Bye-Bye, Baby Weight: Christine Cubillo

Christina Cubillo StatsWhen she took her “before” picture for us, Christina says she felt “completely vulnerable. I haven’t taken a picture of myself in a two-piece garment in a long time because of the shame I see in the weight and the hanging belly. It’s hard to feel comfortable in my own skin.” Christina gave birth to her first son when she was 21 years old and had no problem losing the weight, but back-to-back pregnancies after that made it harder to drop the pounds.

We paired the mom of three with the personal training staff at Work Out World in Marlboro, where Christina worked out five days a week, one to two hours a day, leaving her two youngest sons in the gym’s daycare. Some of her week was spent in the X-Lab training studio classes that promise to torch 500 to 1,000 calories in 30 minutes, thanks to exercises such as kettlebell squats, curl ups with a six-pound ball and push-ups with a six-pound ball.

Christina also worked with a rotating roster of trainers who personalized workouts for her—like running on the treadmill, balancing on a board while doing squats, climbing a rope ladder and ab crunches. Despite suffering from soreness and fatigue, Christina got stronger everyday and wrote during week two, “I feel so proud of myself, I am doing so great, I have lots of energy!”

When it came to eating right, Christina’s trainers developed a meal plan that drastically scaled back the amount of food she could consume daily—which was a shock to her system at first. The menu focused on more proteins and included fewer calories—a typical post-workout snack, for example, included half a cup of blueberries and a third a cup of oatmeal with a scoop of Cellucor protein powder, while lunch was often three ounces of turkey.

Despite a few family-related hiccups during the program, namely sick babies, Christina managed an impressive 7.5 pound weight loss. Post-program, she and her husband are thrilled with the results. “Let’s just say my husband finds me very attractive, he says I look good in all the right places,” said Christina, adding, “I feel so much better than I did eight weeks ago. I have a lot of energy. I fit into my clothes. I just love how I look.”

See how the other Baby Weight participants did on their journey.