Team Beachbody - Member Profile

Before:	After:
Report an Image You are about to report a violation of our Terms Of Use. All reports are strictly confidential. Reason for the report: Please specify: Copyright infringement?	Report an Image You are about to report a violation of our Terms Of Use. All reports are strictly confidential. Reason for the report: Please specify: Copyright infringement?

My Photos

My Buddies (23)

LeighAnnH45

Join Team Beachbody Be A Coach

More...

My name is Leigh Ann Hardage. I am 46 years young!!. I have been married to my husband Harold for 26 years. We have 5 awesome children: Aaron 26 (got married in April of '08), Jeffrey 24, Hammand 20, Jessica 17 and Patricia is 13. We knew shortly after our first date that we wanted the same things, marriage and children, LOTS and LOTS of children. We started talking about marriage, our future and having kids within the first few months when suddenly I got very sick, running a fever and bleeding, this soon turned serious and I was hemorrhaging. We rushed to the ER and the doctors couldn't figure out why or how to stop it. They said the only choice would be a complete hysterectomy. We were devasted! What about our dream of children? We fought for a second opinion, after 10 days in the hospital and several rounds of antibiotics and steriods they told us that the surgery wouldn't be necessary but that it was unlikely I would ever get pregnant . BOY, were they wrong! I was pregnant within months and we were overjoyed!! I had a completely normal pregnancy but I gained 65 pounds. Sure Aaron weighed in at 9# 3 oz and I lost the weight quickly. Eighteen months later I was pregnant again, our second son Jeffrey was born a happy healthy 8# 11oz and another 65 pounds gained. But with 2 active boys the weight again fell off quickly. Our lives were going along exactly as we planned. At 15 months tragedy struck, our happy healthy baby contracted H-Flu meningitis. His fever hovered for 3 days over 103*, he was in a coma on a respirator and the prognosis was grim. If he survived, we were looking at possible brain death or severe brain damage. We made funeral arrangements 3 times the first 2 weeks. After 45 days he just woke up, we prayed for the best as test after test was ran. How much damage? How severe? The prognosis=NO brain damage! But his hearing was completely GONE. We were finally able to bring him home after 3 months in the hospital. He had the motor skills of a newborn, we had to start all over, reteach him everything, how to sit up, stand, walk, feed himself. It was a hard, day to day learning process for all of us. Especially his 3 yr old big brother. But you pull yourself up and do what you can. Our days were filled with speech classess , learning sigh language and different ways to communicate with Jeffrey and physical therapy to help him relearn to walk. Harold's job sent him on the road then and it was just me and the boys I didn't even have time to be depressed nor take care of myself. Five years go by and I am happy to be pregnant again, Jeffrey was in school now and doing well. It was during this pregancy that the Drs informed me I had gestational diabetes and had to take better care of myself, yeah right! It was no surprise that I gained 75 pounds but Hammand weighed in at 9# 8oz and the doctors told me I needed to slow down and take it easy. I tried but was too busy with 3 boys and helping to run our business. I found out 15 months later that not only was I pregnant again but this time I was having a girl. This time it was a little harder on me I was 28 and couldn't seem to stop putting on the weight, by the time she was born I had gained over 85 pounds after she was born at 9# 9oz, the doctors informed me that it was too risky for me to have any more children. I was perfectly happy it had taken about 6 months but thee weight had finally came off. Our lives were complete, 3 great boys and my sweet baby girl. Life was super busy, both boys in school now, the 2 little ones at home. The next 5 years fly by. We decided to buy another business since Aaron was getting ready to start jr high school and Jessica was going to kindergarten. I would have plenty of time to help run the business and still do all the kids things. Our business took off and we moved around alot and we felt the adventure had finally begun. WRONG ! We were soon gonna find out what kind of adventure life had in store for us! I was pregnant again. This time I gained 102 pounds! The last 6 weeks were incredibly hard, most of that time was spent on bed rest. The doctors were concerned I would lose the baby or worse both of us. By the time she was born I was toxic, nearly septic and a whopping 228 pounds. But Patricia was a healthy 9 pounder. By the time she was 6 weeks old we had moved across the country and I decided to home school the older 4 since we were 45 minutes from the nearest town. With the stress of 5 kids, homeschooling,amd running our office I was so busy I never even thought about my weight I knew I was over 200 pounds but Harold never said a word, neither did any of my friends so I thought that it was OK. I felt alright no major health problems. I was just a "Big Girl". The next 4 years came and went and it wasn't until we were at Patricia's 4th birthday party, with all my family and friends, that gathered around I actually had to face reality. My 85 year old grandfather finally asked the BIG QUESTION.!! As seriously as he could he be he said " Well Leigh Ann your a beautiful girl but frankly your as big as a house.Just how long are you going to use the excuse you "just has a baby " hell she's 4 years old today. It's time you got off your big butt and did something"!!!!! He didn't mean to be harsh he was just being honest. I'm sure he just said what everyone else was thinking. We have always been an open and honest family and he only said it out of love. Well let me tell you, I went straight into the bathroom and cried and then I looked in the mirror and realized he was RIGHT. I had always been thin. I wasn't sick and I really had no excuse, to be honest I had just given in.

My Progress

My Fitness Goal:

Transformation Story

MY TRANSFORMATION

I tried dieting and I probably tried them all: The "Only drink grapefruit juice diet" (which I loved) until all the acid gave me an ulcer. The" vinegar, cayenne and More...

MY TRANSFORMATION

I tried dieting and I probably tried them all: The "Only drink grapefruit juice diet" (which I loved) until all the acid gave me an ulcer. The" vinegar, cayenne and maple syrup diet", that lasted exactly 2 days, if it works it's because you are so nauseous you can't eat.Tthe "5 diet".Tthe" boiled egg diet". Etc. Oh they worked, for a month or so then of course you put the weight right back on. But really deep down I didn't want to eat lettuce and celery when the kids were eating fast food. So I would starve for days then hide in the kitchen and eat everything the kids and Harold had left on their plates. Then I would cry and be so ashamed that I would not eat for days as PUNISHMENT. I felt that I was never gonna lose the weight. This vicious cycle kept my weight ping-ponging from 180 to 200. I didnt know what else to do, so, next solution,start smoking. It had been over 6 years since I had smoked but I knew it curbed my appetite. I know its stupid but I dropped down to 175 fairly quickly. I kept promising myself that if I could get down to150 I would quit. Yeah, well that didn't happen. I hit a plateau and was stuck. Here we go again, this time I was gonna diet "smarter" if there is such a thing ( now I know there's not). I even joined a gym for women but then I got busy. I went back to teaching and started to taper off going and then just quit. My weight stayed steady at 175 and I decided that 5 babies had taken its toll on my body and this was as good as it was gonna get. Through all of this Harold had always been the one standing by me, never saying anything about my weight, always there to make things easier. But I guess life decided things had gotten too easy. Harold began to get sick. He was never sick, not so much as a cold, but little things at first, stomach problems, continous headaches, then ulcers, first one in his stomach then his esophogus, then another one in his stomach that started bleeding so bad they considered surgery and he started to have kidney problems too. His blood pressure was out of control and when his vision began to blur they thought he might have a stroke. After numerous tests to rule out cancer they finally told him that all these were just symptoms of a more life threatening episode to come. The combination of stress and overwork was literally killing him from the inside out. The final straw was when they discovered that the blurred vision was actually diabetes related and that forced us to make some life changing decisions. Something had to give, The 3 boys were grown and gone so we decided to close the business and he would go on the road. This would be way less stressful on him and, the girls and I could travel wherever he was. It would be like mini vacations for us once a month. He traveled all over the southern US and finally settled full time here in LA. The girls and I began to come here more often and I began to make friends here. I met Tonette and Cyndilou and they told me about this new program that Cindy was going to use to try to help Tonette and others to see if she could make a difference. I thought I would give it a try when I was here visiting and then Cindy gave me some BB programs to do at home when I went back. But it was just like before I didn't want to do it alone and I had no motivation to keep it up. So I quit, again! th. When school ended in May of 07, the girls and I moved here and in June of 07 I decided to start working out with the "BB Girls" full time. They were already 1 year in and were just starting P90X.so I decided to join them. All I could think was heck this is was a joke anyway. Nothing was gonna work and I had nothing to lose .WOW!! Was I wrong. I signed up on Beach Body and jumped in with both feet. It was hard at first ( I thought it was gonna be a breeze) so when Cindy measured me the 1st time my weight was 160 and my stomach, hips and thighs were all the same size I realized that I had only been fooling myself. My theory of just saying I was" BIG BONED", having had 5 nine pound babies and close to age 45 as an excuse was not gonna cut it any more. When we completed the 1st round of P90X and I had never felt better I knew I wasn't finished. I wanted to do more! I couldn't believe it. I wanted to know what was next? What else can we do? I love this!! I can honestly say I had never said anything like that about exercise before. We have now done Slim in 6, TurboJam, Hip Hop Abs and even some Yoga Booty Ballet. We are starting our second round of P90X now but some days we just do what we feel, but its always something to PUSH us to feel better. Get us going, to just Bring It!!

I just wanted to Thank all of you at BB ( especially Tony) for helping me be better, for MYSELF!

Thank you to Tonette! I love you, you got me involved and knowing you are there for me makes me show up because I know you will call me if I don't.

And to Cyndilou.... I love you! You push me. You make me push myself. You are my ROCK! I don't know how I can ever repay you for all you've done for me and all of us .Thank you so much!

Programs

Meal plan:

Your current meal plan is: 1,600 Calorie Balanced Slim Down

Workout programs:

ChaLEAN Extreme® - primary program

10-Minute Trainer®

Rockin' Body®

Power 90®

Hip Hop Abs®

Gear:

Resistance Bands

Supplements:

Meal Replacement Shake

Whey Protein Powder

P90X® Peak Health Formula

P90X® Peak Results and Recovery Formula

Performance Formula

Flag this Page

Team Beachbody Guest