Early Riser Finds Time For Steady Weight Loss

In January 2011, at 75 pounds over her ideal weight and faced with a diagnosis of pre-diabetes, Kimberly Vallee-Pierre of Lexington watched the documentary “Food, Inc.” and got mad.

The movie depicts a U.S. food supply riddled with contamination and unhealthy ingredients.

“I understood after seeing the movie that there are things put in our food that makes it addictive. That angered me,” she said.

Kimberly, now 42, also is the mother of Kylee, now 6.

“I was an older mom and I didn’t want my daughter to have an old, decrepit mother with no energy,” she said.

She also refused to embark on another round of yo-yo dieting like she had done countless times before.

“I wanted a sustainable, long-lasting program that would start with small steps and add one positive change at a time,” she said.

So she did.

She replaced processed food in her diet with whole foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains. “I call it trading up,” Kimberly said.

In six months, she lost 25 pounds, then surprised her husband Kurt, saying, “How about we train for a 5k?”

“That was outside my comfort zone,” she said.

But train she did. She found a couch-to-5k app and partnered with women friends at her church for training.

In October, 2011, she ran her first 5k at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in downtown Lexington.

“When I started I had tears in my eyes,” she said. “I couldn’t believe I was doing the race. It was amazing.”

By winter, she joined a gym and last winter, she got a personal trainer.

Again, she benefited from the support of women friends at church, who trained with her.

And here’s another key to Kimberly’s success – she’s an early riser. I mean, really early.

When training for her first 5k, she met her friends at Shillito Park at 5 a.m. To work with her personal trainer, she rises at 4:35 a.m. to meet her friends at the gym.

And there’s another aspect to her success: “There’s a huge spiritual component to this,” she said.

It all adds up to 50 pounds of weight loss in two years and a new business for Kimberly.

She currently works from home for a financial firm and is starting a side business called “Wholehearted Heath & Wellness,” where she will serve as a personal health coach.

(www.wholeheartedhealthandwellness.com)

Said Kimberly: “I want to help other people on their journey.”