Reaching For Help, Reaching Her Goals

Tonya Woods with Tamarac personal trainer Megan Dickinson, who helped Woods reach – and surpass – her wellness goal

Tamarac trainer, high-tech gym and indomitable attitude help Woods lose 220 pounds

FREMONT– In November 2016, inspired by a friend and exhausted by her own longtime battle with weight issues, Tonya Woods decided to undergo gastric bypass surgery.
On the day of her surgery, she weighed 384 pounds.

“Many think after surgery the hard work is done,” said Woods, 37, of Grant, Michigan. “But my journey was just getting started.”

Bariatric surgery doesn’t automatically keep the weight off, according to the American Medical Association. To achieve sustainable, long-term weight loss after surgery, patients must incorporate substantial lifestyle and behavioral changes.

Woods said she felt terrified to start her post-surgery journey. She wasn’t entirely certain how to begin and knew progress wouldn’t come through nutritious eating alone. She had to introduce physical activity.

In August 2017, she stepped into Tamarac, the wellness center in Fremont, Michigan, where trainers introduced her to InBody, an analytic device that would come to help change her lifestyle—and her life.

The advanced body composition analyzer measures a person’s body composition and displays it on an organized, easy-to-understand result sheet. The results helped Woods visualize and understand measurements relating to her fat, muscle and various other body composition.

InBody essentially acted as a guide to help her achieve her goals.

“The InBody body composition analysis was my first realization of a starting point after my surgery,” she said. “I knew with scoliosis it would be difficult. The results sheet showed my muscle imbalances and what areas I needed to target.

“I wanted to get a trainer to teach me what I wanted to know, but more specifically, what I needed to know,” she said. “I knew that I needed to be pushed and motivated.”

Woods enlisted the help of Tamarac personal trainer Megan Dickinson.
Woods wanted to do strength training but she didn’t know how to get started. Dickinson helped her customize workout routines to avoid boredom and to give her body the workout it needed. More importantly, Dickinson pushed Woods to be accountable three days a week.

About 19 months after her surgery and eight months into her InBody workouts, Woods weighed in at 155 pounds.  She is proof that incredible results are achievable with the right resources and mindset.

“What Tonya proves is that good nutrition, medicine and targeted exercises can help anyone reach their fitness and weight goals,” Dickinson said. “I had a great time working with Tonya, helping her identify specific areas she wanted to work on and seeing her target those specific areas with laser-like focus.”.

“Between the combination of InBody and certified fitness trainers, people can achieve just about any wellness goal they set their minds to,” Dickinson said.

InBody’s data reports help Woods maintain progress every month. The data visualizations were particularly useful to help her overcome psychological or emotional hurdles during periods of uncertain progress.

“Tonya is a real inspiration because she’s really taken charge of the changes she wants to make and she’s proactively teaching herself how to live a healthy lifestyle,” Dickinson said. “One word you could use to describe her journey is empowerment. She’s empowered herself through her healthy lifestyle choice.”

Prior to surgery, Woods had been a size 30, weighing 384 pounds. At that time, her goal had been to get into size 18 jeans. Today, she wears a size 7 and weighs 155 pounds. In 19 months, she lost more than 220 pounds.

“This isn’t a one-size-fits-all-approach and something that you don’t have to do alone,” she said. She recommends enlisting a team for support and encouragement.

Join Tamarac for an eight-week InBody Challenge starting September 5. To learn more about the InBody Challenge, personal training and other health and wellness programming, call 231.924.1788.