The Real Woman Ms. December is my good (no, great!) friend Gina Fata. She is a smart cookie, with a beautiful soul, bad-ass sense of humor and amazing guns. I met Gina when I lived in New York City. She had like three jobs, was finishing up her Masters Degree and she and Patrick were on the same Olympic Weightlifting team in Long Island. I was and am always amazed at how much energy she has and how she hones in on a goal and not only achieves it, but rips it to shreds and sets a new, bigger one.

A woman should never let any ONE thing define who she is, and though Gina has a great passion for bodybuilding - as you’ll see in the interview below - she has great passion for everything she does in life. So I don’t see Gina as “just” a bodybuilder, or “just” this or “just” that. I see Gina as a passionate and driven woman on a path to success with anything she chooses to pursue.

Age: 27
City: Sunnyside, NY

Favorite quote: “Choice, not circumstance determines your success.”

EMLH: Tell us a little bit about your home life (family? pets? hobbies?):

Gina: I live by myself in an apartment in Queens, NY. I am an only child, single, and have a passion for bodybuilding. I also enjoy movies, music, and spending time with my friends and family.

EMLH: What do you do for a living?

Gina: I work as a teaching assistant with emotionally disturbed high school students. I deal with the students when they are in crisis, and attempt to extinguish the situation as best as possible. The job is sometimes challenging because every situation is different when my students are in crisis, but I do my best to be a positive influence on my students every day.

EMLH: What do you do to stay fit and healthy?

Gina: I have found a niche for the sport of bodybuilding, and enjoy lifting heavy in the gym.

EMLH: How did you get started?

Gina: I started bodybuilding because I saw it as something I never thought possible. I wanted to challenge myself and attempt the unthinkable – sort of like a magician. While I am putting the time and effort into my diet and training for bodybuilding, I owe any success I have to my coach Dave Pulcinella. He is not only my coach/trainer, he is also my mentor and a very good friend.

EMLH: What motivates, energizes, and excites you to keep going?

Gina: I am motivated by consistently training in the gym, eating clean, and improving myself everyday as a human being. I am driven by my desire to get stronger with each workout, push myself beyond where I thought I could go and always striving for excellence.

EMLH: What has been the biggest challenge in maintaining a healthy lifestyle?

Gina: The biggest challenge has been a struggle that I had in the past with binge eating. After going through therapy specifically for binge eating disorder, I realized that I began emotionally eating as a young child to deal with some problems that my parents were going through. I never felt I had a voice in the situation, so I was literally “stuffing” my feelings, and numbing the pain of seeing the abusive relationship of my parents. The binge eating continued on sporadically for the rest of my life. I unfortunately never realized I had a problem with binge eating until last year, but getting help for it was one of the best decisions I made.

EMLH: What has been the biggest reward?

Gina: The biggest reward for me is knowing I can continue to be successful in this sport through dedication, consistency and a strong mindset.

EMLH: What have you learned about yourself in the process?

Gina: I have learned that I am always a work in progress, and that no matter what happens in my life bodybuilding is a gift and art form that I create, and no one can take that away from me.

EMLH: What is your advice to a woman who thinks she can’t do this, or who is unsure about getting started?

Gina: I would say that you have to have a strong mindset to do bodybuilding, and you have to be willing to sacrifice certain things in your life when getting ready for a contest. Making the decision to compete is very serious, because you have to set aside time to prep your meals for the week, get your workouts done in the gym, practice posing, and keep your focus on the contest. Having a support system is vital to your success, because bodybuilding is something that not many are willing to do and be successful at. Finding a coach that is not only supportive of you but mentoring you along the way is very hard to find, but when you find them they will be the key to keeping mentally focused at all times.

EMLH: What do your friends, family, coworkers, clients think of your passion for bodybuilding?

Gina: My family and friends are somewhat supportive, but no one really understands what you go through when getting ready for a show. Most people think that it’s a strange sport, but they congratulate you on your efforts after they see the pictures of the show.

EMLH: How has your involvement in bodybuilding affected your relationships with friends and family?

Gina: My family understands that I have a different lifestyle than them, but they don’t necessarily approve of it. I have accepted the fact that people will make comments of me bringing food with me everywhere, and that I’m just different. I try not to think about it, but sometimes you feel like an outcast. I love this sport for the enjoyment, suffering, sacrifice and pride. I love my family, but I have a passion for something they can’t relate to.

EMLH: What is your training like?

Gina: I currently lift 4-5 days a week, and do cardio 4 days a week.

EMLH: Tell us a little bit about your nutrition (I hate the word “diet”):

Gina: I eat 7 times a day, every 2-3 hours (I wake up at 4am and go to bed at 10pm on most days of the week).  I cook 3 times per week to have my meals cooked in advance, as most of my meals are eaten at work or at the gym.  I spend 2-3 hours each Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday to prepare my meals.  It can get tedious, but I do my best to make it fun – watch a movie or listen to music.  Most of the time I find it therapeutic for me to prepare my meals for the week, as it gives me mental clarity.  I think of eating as fueling my body.  The foods that I currently have in my nutrition plan are things like grilled chicken, eggs, flaxseed oil, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, asparagus, lean beef, rice, peanut butter, and whey protein powder.  I do enjoy other non-bodybuilder type foods like pizza and ice cream abouut once per week, but for the most part I enjoy eating healthy because it makes me feel good.

EMLH: What is your favorite healthy dish? (do you have a recipe you want to share?)

Gina: I love oatmeal with a little splenda and flaxseed oil!!

EMLH: When you eat out, where do you like to go?

Gina: I love brick oven pizza. There is a place in NYC I love – Angelo’s brick oven pizza and it’s my favorite.

EMLH: What is a typical day like in the life of Gina Fata?

Gina: Well, I get up at 4am, work from 6am – 3pm, workout from 3:45pm -5pm, come home and get organized for the next day and check emails. I am in bed usually at 10pm.

EMLH: How do you manage stress?

Gina: Working out relieves my stress. I love lifting weights, and it relieves a lot of built up emotions for me…..going to the gym is the best part of my day!

EMLH: What is something positive about your SELF and your body that you celebrate and love?

Gina: I am a strong, passionate, and honest person. I accept myself as I truly am, but I continue to better myself each and every day. I know that I’m not perfect, but I desire to be “the best me” I can be, and hopefully I can inspire others to do the same.

Starting this month, I will be posting a monthly feature on a real woman who is living a healthy lifestyle.

I recently read a lot of crap about two of the female dancers on Dancing with the Stars. The gist of it was that some of their male cast mates made negative comments about these two ladies’ bodies, saying they were too fat. Never mind that these women are athletes! They are beautiful and sexy and clearly enjoy what they do for a living (and they rock at it). In fact, the two women in question are my favorite dancers on that show; Cheryl Burke and Lacey Schwimmer. They work their asses off, and they are blessed with beautiful curves. They are real. They don’t fit the stereotype of a public female figure who subsists on lettuce leaves, water (or coffee) and a daily vitamin pack. They are active, successful, passionate and healthy. And they’re getting crap for that? No wonder women, in general, have such a horrible and unhealthy self-image. Enough already!

I recognize that we all don’t have an ideal schedule or a personal chef. And many of us have an insurmountable list of responsibilities, often putting ourselves at the bottom of the list - if we’re even on the list at all! I get frustrated when I see women give up on themselves, and give up trying to make healthier lifestyle choices because they think it’s impossible within their circumstances. I’m tired of hearing how much time and money women are spending on fad workouts and gadgets, celebrity diets, “miracle” supplements and surgical procedures. I’m sick of these messages in the media telling women that anything bigger than a size 0 is ugly and unacceptable, and suggesting that we need to take drastic measures in order to gain control of our lives and our bodies. That is no way to live - a prisoner in your own body, and you’re the warden? Let yourself out already!

Be yourself, love and respect yourself, take care of yourself and the rest will work itself out. Take a cue from my Ms. November, Lisbeth Colon!

Age: 32
City:  Miami, FL

EMLH: Tell us a little bit about yourself - your family and home life, your job…

Lisbeth: I am a single mom.  I live with my 9-year-old son.  I work at the Miami Dade Police Department Crime Laboratory Bureau.  I am a DNA analyst.  I screen evidence in criminal cases in Miami-Dade county.  I also perform DNA analysis and testify to my results.  It’s a little crazy, and it’s hard to see all that crime first-hand.  But it is also very rewarding to know that I help the countless victims in Miami-Dade.

EMLH: What is your typical day like?

Lisbeth: I wake up, go to work, work out, go get my son and do homework, have dinner with my son and then relax.

EMLH: How do you manage stress?

Lisbeth: I used to eat crap (sugar) but now I try to do other things….I still on occasion do that.  Now I exercise, relax, watch to tv (veg out), take a hot shower…sometimes a glass of wine. I work a lot and on what little time I have for myself I enjoy working out and running.  I do alot of active things with my son and my boyfriend - we run, bike, rollerblade and Kayak. 

EMLH: Which one do you enjoy most?

Lisbeth: I run, alot.  It makes me happy and makes me feel very good.  I started runnign to lose weight.  I have lost  ~25 lbs.  after getting to a weight that makes me happy I found that I could do more.  I started swimming and biking, then I decided that a triathlon would be a great thing to try.  I have only done 2, but I am hooked!  I love it!  Now during the off time I still run, bike and swim as well as lift weights to make my next attempts at a tri much better.

EMLH: What motivated you to get started?

Lisbeth: In addition to losing weight and trying something new, I wanted to prove to my son that a healthy lifestyle and being active is a positive thing.

EMLH: What motivates you to keep it up? 

Lisbeth: My health, my weight loss and my son.  I just want to prove to myself  (and my son) that you can always do better for yourself and that hard work and dedication pay off in many ways.

EMLH: What has been the biggest challenge and how have you worked with it or overcome it? 

Lisbeth: Time! It’s hard to find the time to do everything: be a mom, work and all the other things that come along on a daily basis. 

Making the time is difficult.  I make sure that I always have my gym bag with me and go straight from work.  Regardless of how unmotivated I am after work, I make myself go.  Once I’m there, I’m glad I went. As far as cooking goes.  I make vegetable soup on the weekend and freeze into servings for lunch during the week.  I also prepare food in advance.  So I will make fish filets or chicken breasts, that way I can just have something easily accesible during the week. I also buy lots of veggies that I can eat raw, like carrots peppers and celery, to snack on.  Oh, and I always have apples - the easiest, most portable snack!

I find age is also becoming a challenge!  I feel the toll that working out and training takes on my body.  It’s a lot harder and more work now to stay injury-free.  Thirty-two really isn’t like 22, and it takes a lot to not get hurt! Injury prevention is something I know I need some help with.  I tend to push myself too hard and sometimes ignore the symptoms my body is displaying.  I invest more money in the proper shoes and I also treat myself to massages. But I admit I need to work on this a bit more. I need to be less hard on myself.    

 

 

EMLH: What has been the most rewarding outcome from making a lifestyle change?

Lisbeth: Weight loss, improved fitness level, the look on my son’s face when I cross a finish line, inspiring my son to be more active.

EMLH: How does your lifestyle make you feel? 

Lisbeth: It makes me feel strong, happy and as if I can do anything if I try.

EMLH: What is your advice to a woman who thinks she can’t do this, or who is unsure about taking a first step?

Lisbeth: The hardest thing is getting started.  There is always time to do something for you.  You are really of no good use to those you love if you are not content with yourself.  Taking care of yourself makes you better able to take care and provide for others.  Start out doing what feels good for you and then push yourself when you feel up to it. 

EMLH: What do your friends and family think of your lifestyle changes? 

Lisbeth: My family is very supportive and encourage my new possitive and healthy lifestyle.  I have even motivated my sisters to be more active!

EMLH: That’s awesome! So it’s affected your relationships, too!

Lisbeth: Yeah, I make it a family thing.  Adrian (my son) goes with me to races.  we train together on ceratin days.  We make the healthy eating part of it a family things.  I explain to him why eating certain foods makes your body more efficient, etc.

EMLH: What does your typical workout schedule look like?

Lisbeth: I run, bike or swim three to four times a week, and I lift weights two times per week. 

ENLH: And what about your nutrition?

Lisbeth: I avoid sugars… but I must admit I do allow myself to indulge every so often.  I mostly eat veggies, complex carbs, fruits and lean meats.

EMLH: What is your favorite healthy dish? Do you have a recipe you want to share?

Lisbeth: I love pizza.  So I make pizza using Flat Out bread, low fat mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and fresh basil.  I love it!

EMLH: When you eat out (do you?), where do you like to go?

Lisbeth: I love the Cheesecake Factory usually my first choice.  I love dessert.  so I will order dessert, eat a few bites and take the rest home.  Ususally I will have a few bites till its gone ( a few days).  I go out and have drinks with my friends every other week.  I stay way from beer and sugary drinks.  Usually I will have Diet Coke and Captain or Vodka Tonic.

EMLH: Rock on and tell me what you really think about yourself…

Lisbeth: I love my body.  I don’t have a six pack, but I have a beautiful woman’s body.  I have wide hips, and a great butt.  It is big and wonderful.  I love looking like a woman.  I love my size 6.  I don’t want any less.  I love that I am strong and still soft.  I love that I have all my scars that I got from getting to where I am.  Stretch marks are my badge for motherhood.  I really have a great outlook on who I am.  I am a WOMAN.  Strong, sexy, happy, crazy and all ME and never emabarassed by who I am.  I trully am happy by what I have acheived.  I still get a little crazy when I eat or drink too much, but it is only because I love what I have done with myself.  I am positive and encourage all those who try to make these positve changes.  I don’t deny myself anything. ALL IN MODERATION.  And if I do succumb to my weaknesses, I just work a little harder after that and don’t beat myself up.  I love me and I do what makes me and my body happy.

—————-

Thank you, Lisbeth! Congratulations and thank you for agreeing to be my first “Real Woman” feature! I hope to continue this feature on a monthly basis, and I know it won’t be hard to find more real, healthy women! We are everywhere!

If you’d like to be featured, please send me an email, or post a quick message below. Let’s start setting better examples for ourselves!