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“Slaying the Dragon” | Lisa Hampton’s Story

“I’m Lisa Hampton, I’m 44 years old and I started weight training in my 20’s as a way to beat depression. I’ve always said that the good body is just a side effect of slaying what I called “my dragon”. I started lifting in college for my required physical ed class, but I kept lifting  because I discovered that whatever sadness, anger, anxiety I felt would melt away during the daily hour I put in at the gym.

When I came to Woodside, I felt a positive atmosphere that celebrated this synergy of mind, spirit and body and I felt that same vibe with my trainer, Donald Hughes. When I started training with Donald I had been through a particularly sad and stressful time in my life and in my 40’s my body seemed to be withering. I was accustomed to having a full, healthy, muscular physique and now people were making comments like I had an eating disorder. Big booties were in, and I had hardly any bootie. I knew I would never be a Kardashian, but I had to have something back there! I told Donald I wanted my bootie back and I wanted a full, muscular, healthy physique again.

The answer: I had to eat. I thought I knew how to eat, but I didn’t. I think many women my age get busy with work, kids, or life in general and we eat poorly or skip meals altogether, we forget to take care of ourselves first. Donald put me on a nutrition plan, and by using the My Fitness Pal app I tracked my calories and #macros religiously. Once I could see exactly what I was or was not eating I discovered that I could eat more and eat a wider variety of foods than I ever thought I could. I was supposed to eat bacon or a cheeseburger sometimes because I needed the protein and fat, and that’s really exciting, right?

Over winter, I ate and I weight trained HARD 4-5 days a week to gain more muscle mass. Using the Woodside training app, Donald gave me new workouts that I could also track my progress in. Toward summer, we started shredding that fat with a lower carb diet, more cardio, and H.I.I.T.  I am 5’5 inches tall, when I started I was a mere 110 lbs. with 14% body fat went up to 120 lbs with 18% body fat back down to 116 lbs with 15% body fat. With diligent workouts, diet tracking and a great trainer I built more muscle mass while maintaining low fat percentages for my bikini ready body (and a some more bootie).

How do I stay motivated? We all have a dragon to slay. Whether it’s depression, stress, negative thoughts, that voice in your head that says you can’t workout today, too much pizza or too little pizza, too much bootie or not enough bootie…go slay that dragon every day!”

Lisa Hampton

Woodside Member

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