Heather Osborne Beats the Odds
I graduated from Lincoln High School in June of 1994. I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in the Delayed Entry Program (DEP) and entered boot camp July 1994. Following four years of honorable service, I was discharged from the United States Marine Corps in 1998 and began my reserve commitment. During my active duty term I achieved the rank of Corporal, but I was also disabled during my tenure and now suffer from profound hearing loss, bilaterally.
Being a Marine, fitness was always an integral part of my life. I always enjoyed subscribing to fitness magazines and watching the body transformations the men and women made and the stories of triumph they shared. After life in the Corps I made an attempt to pursue fitness and was very unsuccessful due immaturity and lack of knowledge in the areas of training, nutrition and supplementation. I was young and had poor financial management and I suffered with severely fluctuating moods trying to cope with my hearing disability in the real world. I became so depressed and felt defeated with my hearing loss that I shifted focus on my career and education and I met and married my husband and we immediately started our family. My pregnancy went wonderfully well. I went from 130 pounds to 205 pounds delivery day and we now have a healthy beautiful son. However, my post partum changes were not easy to deal with for me and I suffered from post partum depression trying to adjust to life being a new mom with a profound hearing loss and having all the excess baby weight. My moods became further compounded by the maternal changes and instead of proactively working to improve myself I became socially withdrawn, I stopped working out altogether and I either maintained the post partum weight or continued to gain more. By my 34th birthday my son was 2 ½ and I no longer had an excuse for being continuously overweight. At 5 feet 2 inches, I was over 170 pounds and everything hurt. I was constantly in pain and my mind was constantly reeling from trying to deal with my inner/outer unhappiness. I told my husband I was tired of feeling bad about myself and I wanted desperately to reclaim that part of me that resembled a Marine. So I started my journey in November of 2010. From that period until now my body has made tremendous changes and my desire to compete has now become a reality and it has given me a new meaning to my personal well-being.
I lost a lot of weight on my own but in June 2011 it was suggested to me that I hire a coach to get me to the next level (contest ready). When I contacted Rene Marven, I was skeptical I didn’t think anyone out there could help re-shape my post-pregnancy body into a competition ready physique. From the very beginning Rene motivated me and encouraged me. She took the time to understand my challenges with my body type, she helped improved my poor eating habits and she brought structure to my workout routines. She helped me balance my home, work and gym schedules. Throughout these past few months she has always maintained focus of the vision I had even when there were times I didn’t think a difference would be made. To say she has transformed me physically is an understatement; she has given me so much more! Her vast knowledge regarding training, nutrition and dietary supplementation are amazing and best of all her methods yield fascinating results!
Throughout my journey I learned my hearing loss will always be a part of who I am and in time it may reach a point of total deafness but my physical health I still have control of and I am always going to do what have to do to make sure I feel good about who I am inside and outside so I can aspire others to do the same. I am in the best shape of my life and it has been a tough road, but I am here and I want to make my mark regardless of how my disability affects me.
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