Introduce yourself - Maria

 

Heidi, MARIA, Cami, Kristina, Carter

Hi everyone,

Annie had a great idea that  we should introduce ourselves. So here I go...

My name is Maria Ripol and I have lived in Gainesville since 1994. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, of Cuban parents. I went to grad school at Cornell in upstate NY where I met my husband, Jim Hobert. We got jobs at UF when we finished grad school and have been here ever since. I teach very large introductory Statistics classes and take the summers off. We have one daughter, Marisa, who is 15, and one dog, Kirby, who is considered by some to be our second kid.

I like to read, cook, eat, travel, and while exercise is not my favorite thing to do, I love to walk with my friends while chatting the whole time and solving all our problems. It's better than therapy, and it's free! I've been walking regularly with Annie for 15 years, and with Kristina, Lisa and Heidi for about 5.

I was a skinny kid growing up and only started gaining weight after I got married and learned how to cook. After having my daughter I went back to my pre-pregnancy weight, but as the years passed it slowly became an extra 40 pounds or so. I eat when I'm happy, I eat when I'm stressed, I eat when I'm bored... you get the picture!

At the end of last summer, Kristina, Cami, Annie and I participated in a Healthy Wage team challenge where the winning team got a $10,000 prize. We didn't win any money, but the support we gave each other through those 12 weeks really helped us keep motivated and we all lost quite a bit of weight - about 25 pounds for me. 

When that challenge ended in December I wanted to lose another 10 pounds or so. After the holidays, including a trip to France, I was maintaining my weight loss, which was encouraging. But by the end of January I realized I was finding it very difficult to find the motivation again, so we decided to form a new team for Healthy Wage. Annie had been our fearless captain, but she had lost so much weight that she couldn't really be a part of the competition. Our fifth member (who shall remain unnamed) was a pain in the a$$ who lost maybe 4 pounds total and didn't really care about the challenge, so she was out. So we recruited Heidi and Carter (Kristina's husband) and did it again. This time I lost another 15 pounds - you can see our Before and After pictures up there. We didn't get the big prize, but we are so proud of ourselves!!

This second challenge ended a month ago, and here we are, looking for motivation and support again. This time my goal is to learn how to live a balanced life. Six months of counting calories was exhausting. My plan now (especially now that I'm back from my trip) is to focus on eating a healthy, balanced diet, where nothing is forbidden but portions are controlled. I didn't do anything unhealthy for the team competition, but I did restrict my intake pretty severely a couple of times, and it always backfired. I hate to be told I can't eat something, even if it's me telling myself...

Three words to describe me, with a little help from my family: stubborn, resourceful and spunky.

Favorite workouts: walking with friends, Zumba, hiking, and I do go to the gym although I have to make myself, so having a partner helps a lot.