This is the true story of a true Badass.
The first time I met Jenn, she was at the gym -- drenched in sweat and smiling. There she was attacking the stairmill, looking happier than most people do on the killer cardio machine. It was her 41st birthday, but that's not the only reason she was smiling.
Jennifer Patton Bertsch's joy was the result of another anniversary: It was exactly one year since she had stopped smoking, trading in her daily packs for clean healthy food and daily exercise. It was one year since she had gone from 180 pounds to 140 pounds.
And she wasn't finished.
"I decided I was going to do this, and I wasn't going to disappoint myself or anyone," she told me recently. "And once I realized I had the will to stop smoking, I knew I could do anything. I had been fat for seven years, and I was just like, I am done. I'd look over at the other moms in school and they were so fit. I was sick of being the one who wasn't."
So she dusted off the treadmill her husband had bought one year as a birthday gift. She started out huffing and puffing through a walk at a speed of 3.5 mph. Then she added one little burst of 30 seconds at 5.0 mph. Then another. And then a speed burst of 60 seconds.
Soon she could jog a quarter mile at 5.0 mph. Victory! After a few months, there she was on the stairmill, going as long as 45 minutes. She read every fitness book and magazine she could. She watched The Biggest Loser for inspiration.
Meanwhile, Jenn wrote down everything she ate, keeping at about 1,200 calories a day. She stopped drinking for a couple months to control her calories better. She ate real food, healthy food, a balance of carbs and protein and healthy fats. She did not starve herself or do anything to excess. She lost 2 pounds that first week, then 2.5, then another 2.
Today, more than nine months after I met her that morning at the gym, Jenn is 117 gorgeous pounds of lean, strong muscle. She went from a size 14 to a size 2. She does hot yoga with me and our friend Kirsten. We run stadiums. She runs 5Ks. She does box jumps higher than the tough guys at our gym. Before, she could not do one pushup. Now she is stronger and hotter than before she had her boys, ages 10 and 8.
Kirsten and I call her Badass Bertsch, a nickname that began one day midway through a set of stadiums at Doak Campbell. Yes, that's right. Jenn (along with Kirsten, aka Kickass Kirsten) is the inspiration for this blog.
I share her story with you all so that she can be your inspiration, too. Jenn lost more than 60 pounds. She did it through sheer will and determination and self-respect. She did it without a trainer, without diet pills or some crazy 500-calorie-a-day plan that put her health at risk.
I have seen her confidence grow in the months since we met and joined with Kirsten to become the "Badass Trio" -- partners in exercise, shopping, and happy hour.
Jenn and I went shopping last week for her New Year's Eve dress, and when she tried on the little silver number that turned out to be "the one," I was reminded of how far she had come. She looked, in a word, HOT! Just ask her lucky husband, who all night got exclamations of, "Aren't you the lucky guy?!" Yes, yes he is.
When she sent me her "before" pictures a few days ago, Jenn called me and was near tears. "You have to open this picture up while we're on the phone!" she said. "OMG. I cannot believe that is me. I can't believe I looked like that."
An hour or so passed, and she sent me an e-mail: "I'm so glad that girl is gone!"
But later I thought, no, not quite. See, "that girl" is who Jenn really is and will always be. That girl is the one who powered her through 63 lost pounds. That girl is the one who told her every day, Keep exercising. Eat smart. Don't pick up a cigarette.
Jenn might not know it, but she is my real-life Dara Torres. I see the ferocity and strength in her eyes when we run up the 84 steps at Doak Campbell (12 times!) and I think about how impressive her journey has been.
Her climb to fitness was steeper and more daunting than my own. Maybe it is steeper than yours, or just about the same. Wherever you are on your road to Badass, remember Badass Bertsch.
Remember how she started out: 180 pounds and probably a little overwhelmed at the pounds she needed to lose and the strength she wanted to build. But she kept climbing. One steep step at a time.
Until she reached the top and found the Badass that was always there, waiting to emerge. Keep climbing, Badass Bertsch. You rock!
Coming up: Weights plus cardio bursts for maximum results!