MEDORA
Emy Allen saw multiple Facebook posts by fellow Medora resident Tammy Brooking about wanting to get fit and needing help and motivation to do so.
Knowing there isn’t a fitness center in town and the closest one is 20 miles away, Allen took matters into her own hands.
The 27-year-old posted she was going to lead women’s fitness classes on Mondays and Wednesdays in the 237 Building at Medora Christian Church.
So far, anywhere from a handful to a dozen women have attended the classes.
“I figured out my schedule at the gym, and I thought I could do something down here two days a week,” said Allen, who is a personal trainer at Body Evolution in Bedford. “It’s right down from my house, so I thought, ‘We’ll just open something down here, make it affordable. If people want to come, it’s available.”
Brooking has been among those taking the classes.
“She’s the one that got me started,” she said of Allen. “She’s a good coach. She just motivates us.”
Before the classes were offered, Brooking said her exercise involved walking laps around the track at Brownstown Central High School, which is about 10 miles away. She had considered going to the gym where Allen works, but she’s glad she can at least start with the classes in Medora.
“Everybody wants to lose weight and get more fit. It’s something here at home that you can come to,” Brooking said.
Each class starts with some stretches before walking laps. Then there are some exercises utilizing 2- to 5-pound dumbbells and yoga mats. The class ends with more walking laps so everyone gets at least 1 mile in.
Along the way, Allen demonstrates each move and also offers alternatives, and there’s no pressure or judgment. She just wants people to have fun while getting fit.
“I want people to boost up in cardio,” Allen said. “Some people have got desk jobs, and the longer you sit on your booty at home and at work, that’s just minutes off your life. You’ve got to be active. You’ve got to get your heart going. Even if they just get in here and work out like we did, that’s better than sitting at home on the couch.”
Allen has overcome her own struggles to get where she is today.
When she was younger, she battled depression and weight issues.
“All of these doctors are prescribing me pills for my depression and I was popping all of these pills, but at the same time, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m still going to eat the food I’m eating,’” she said. “Well, sitting around feeding my face and not doing anything for my physical part and letting my health go down just made my depression worse, no matter how many pills they fed me.”
She thought she was on track to a better lifestyle, but then she started college and had more stress. Then she became a dispatcher at the Bedford Police Department and had even more stress.
“Finally, the doctor told me, ‘Have you ever thought about bariatric surgery? I think if you got some of this weight off, it would do you some good,’” said Allen, who weighed 308 pounds at the time.
She agreed to meet with Dr. Robert Cooper at Schneck Medical Center in Seymour and go through the six-month process, which also included seeing a psychologist and a dietitian.
“I remember the first time stepping on the scale and I had lost 4 pounds, and that was my ‘Hey, this is going to work. I’ve got to make this work.’ That was my motivation,” Allen said.
On Dec. 13, 2017, she had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, a type of weight loss surgery that involves creating a small pouch from the stomach and connecting it directly to the small intestine, according to mayoclinic.org.
After spending three days in the hospital, Allen returned home and felt like she was dying. She had blood clots in one of her lungs and one of her legs, so she went back in the hospital for another week and was put on blood thinners.
“Once people have major surgeries like that, blood clots are common,” Allen said. “They tell you to walk, and I was walking all I could, but once those blood clots hit my lung, I thought I was dying.”
She wound up on blood thinner shots for a year. Looking back, though, it was all worth it because bariatric surgery changed her life for the better.
“People think that’s the cheating way (to lose weight). That is not the cheating way. It is a tool,” she said. “Some people go to the gym for a tool. (Bariatric surgery) is one of the tools I used, so I’m openly honest with that. I don’t judge people that go to the gym and lose their weight, and I don’t judge somebody that has surgery. I personally had medical conditions, and at 308 pounds, I couldn’t get into a gym. I couldn’t do it.”
After the surgery, Allen had to eat properly and work out regularly so she didn’t gain the weight back.
In the morning, she eats a bowl of fruit and a cup of oatmeal and drinks water. An hour later, she has coffee.
At lunch, she eats a lot of protein, including chicken, steak and boiled eggs. Then dinner is her biggest meal, either steak, chicken or pork with vegetables. She also cooks a pound of bacon in the morning and snacks on it throughout the day, and she drinks water and tries to stay away from carbohydrates.
Fortunately, her family is on board with the diet, including her son, Vayden, 2.
“He’s younger and I just don’t want him on the path I was growing up,” Allen said. “He’s my main focus.”
For exercise, Allen worked out at home until Body Evolution opened in Bedford. A friend at the police department began training her and wound up encouraging her to become a certified personal trainer.
“I was scared to do it. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this or not,’” she said. “I was worried about being the prime example because I had been overweight myself and am I one to coach somebody, to tell them how to do it after I was.”
Allen decided to go for it and became certified earlier this year.
“Then they blasted me on and I had clients flying through the door. People hit me up on Facebook ‘I want to personal train,’” Allen said. “It was amazing because two of the women I train are bariatric patients. … That’s inspiring. That motivates me.”
When she’s not working with clients at the gym, Allen likes teaching the classes twice a week in her hometown.
Since there isn’t any exercise equipment at the church building, she has the women bring light hand weights and yoga mats.
“We’re just using our body weight to build some strength up and throwing some cardio in,” Allen said.
She likes offering the class because she feeds off of their motivation and the $5 charge per class or $30 for a month is affordable. Part of the money goes back to the church.
Brittany Guthrie of Medora said those factors drew her into the classes.
“I think it’s great I don’t have to drive out of town,” she said. “That’s the biggest upside for me because I work in Seymour, so I have to drive 30 minutes to get home and don’t want to drive back out of town to get where I’m going. It’s really convenient for me.”
Guthrie chose to pay for the whole month so she has to come back twice a week.
“I’m glad it’s here because it doesn’t take me very long to get here and the time is good for me because I don’t get off work until 5, so it doesn’t give me much time to relax at home and get lazy and change my clothes and you don’t have time to sit down and fall asleep,” she said, laughing.
Guthrie said she also likes how Allen is encouraging and shows alternate ways to do each exercise and it’s a no-pressure zone.
“I’ve never really worked out at a gym. I think (the fitness class) is perfect for me, and I like it,” Guthrie said. “Hopefully, more people come because it’s fun.”
Whoever she is working with on fitness, Allen said her message is the same: “It’s never too late.”
“People say, ‘I’m too far gone. I’ve already gained all of this weight.’ If you didn’t start yesterday, you’ve got today and may have tomorrow. We don’t know. But it’s not too late,” she said. “You’ve got to make goals. You’ve got to go for them. You can’t just sit around and dwell on where you are now. A lot of my girls tell me, ‘I can’t do this,’ and I’m like, ‘Trust me, if I can do it, you can do it.’”
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What: Women’s fitness classes
When: 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays
Where: 237 Building at Medora Christian Church, 76 S. George St., Medora
Who: Led by Emy Allen and open to all women
Cost: $5 per class or $30 for the month (cash only)
What to bring: Yoga mat, lightweight dumbbells and water
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