Like many women, Brandy Digre's struggles with her weight came after the birth of her children.
"It just kept adding on. My heaviest was 355 pounds," said Digre.
But her weight wasn’t the only thing that was up.
"My cholesterol was up, my blood pressure was up and I just finally said enough is enough, I need to do something. I wanted to be healthy for my family, my husband, my children," said Digre. "I wanted to be the wife and the mother that they deserved. So that was what kind of pushed me to really go for it."
What the longtime Premera Blue-Cross employee went for was something she never thought she could do: CrossFit.
"I used to think, 'CrossFit, no. Have you seen what they do?'" said Digre. "Premera decided to start offering free classes during lunch. Thirty-minute classes that their employees could participate in. And I had a coworker encourage me to give it a try."
Stephen Hitt, owner of CrossFit Industrious has been helping Brandy get back in shape since she started.
"When she first came down she was about 350 pounds and you could tell she wasn't feeling very happy and didn't have the productivity or the energy that she wanted to have," said Hitt.
Brandy recalls, "I was wasted after that first class, but then I'm like, okay I can do this again. And I found that each time I went back, it was a little bit easier."
Hitt adds, "With exercise and nutrition it's about habit formation and that's the hard part getting people to make a habit out of it because it is uncomfortable and it requires discipline."
Two years later, Brandy is as disciplined as they come. She's lost more than 150 pounds and she's gained an unmeasurable amount of confidence.
"I felt just physically more capable of being able to do things," said Digre. "And it just shifted mentally and kind of translated to everyday life of feeling good and happy."
The path to weight loss can be a long one, but Brandy hopes others like her will take that all important first step.
"Find that thing that works for you," said Digre. "Because I am proof that it can be done if you just stick to it."
This story is sponsored by Premera Blue Cross.
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