Loganville Woman Uses Weight Loss Success to Help Others

After giving birth to her son, now 4, Kristy Olds of Loganville had reached 330 pounds. The birth itself had its complications, resulting in Olds spending some time in the ICU with severe preeclampsia, pulmonary edema and cardiomyopathy. So when she was asked by a friend to participate in the 1st Annual Promise Walk for Preeclampsia, she agreed immediately. Only then did she realized just what she had agreed to. At 330 pounds, she had agreed to walk 3.1 miles.

“I had not walked more than a quarter of a mile at a time in many years,” Olds said. However, she began preparing, walking in her Loganville neighborhood with her husband until they were able to walk the required distance.

Since then, Olds has not stopped walking, for herself or for causes close to her heart, losing 191 pounds in the process. Her most recent walk, on Oct. 13, 2012, was the Light the Night 5K at Centennial Olympic Park to Support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

“Over the last three years, I have done several 5Ks for charity,” Olds said, adding this was the third time she participated in the walk to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. “The first year my husband and I walked with Team Caroline in support of a former high school classmate of his who had been recently diagnosed and was battling with Leukemia. Last year, we walked without a team just because we wanted to support this worthy cause. This year, we formed our own team in the memory of a very dear friend of mine, Garry Brooks, who we lost to Hodgkins Lymphoma on January 20, 2012.”

While walking is an important part of Olds program, there were other weight loss objectives she had to adhere to, such as changing her lifestyle and her eating habits. But the benefits to her and her family were amazing, as she chronicled in her success story that appeared recently in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

“My life has changed dramatically since losing my weight. I am now able to keep up with my 4-year-old son.  I can easily get on the floor with him, run with him, swim with him, climb and jump with him,” Olds told the AJC. “I can get in and out of a car without any issues and the seat belts fit again. I can fit in ONE airplane seat. I can ride  roller coaster again.”

Olds has managed to keep the weight off for about a year now and is ready to use that success to help others. She has written a health and fitness lifestyle transformation program based on what she did to lose the weight. The program incorporates goal setting, nutritional education, physical fitness, and positive thinking to transform the lifestyle of those in the overweight to morbidly obese categories. It is designed to help a wide range of clients, from those who have difficulty moving around their house due to their weight all the way through those who only wish to lose 20-30 lbs.

Olds said the Move Your Body Transformation Program includes a Success Journal and several recipes that were created by she and her husband, Richard. The program also offers participants an opportunity to enroll in a virtual coaching and accountability program that includes email and web coaching by Olds herself.

This program has already changed the lives of several participants, Olds said,  including Beth and Darren Bezzant, Kristen and Patrick Brigmond, Marlynn Bohannon, and Valarie Olds. 

“The program helped both Beth and I become accountable to, not only each other, but in knowing that we would have to publish our weight each week. Sometimes that was enough for us to decide whether we were going to go for a walk after supper or not,” said Darren Bezzant. "I would highly recommend this program to anyone who needs a guiding hand in weight-loss.”

Old’s story also was recently featured in The Walton Tribune and her story can be found on the web. Anyone interested in purchasing the program may do so by visiting http://moveyourbodytransformation.com/sign-up/

(Editor's Note. Kristy also will be blogging with Loganville-Grayson Patch in a blog titled “Ask Kristy.” Anyone struggling with their own weight loss who would like to pose a question to Kristy for the blog can do so by emailing her at kristy.moveyourbody@gmail.com)