S.L.A.M.er of the Month - January

S.L.A.M.er of the Month – January

Meet Hilary Schulze of Stroller Strong Moms – Dayton Area!

Hi, my name is Hilary! I am from Beavercreek, Ohio, and I graduated from Miami University in Ohio! I met my husband through a mutual friend on a vacation at a lake house on Norris Lake in Tennessee. We were both in college at different schools, but we were both from the Dayton area. Shortly after that vacation, we started dating and had dated for 7 years before getting married. I am a Database Consultant and he is a firefighter. Two years after being married, we welcomed our first child, Stella! She is now 8 months old and she is the best thing that has ever happened to us.

I started struggling with my weight in college, of course. All of the junk food and partying slowly took its toll on me. I tried Weight Watchers one summer and lost 10 pounds but struggled to do so. I HATE WORKING OUT—and I love food. After college, I started my job as a Database Consultant that requires me to travel to our customers across the US. I’ve been to Atlanta, San Diego, Grand Rapids, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and now locally in Ohio. I find it extremely hard to stay healthy while travelling. I eat out for every meal and have no energy to workout. Fast forward 5 years in this job, and I’ve gained quite a bit of weight. I’ve tried numerous diets but never really worked out so I would lose a very small amount of weight each time and then eventually gain it back. When I got pregnant with Stella, I ate whatever I wanted and did not work out because I never worked out before her. Towards the end of the pregnancy I got diagnosed with gestational diabetes. This scared me to death so I really had to watch what I ate and I started walking on the treadmill. I gained 35 pounds and lost a lot of it right away because of breastfeeding. Unfortunately, the second I stopped breastfeeding I gained back about 10 pounds. I was overweight before Stella and now I’ve added even more weight so I knew I needed something to help me. Another motivation for a healthy change is that if/when I get pregnant with baby #2, I have to assume I will have gestational diabetes again. I thought if I could lose some weight and make some healthier decisions with food, I’d be in a hopefully less stressful pregnancy next time around.

Stella’s birth was less than ideal and it took a big toll on me physically and mentally. My husband, Craig, stepped up in the first few weeks at home so I could try to heal myself while he did what he could for the baby. Once I physically healed, he had to force me out of the house because I just wanted to be with Stella all day every day and that did not necessarily help me heal mentally. My problem was that I had nothing to do. After getting to a good place overall, I started looking for things to do and ways to get healthy. My new problem is that I work from home while taking care of Stella and my husband works 24 hour shifts on different days every week. Anything that required consistency was not going to work. I joined a volleyball league (because I LOVE volleyball and played in high school) but even had to miss some of those games because of our schedules.

One night I was browsing Facebook and I happened to see a flyer for Stroller Strong Moms. I went to the website and it seemed like a great fit for me! I could work out and bring Stella along so I wouldn’t have to worry if Craig could watch her. They were just opening in Dayton so I thought this would be my opportunity to try it out and not feel like an outcast because the group hadn’t been established yet. The class was SUPER fun and all the girls were so nice! I kept going to try it out and ended up loving it. Like I said earlier, I have never liked working out and this is the first time I’ve looked forward to going to a workout class. Alexis is wonderful and makes me feel comfortable since I am far from in shape. All of the moms are supportive and are becoming good friends of mine and I hope our kids all become close as they grow up together. I haven’t lost much weight but I have definitely built up some muscle and have tightened up a lot.