Maureen Ingelsby’s biography is filled with so many achievements that she could be a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Ingelsby could tell millions of viewers the secrets to her many success stories, including her latest one – a 37-pound weight loss, thanks to Healthy Inspirations at the Healthplex^®.

Her saga begins as a single mom with five children, ages 1 through 9, and facing difficult financial and emotional times. She evolved through her years of struggle to become a teacher, then a corporate manager, finally reaching her pinnacle as a top-selling, award-winning local real estate agent. 

Ingelsby overcame those challenges along the way to reach her happy ending as a successful career woman who re-met and married her college sweetheart in 1989. Today she is a patron to many arts and education foundations, including a charity that once helped her family.

But for all her triumphs, there was something eluding her. Ingelsby didn’t keep up with the fitness regimen she started when she joined the Healthplex^® in 1996.  There were a few setbacks along the way, like a hectic lifestyle and broken bones in both feet.

“I just let it all go after that,” Ingelsby says. “I got into bad habits and kept putting on weight.  I wasn’t feeling very good about my weight gain. I wasn’t happy about continually going up in dress sizes.”

Pending grandmother-hood gave Ingelsby a wake-up call, and this past Christmas she pledged to change her body. “I knew what I should be doing, so I decided to go back to the Healthplex^® and exercise,” she says.

Her return coincided with the opening of Healthy Inspirations at the Healthplex®, a comprehensive weight loss program for women. The program combines four components to help women lose weight: nutritional guidance, exercise, relaxation therapy and one-on-one counseling.

“The timing was right for me and the program made sense. I knew I’d have to change the way I ate and become more active, more than just the running around I do in real estate,” Ingelsby notes.

She met with Lenore Boccia, the program coordinator and a former realtor, who went over the program. “She was very helpful to me. The comfort level was there,” remembers Ingelsby. “I had no doubt that this was right for me since there were people monitoring my progress, and I needed that to stay motivated.”

With the services of a registered dietitian, licensed nutritionist and personal trainer, Healthy Inspirations at the Healthplex® helps each client develop her own nutritional and exercise plan. It’s based on weight loss needs, lifestyle, and medical conditions. The “tranquility chair” is part of the program and uses massage techniques to reduce stress, which can cause overeating.

“I enjoy the program so much! It’s the right combination of components,” Ingelsby says. “I exercise three times a week on the circuit training equipment. It gives me just the regimen I need.  And I love having a trainer guiding me.”

Ingelsby says she also loves having the flexibility of working out either in the Healthy Inspirations Center or in the main gym at the Healthplex®.  First she’ll warm up on the treadmill, then use the free weights, circuit train, add some mat work for abs, and finish with the cross trainer - for a total of about ninety minutes.

Ingelsby enjoys the one-on-one nutrition counseling with the Healthplex®  registered dietitian and “lifestyle consultants,” who give the support, education and motivation needed to successfully stick with the program.

“I keep a food diary and then go over it with my counselor. I don’t feel deprived, like most people do on diets. I’m never hungry,” Ingelsby says. “It’s all about setting a goal and being accountable. It’s a new lifestyle now.”

Because of that new lifestyle, Ingelsby reached her goal and lost 37 pounds in three-and-a-half months. Now she is part of the Healthy Inspirations maintenance program, checking in twice a week and still exercising three times weekly. She also attends some of the special classes sponsored by the program, like cooking, line dancing and ab and back exercises.

And she can rival Oprah in dropping dress sizes; Ingelsby went from a size 18 to a size 10.  She could tell the talk show host about the compliments she gets all of the time. “No one believes I’m a 55-year old grandmother!”

Not only does she look great, “I feel so much better! My joints were always hurting, but not anymore. I’m also off the blood pressure medicine. I really feel good about myself,” Ingelsby says. “I made a complete paradigm switch. Before, I didn’t take the time for me. Now I’ve made myself the priority.”