October No Limits Client Spotlight: Donna DiBongrazio

We are so impressed with Donna’s commitment to herself and the amazing results she has achieved! And we know you will be inspired too!

Donna has been a member of No Limits for over 2 years and started taking our bootcamps, then transitioned into our Small Group Training.  At 64 years young, Donna is a great example that age is just a number and can’t hold you back.  

Read on below to read this Nana’s words of wisdom and how crushed her goals!  Keep it up, Donna! You are amazing!


Q: What is your favorite inspirational quote?

A: “You’re always one choice away from changing your life.” Mac Anderson

I truly believe that your life today is a combination of the choices and decisions that you have made in your past. Change is inevitable. I find it is best to embrace it rather than avoid it!


Q: What are your personal health and fitness goals?

A: My basic goal was to lose some weight, tone up, gain strength, and I feel so good about myself again. I have been a client for two years now. I am so excited and happy to say that I have lost about 25 pounds, feel stronger, more toned and feel better about my changing appearance. 


Q: What ONE thing keeps you most focused and motivated to continue to work hard to reach your goals?

A: I am a Nana now to two beautiful granddaughters who have recently moved to Florida from Las Vegas. I want to stay strong and healthy and mobile enough to take care of them, play with them and continue to be a big part of their lives for many years to come.


Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started with us?

A: I am an active 64 year old with a very full and busy life, which is just the way I like it. I enjoy spending time with my family. I have three beautiful daughters, two wonderful sons-in-love, and two adorable granddaughters. I taught elementary school for 29 years in NJ, retired in 2008, and moved to Florida with my high school sweetheart. I have volunteered with Nana’s House (a local non-profit that provides a safe, loving home to needy children) for the past 12 years. My husband passed away five years ago after a brave battle with kidney cancer. I enjoy traveling, and love dancing to good music! I am enjoying a new relationship with a local musician singer/songwriter that keeps me very busy and happy. I joined No Limits to stay active and keep healthy to sustain my busy life.


Q: How has No Limits Fitness made a difference in your life?

A: No Limits Fitness has helped me to establish a work-out routine on a consistent basis. What works well for me, is to reserve my sessions in advance. I find that if I reserve, I will go. I am the type that once I commit, I have trouble cancelling. The coaches follow up with you, plan personal programs for you, really listen to your needs and help you with your goals. The Nutrition Challenge by NLF really helped me concentrate on eating better and filling half my plate with veggies and a quarter of my plate with protein. I lost weight during this challenge and gained confidence that helped me reach my short-term goals.


Q: What kinds of milestones have you accomplished and what specific results have you achieved so far?

A: Of course, the number on the scale is a big milestone for me. Excited to be 25 pounds lighter and my goal is to lose about 15 more. But, more important than the weight change, is the fact that I feel stronger and healthier. Another plus with NLF is that you weigh in each month, and you receive your in-depth results that show muscle mass, body fat percentage and even visceral fat level. Tracking progress this way is very helpful. My numbers for skeletal muscle mass, body fat mass and body mass index have all improved significantly, as well as body fat % and visceral fat.

 

Q. What made you decide to join No Limits Fitness?

A: Two years ago, I was unhappy with my weight and appearance. I needed to make a change. No Limits Fitness is only 5 minutes from my home, they offered a boot camp class, I showed up and signed up! The choice to sign up on that day, changed my life for the better. Due to COVID, I had to move to Zoom classes, done at home with borrowed equipment from the gym… a CHANGE, but I got through it! Then, another change…move from boot camp to small group. I gave it a chance and now I really find that I like the freedom to train within a looser time period, by myself following a trainer generated workout specifically designed for me and my goals on my phone, at my own pace with trainers by my side has been a great experience.

 

Q. What was the obstacle that almost prevented you from joining?

A: I feel the obstacle that almost kept me from joining is the same thing that keeps most people from joining a gym…. just making that initial commitment, going and getting started after not working out for a while because deep down you know it is going to be hard. And let’s face it…change IS hard but can be so worth it if you persevere and stick with it.

 

Q. What has exceeded your expectations since joining?

A: I really didn’t expect to have so much support from the coaches. Coach Davina has checked in at least twice a week to ask about my highs and lows with not just my workouts, but also with my eating habits and has taken an interest in my life in general. She shares articles and current research pertaining to health and fitness that have helped encourage me to stay on track to reach my goals.  

 

Q. What would you say to someone on the fence about making a change & committing to their goals?

A: What do you have to lose? Give it a try! Just make the hardest decision, the one that’s gets you started. Once you start, take it a day at a time, stick it out, and watch the “changes” happen.

 

Q. What is your “word” for this year? 

A: My word for this year is Change. Big surprise…that word has appeared throughout. Change is hard, but making the initial decision sets the stage and staying persistent and consistent makes it happen. Stick with No Limits Fitness, listen to the coaches, do the challenges, and you can change for the better, too!

 

About No Limits

No Limits Fitness provides step-by-step programs to help busy adults get the body they’ve always wanted, without restrictive diets or time-consuming workouts, so they can lead more fulfilling lives. Life is a much better experience in a strong, healthy body!

Recent Posts

By Juan Perez 03 May, 2024
Every year millions of people make the resolution to improve their fitness. It’s not exactly a secret that the majority of these good intentions will quickly turn into empty promises. When you first get started, your excitement and energy are high and it’s easy to feel like you’re in control and that your will power alone will help you through the difficult days ahead. The reality is that you’ll probably have more days when you don’t “feel” like training. This is the reason we preach Standards Over Feelings because we understand how fundamental this is for human behavior. There have been several studies on human behavior that have helped identify the single biggest predictor of success when it comes to long-term consistency with your fitness. It’s not keeping a gym bag ready and with you at all times…although this helps. Setting your gym clothes out the night before is a great idea…but it’s still not the determining factor. Surprisingly it’s not even having an accountability partner. Schedule in advance when and where you’ll do your training. Everything else is simply in support of this habit. Being accountable to someone you don’t want to disappoint is incredibly helpful, but if you haven’t taken that first step, accountability falls short. Having been that accountability piece for hundreds of people, I’ve been ignored and ghosted more times than I can count. Even my sister stopped responding to text messages and phone calls at one point. (I called our mother but apparently you can’t put an adult on restriction). Scheduling in advance WHEN and WHERE you’ll workout is the single most important step to developing consistency with your fitness. This helps you develop integrity with yourself…if you say you’ll do something, that thing gets done. Period. Show up like a boss and bosses don’t cancel. Your training is time on your calendar dedicated to getting better. The workouts on your calendar become non-negotiable. You don’t wake up and see how you “feel” because you already know there will be days you don’t “feel” like it. In advance, you schedule your training where it best fits into your life with your responsibilities. Once you’ve planned your work, you show up and work the plan. If you fail to plan the work, you’re significantly increasing the likelihood of failure. Ask someone that has been remarkably consistent with their fitness if they know when and where they’ll workout.  This has already been decided. Their feelings aren’t involved in the process. If you truly want to be consistent with your fitness, this habit is a must: Schedule in advance when and where you’ll workout.
By Will Matthiessen 19 Apr, 2024
Crunches.  The go-to core exercise for a lot of gym goers. Yet, it’s one of the worst ab exercises you can do. Shocking, I know. You’re probably wondering why it’s one of the worst. Crunches put force on your spine and oftentimes strain on your neck. They force your spine into flexion, which is generally what people are told not to do in order to protect their back. Aside from the pressure it puts on your spine, crunches don’t activate your core muscles to the extent that a lot of other dynamic core exercises do. If your goal is to have sculpted abs like a lifeguard on Baywatch, crunches are not your solution. Aside from the aesthetic aspect, a strong core is important for your body’s balance and stability, posture, and reduction of back pain and other injuries. If you want to develop a rock hard core, here is a list of exercises better than the old fashioned crunches that you can start incorporating into your workouts: The Hard Style Plank Put your forearms on the ground and your arms set shoulder width apart. Your arms should be parallel to your body. Once you’re up in the plank, imagine squeezing your elbows to your knees and your knees to your elbows. Don’t be surprised if you start shaking like a leaf as soon as you create that tension. Dead Bugs Lie on your back with your arms straight up and your hands above your shoulders. Bend your legs at a 90-degree angle with your toes facing up at the ceiling. Imagine pushing your belly button into the ground and keeping your body tight enough to where if someone was pulling on your limbs, you’d be able to resist it. Next extend your right arm and left leg at the same time, without touching the ground. Keep pushing your belly button into the ground to avoid arching your back. The right leg that is still bent should stay completely still while the other leg is in motion. Bring your arm and leg back into the start position and then switch sides. When it comes to Dead Bugs, one of our favorite sayings applies: “Slowly is holy. Faster is disaster.” If you want to increase the intensity, add a kettlebell to the stationary arm. If you want to significantly increase the intensity, press the kettlebell once you’ve reached the fully extended position. Reverse Crunches Lie down flat with your back on the floor and your legs straight down, toes pointed up. Press your lower back into the floor and pull in your belly button as you lift your legs together up off the floor. Push your heels through the ceiling at the top and slowly lower them back to the ground. Fun, right? Double Kettlebell March Hold two heavy kettlebells in the racked position. Pull your belly button to your knees and your knees to your belly button to find max tension in your core. Once you feel that tension, slowly lift one knee up 90 degrees and then switch legs. Hollow Rocks I’ve saved the worst (I mean best) for last. Lay down on the ground with your legs a little bit off of the ground as well as your shoulder blades and head. With arms extended over your head, rock back and forth like a banana rocking back and forth on a counter. Or a see-saw…take your pick. Alright, now that I’ve given you the secret sauce to getting rock hard abs, it’s time to get to work people!
By Juan Perez 05 Apr, 2024
One of the first recommendations you’ll hear for someone wanting to lose weight is to begin by counting calories. Although weighing your food and counting calories does work for some people, the reality is that this approach to weight loss has an astonishingly high failure rate. If this strategy is “based in science”, why does it fail more than 95% of the time? The Top 3 Issues With Counting Calories The number of calories in the foods you eat are estimates. This is where the concept of counting calories being “based in science” can be misleading. The FDA allows companies to use 5 different formulas to estimate calories and a standard deviation up to 20% is acceptable. This means that something listed as 150 calories exists on a range between 120 calories and 180 calories. How ripe is your banana? The ripeness affects caloric availability. The second issue is that as individuals we each absorb a different amount of the calories from the food we consume. Thirdly, Americans are notoriously bad at determining healthy portion sizes. Our super-sized culture has heavily influenced our concept of a normal sized portion. The good news is that there is another way to lose weight without counting calories. The Three Pillars of Nutrition Whether or not you’re a card-carrying member of Camp Calorie Counters, the foundation of your nutrition is built upon three pillars: Food Quality, Food Quantity and Food Timing. Food Quality All calories are not created equal. The popular 100 calorie snack bags do not offer the same nutritional value as 100 calories from fruits or vegetables. When the majority of your meals are composed of minimally processed single ingredient whole foods (lean protein, fruits and vegetables), you’re more likely to get the micronutrients your body needs to thrive. Food Quantity As mentioned earlier, Americans aren’t known for our skills at eyeballing healthy portion sizes. Although using a food scale to determine portion sizes can be helpful, it isn’t always practical. This is the reason we recommend learning to use your hand as a guide to determine portion sizes. You can’t take a food scale with you everywhere you go but you’re always allowed to bring your hands!
Show More
Share by: