Unity Home Fitness Blog

My name is Lori Bonaparte. In 2006 I was a stay-at-home Mom with a 5 year old, (very active) son and a 3 year old “special needs” daughter. My daughter needed extensive medical care, which forced us to be home, a LOT (unless we were traveling to doctor appointments). 

I was stressed out over life and had put on an extra 25 pounds from my “power stress eating”. I knew I was gaining weight but I didn’t care. The attempt to dull the pain with the food felt good. So, I just kept eating and drinking (I developed a Starbucks habit - and not the low-calorie kind).

Meanwhile, I was caring for my severely disabled daughter. She’s not able to walk, sit up or even crawl. So, I would have to lift her many times a day to change her, put her in her wheelchair or place her on the floor. Well, I wasn’t the only one getting bigger. She was putting on weight, too (but she was supposed to). After a while, I started to have problems with my lower back. Both from lifting her and from being so out of shape. Then one day, I hit my pain point. You know, when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. I hit that point because I realized that if I did nothing about being out of shape it wouldn’t be long before I wouldn’t be able to lift my daughter and move her around throughout the day. She was depending on me to be her arms and legs and I would eventually let her down. I couldn’t live with that, so that’s when I decided to “take action”.

There had been a time in my life when I was in great shape. I used to workout frequently and eat right. In fact, there had been several times in my life when I had lost weight (it kept finding me). But the point is, I already knew what I had to do - it was just a matter of implementing it and figuring out how to fit it in my day. 

Once I got started, I thought, “why didn’t I do this sooner?” Working out really helped to relieve my stress (well, some of it anyway) and I found something healthy to be addicted to. I ended up getting in great shape and felt healthy and strong. It became easy to lift my daughter and my back hadn’t felt that good in years. It’s amazing what a strong core will do for you. 

It took about 6 months to lose 22 pounds. Was it hard work? “Yes” and “No”.  The plan is simple - doing it consistently is hard. It’s more about a “lifestyle change” than a “diet”. 

I had the benefit of prior knowledge, and the ability to do a lot of research online (usually when everyone was in bed). I had the disadvantage of being confined to the house at times (you can’t exactly take a severely disabled child to daycare at the gym), and trying to fit in eating right and exercising into my busy life of caring for two young kids. When I lost weight this time, I added a lot to what I had already known about fitness. But more importantly, I figured out some crucial things about overcoming my obstacles and learning how to get in shape in spite of what was going on in my life. 

I was certain that there were others online, that were also facing obstacles to getting into shape and I wanted to share what I had learned, and so I started www.UnityHomeFitness.com  Later, I realized that if I started a blog, I could actually have some dialogue with the others online (that would be - you). So, if you are inclined, drop me a comment, send me an email or feel free to just browse around.