Real people, real fitness: Carmen Quinones tackles fitness and career goals

Camen Quinones

Carmen Quinones makes one thing clear: “I was never a small girl.”

At 20, in the peak of health, she weighed 150 pounds. It was a healthy, toned weight maintained through martial arts classes and dance.

Then she entered the “real world.” Went to work, was busy climbing the corporate ladder, advanced from receptionist to event planner. She also went from size 14 to size 28.

“It just seemed to happen, and I kept saying I’d get back in shape,” she said. By the time she joined the YMCA and started a disciplined fitness program she was carrying around an extra 100 pounds. It took a year-and-a-half, but she lost the weight and got in shape.

Then the weight started to sneak back. 10 pounds one month, 5 another. A brief weight loss, then more weight gain. “I started traveling for work and my schedule was hectic. I ate quick meals and didn’t make time for the gym.”

When a drunk driver careened into Carmen’s car, the resulting injuries made working out even harder. Still, she kept thinking, “I lost the weight once. I can lose it again. The truth is, I thought it. I just didn’t do it.”

Then the company where she thought she’d have a job “until I died,” reorganized. Carmen was 326 pounds, out of condition and unemployed.

“I just felt like giving up,” she confessed. Instead she refocused.

Classes at California’s Employment Development Department increased her skills and confidence. One day she decided, “It is time to get back to the gym. For real.” The Monday before Thanksgiving she returned to the gym. Her goal: pedal the stationery bike for 15 minutes.

Within two months she was up to two, some days three, hours of cardio, strength training and group exercise.

Since November, 2008, she has lost 26 pounds, renewed her energy, and no longer feels that prospective employers look at her and think, “she’s fat and lazy.”

The process is ongoing. She is still job hunting. She still has weight to lose and muscles to tone. The momentum, however, is going the right way. “It’s harder to lose the weight this time. But every day, I do something for my job search. And I also do something for my fitness.”