Ever feel like you don't have enough time to workout? Welp€¦ You're wrong. If Jessica Gilmartin has time to work out, then you can certainly find it in your heart to peel yourself off your couch and hit the gym.
As a woman of many hats (mother/flight attendant/landlord), Gilmartin leads a stressful life, but has still found time to make some big life changes. In this Fitness Feature, 6 Pack Fitness talks about her amazing weight loss journey and her unique ability to balance everything under the sun.
You led a pretty healthy lifestyle prior to your daughter's birth. What changed after she was born?
Years before my daughter, like in my early 20s. I was actually training in the East Bay in California. I was a personal trainer in northern California when I was 20-21. Then at 22, I became a flight attendant and started to gain some weight because of the lifestyle - eating out a lot and tired, long days. It takes commitment to work out when you're flying, but yeah, I slowly gained weight throughout my 20s.
Your weight loss journey started in 2010. What made you want to change your life?
My daughter was a year and a half. I just gained weight from being pregnant, obviously, but I didn't gain all of it from that. I was already 268 lbs and then it escalated. Then I just said, "This is enough. What am I doing with myself?" I used to be a personal trainer€¦ I used to be healthy. I mean, I've never been the tiny girl but I wanted to get back to where I was. The dream was to compete someday.
That's kind of where it started. I just started back in the gym. The first two weeks were cardio. Just trying to gain some strength back because I was pretty unfit. The first year I'd lose some and then gain some back, lose and then gain it back. February 2012 is when I said enough was enough and I got really serious.
I got my first coach, Stephanie Billings in June 2012 and just literally kicked it up and set the date for my first competition. I don't care if I am as good as they are. I'm going to do it. I'm going to be the best I can be. That was the year I lost the majority of my weight. It was about 70 something pounds.
How does a mom, who is on the go constantly as a flight attendant, capable of losing all that weight?
I am still a flight attendant, an apartment manager, and online coach. I hustle. Also, I am a single mom that gets no child support. Nothing. I do it all on my own. That's called being super woman. When you have kids and that kid looks up to you€¦ There is something that ignites inside you. You either become a fighter or you flight from it. I chose to fight. I have no choice. It's the best feeling when she goes around telling people "my mommy lost 20 pounds." Well, it's really like 110 pounds but that's okay I don't care. But it makes me happy because she is proud.
Seriously€¦ How do you manage it all?
I can't say I'm perfect, but I get it done. I think sometimes you just make it happen. It's hard€¦ Especially when it comes to prep. That's why the 6 Pack Bag is like a savior to me. I started using that over a year ago and it was like the best thing ever. You know, everyone makes fun of me. I carry around my "refrigerator."
When you fly, your days can be a lot of up and down, up and down. So we could do one flight which could be two hours or we could do 6 flights where we have no breaks and we are flying up down, up down, up down, up down, up down, up down. Ground time is short. We have to get passengers on, clean the plane, get passengers back onto the aircraft, and you keep going. We could have 12-hour days sometimes with no breaks. It's pretty difficult to eat right and even more difficult finding time to train.
In the next edition of our Fitness Feature with Jessica Gilmartin, the do-it-all mom talks about her budding bodybuilder career, her training program and meal planning technique that is fit for the sky. Stay tuned!
