that moment. I was a couch potato parent. I wouldn’t play with him on the floor because getting up was difficult.”

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Jouleen Dering.

Elizabeth Lavin

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Determined to change, Dering signed up with Optavia and lost 35 pounds in the first three and a half months of the program. through better eating habits.

Soon she started exercising “for the first time in her life.” I’ve never been physically active!” Dering says. She now works full-time as a trainer for the company.

She entered a bodybuilding competition this year — and took home a trophy — but her real triumph is being able to ride the toboggan and swing on the playground with her two sons, ages 6 and 3 (“We do everything together”), while still having excess energy.

“Even if it’s been a crazy day, I can still sit down with my husband and not feel nauseous from exhaustion,” she says. “Being the best for every person I come across has been the biggest win.”

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Source: HIS Education