I’m not the type to boast about myself. I'm a very private person. I don’t drink, I don’t go to bars and I don’t watch a lot of TV. I’m a 43-year-old data systems administrator and programmer – a nerd, in other words! I work all day, I’m a single mom of two kids, I go to the gym, I go to bed then I get up and do it all over again each day.
To explain how Jim Stoppani changed my life, I need to back up a bit further than the last four years. I tried every fad diet, weight-loss scheme and gimmick you could think of. I tried to work out, but I had fallen arch issues and my knees hurt. When I did work out, I was in even more pain and barely lost any weight. Any weight I lost I would gain right back and then some, which equated to just over 300 pounds.
I tried everything. I even went to the extreme and got lap-band weight-loss surgery – little did I know at the time I was making a huge mistake. At first, the weight seemed to come right off. I did everything I was supposed to: I didn’t drink soda, I didn’t eat bread and I ate about 500-800 calories a day. I started working out and because of the weight I lost, I was able to exercise without my feet and joints hurting. Then one day I started vomiting. I couldn’t keep anything down; I knew something was really wrong. The band had slipped, causing huge problems. After a lot of time spent on doctors, surgeries and so forth, I had a super expensive lap band and I was still overweight. I was devastated.
What was I going to do? I had a taste of weight loss and I loved it. But I didn’t feel like I had the willpower or ability to do it on my own. I gave up once again. One day, I tried to chase my daughter up the stairs and I couldn’t do it. In an instant, my future flashed before my eyes and I knew if I didn’t do something and make it stick, I wouldn’t ever see my kids get married and grow up.
My husband was dedicated to helping me and we pushed each other to go to the gym and eat better. There were days it felt impossible. I lost my first 60 pounds, but found myself at a standstill. I was 240 pounds and I was NOT going back up, so I did what everyone does: I cut, cut, cut my calories and then I cut them some more… and I lost maybe five pounds.
I had restricted my calories so much that it got to the point where I barely had any energy to complete a workout or do anything else. I was deflated, depressed and on the verge of going out of my mind. Then I came across an article by a “Dr. Jim Stoppani” talking about what supplements to take and so forth.
I looked up everything on this Dr. Jim Stoppani. Was he credible? Did he know what he was talking about? It sounded like he did. I read every article of his I could find on the Internet. I was amazed to find that not only did this guy have a degree from a reputable university (UConn), but he had also studied at one of the most prestigious universities in the world (Yale). He wasn’t like all the other so-called experts out there saying you need a pre-workout that gives you a “pump” or telling you how to get “jacked.” It all sounded great until you took their products and sure enough, the pump didn’t last long and you crashed. For me, it lasted a few days and then I got no “pump” at all – not to mention zero gains.
So I bought all the ingredients Jim mentioned in his article (this was before he formulated his JYM supplement line) and started stacking them. In addition to the supplements, I started the 1-2-3 Lean program and dropped 30 pounds of fat in two months while also putting on a ton of really great-looking muscle. I was on a roll. I was psyched.
And then came devastating news while my family and I were on a much-anticipated vacation to Disney World: My doctor informed me that I was showing early signs of cervical cancer. The long and short of it: I went through treatments, but none of them worked. After a year of fighting cancer, I was at stage 3 and was told I needed to make a decision between dying and a hysterectomy -- and even with the latter, death wasn’t off the table. I wasn’t even 40 years old.
Now, I know what most of you are thinking: Cancer treatments = weight loss. But I didn’t lose any weight from having cancer. But the hysterectomy worked. It got all the cancer and I thought I was on the easy road to recovery. I was back to taking my supplement stack and I started a new workout weight-loss blitz. It was going well until all of a sudden, I started to suffer side effects from the supplements. The cancer and treatments had changed the chemical makeup in my body and I could no longer tolerate all of those pills. I had to stop all supplements because there was no way of knowing which ones my body couldn’t tolerate. No pre- or post-workout stack, nothing. I had made it to 182 pounds at 41 years old and I was so excited. The 1-2-3 Lean program worked and so did Super Shredded 8. I was 182 pounds, but wow, did it look like I weighed 160 because of the lean muscle I had added! I wanted more.
I stayed at 182 for about a year. I was happy with my weight and where I was at, but what I wasn’t happy with was not being able to take supplements. Could you believe fate was in my corner? “Someone” went and created his own supplement line called JYM Supplement Science and of course, I was one of the first people to order it online. I started taking Pre JYM and was shocked when my body had no negative reactions. Next came Post JYM, Pro JYM and Shred JYM, and I had no adverse reactions to any of those products either. Mixing the supplements with the right program, I became a beast in the gym.
Things were going great with the gym and the supplements, yet my marriage was falling apart. I was lucky to be alive, living in an apartment with my kids, trying to keep my life together and not gaining the weight back. So I did the only thing a sane woman like myself would do: I became a gym rat! When I wasn’t at work or spending time with my kids, I was in the gym.
I’ve struggled a lot over the last year. As life got more difficult and stress hit me hard, the weight came back. And then last fall, I had knee surgery. My weight increased to 202 pounds, but in January of this year, I got back on the supplements and in the gym. I did 1-2-3 Lean and by March, I was down to 195. This month (April 2015) I started Super Shredded 8 – for the sixth time – and I’m back to 186 pounds after just over a week.
If I hadn’t gotten the correct information and fitness programs that worked, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I would still be reading every fitness article, trying to decipher for myself what pre-workout, post-workout and protein was good for me and what worked. I’d be trying every magazine workout like I used to, with none of them ever working and doing cardio for hours at a time like I used to.
Now, I spend less time in the gym, but it’s quality time. I take supplements – Pre JYM, Post JYM, Pro JYM, and Shred JYM – that work for my body and mind. I’m in a really good place. This year I have a few surgeries coming up (left knee surgery, surgery on both shoulders), but I’m much more mentally prepared now than I’ve ever been. I feel like Jim Stoppani, his team and the JYM Army are there for me for motivation and support. I’ve never had that before.
Jim not only changed my life, but in a way he saved my life. If not for him, I would still be trying every fad exercise and pre/post/protein out there and causing more harm than good. Knowing Jim cares by creating quality products and helping us all be the best we can be is what sets him apart. Thanks Jim!!!
- Nancy Smith
