Streamwood woman, husband pleased with results

Wendy Kreiser has found a happy place.

Kreiser, a 25-year-old mother from Streamwood, participated in the Push Fitness Fittest Loser competition, a three-month contest designed to help the contestants lose weight and develop better diet and exercise habits.

Kreiser lost weight and gained a new perspective during the contest, even though she was slowed momentarily when she injured her shoulder doing arm exercises.

"I'm a lot happier, to be honest,'' Kreiser said. "In the beginning, I had the downhill effect, where one thing goes wrong and then everything goes wrong, because of my state of mind. Now I am more positive overall. If something goes wrong, oh well, I will start over tomorrow.

"I attribute that to pushing myself in this contest," she said. "The more I went (to Push for workouts) the better I felt and the more my attitude changed. It has changed the way I think."

Matt Kreiser, her husband of six years, agrees.

"It was what she needed,'' he said. "The fact she went through with this process was a big step for her. She is more confident. She is not letting little things get her down any more. She is more positive than I can ever remember."

Kreiser suffered a sprained rotary joint in her left shoulder from some of the overhead work she was required to do, and that set her back in training.

"We just sort of worked around it,'' Kreiser said. "I didn't use that arm at all."

"I still made her do upper body exercises, but I had her curling on the other arm,'' said Michelle Williams-Amsden, who worked with Kreiser.

"She did more cardio; she couldn't do any pushups or anything like that. She was injured for a week, but she still came in."

Kreiser also suffered a severe case of tonsillitis in the last week and could not train at all.

The competition taught the contestants about exercise but also about changing their diet.

They were required to eat five times a day, and Kreiser plans on making some changes back in terms of her meal plan.

"I'm definitely eating right now,'' Kreiser said. "I don't have high blood pressure any more and my sugar levels have dropped 20 points. But I am going to stop eating plain chicken. I will be happy to add some flavor to my food."

Kreiser enjoyed working with Williams-Amsden, whose effusive personality worked in Kreiser's favor.

"She is always pushing me, always telling me how proud she is of me, and I really needed that,'' Kreiser said. "She has been my biggest fan."

"When I first met her, I don't think she had much confidence in herself, that she could achieve the success that she has,'' Williams-Amsden said.

"Now that we are at the end, I think she thought it was going to be a lot harder. I am going to keep in contact with her and still going to train her. She is ready to make it."