Fitness trainer helps clients progress at personal pace

By Celene Adams | A Whim & A Prayer

Success, some say, isn’t about how far or fast we go; it’s about the distance we progress from where we started, and North Park weight-loss and nutrition specialist Karen Rapien has come a long way from the obese, sedentary woman she used to be.

“My highest [weight] that I know of was 260 pounds, but at some point you stop weighing yourself,” said Rapien, who’s now 100 pounds lighter, exercises regularly, and teaches others how to achieve their own health and fitness goals.

Rapien didn’t stride toward success, however, so much as sidle up to it. And the process of turning her liabilities into her livelihood evolved one step at a time.

Growing up in the Midwest, “I wasn’t encouraged to be active,” she said, explaining how her weight problem began. She was, however, encouraged to clean her plate – that is, until her girth grew – and then those Midwestern mores mingled with mixed messages. She began attending weekly weight-loss meetings with her mother, and said she remembers her father saying once, out of the blue, “Hey Karen, let me see you run up to the mailbox.’”

Her parents were trying to help, but Rapien felt confused, hurt and humiliated.

“The driveways in the Midwest are kind of long,” she said, her voice trailing off. “That is such a big memory for me as a child, to have my dad say that.”

Then came the dieting: the soup diet, the cabbage diet and the salad-only diet.

“[It was] really unhealthy eating, that no human being could stick to. The worst part was that I would lose the weight but … gain it back,” she said. “I would lose 40 and gain back 70.”

It wasn’t until she was in her early 30s that Rapien stopped chasing a fast fix and faced facts. Her “aha” moment came shortly after her fiancé proposed to her, coincidentally perhaps, as she was once again en route to the mailbox.

“I realized how big I was, and how lucky I was – that I didn’t have diabetes, or high blood pressure, or high cholesterol – and [then I] realized that it was just a matter of time,” she said. “It was not going to be long before I would have any one of those, if not all of them.”

This time however, instead of feeling humiliated Rapien felt fearful – “terrified,” she said – that, because she’d lost weight so many times and gained it back, she’d balloon to more than 300 pounds. That’s when she realized a sustainable solution would require scrapping the scale.

“It has to be my way,” she recalled thinking. “I have to do it in a way that’s livable for me.”

The self-described “fat outcast” who’d grown up feeling she didn’t measure up, now decided to take her own measure: to factor her emotions into the equation and focus on health rather than appearance. So she started swimming at the local pool, cut her pizza consumption in half and hired a personal trainer for support.

“She really listened,” Rapien said, recalling how the trainer’s respect for her fears as much as her physical prowess was a crucial component of their relationship.

“Especially in the beginning, I didn’t want to lose so much to have it be so devastating if I went back. It’s humiliating,” she said.

So each time the scale got scary, she’d tell her trainer she wanted to stop for a while. It was a slow, steady slog, but it was sure and sound, and it enabled Rapien to pick her own pace as the pounds disappeared.

A year and a half later, she’d lost 100 of them. But being slimmer could not spare her from life’s curve balls. Two years into her marriage, her husband died. Six months after that, she lost her job of 13 years. Both were setbacks that could have stopped her in her tracks. Yet, instead of running to the fridge, she laced up her trainers.

“[E]xercise … saved my life. It gave me an out,” she said. “When I would feel like my head was going to explode with all the things I was dealing with, I would go for a run, or go for a walk or lift some weights: something to spend that energy.”

Rapien didn’t know where she was headed, but she had the gumption to keep going. And fortune, as they say, favors the brave.

“[My trainer had often] joked about me getting into the health and fitness industry, because I was her big success story,” she said. Since it was now clear her star student was a winner, not only at weight loss but in life too, the trainer issued an official invitation for her to join her team.

Rapien was ready.

“I wanted to motivate people, because I was like, ‘I get it. I’ve been there, done that.’ And I know how hard it is. I know the struggles,” she said. “I don’t forget that stuff. And I understand that life doesn’t stop.”

So Rapien started shadowing her trainer, learning the ropes while simultaneously earning her certification, both as a nutrition specialist via The American Academy of Sports Dieticians and Nutritionists and as a personal trainer from the American Council of Exercise.

“[Now] I can’t imagine doing anything else. It’s just such a part of my life,” she said, remarking that the rewards of her work reach beyond helping clients develop healthy habits. Rapien takes detailed notes to remind clients of how far they’ve come.

“I’ll even write down a specific quote … or a fear that they might have,” she said. “A month or two months down the road, we can look back and I can say, ‘Oh do you remember?’ Because we forget that. When something becomes really comfortable and easy to you, you forget how hard it was when you first started.”

Business Name: Karen Rapien Fitness Training
Business owner: Karen Rapien
Business type: Weight-loss and nutrition coaching
Years in business: Two (has been a trainer for eight years)
Services: In-home fitness and health training; group, solo, and couples sessions; online training; mommy-and-me; indoor/outdoor workouts; grocery-shopping expeditions; body composition testing; balance/flexibility training
Market niche: Men and women over 40; seniors; people with balance/flexibility/weight-loss issues
Business philosophy: Fitness and weight-loss programs need to be individualized and focus on health, not dieting
Website: karenrapienfitness.com

—A Whim and a Prayer profiles the trials and triumphs of entrepreneurs intrepid enough to put their fanciful ideas and unique talents to the test in today’s volatile marketplace. If you are a local business owner and you would like to be featured in this column, contact Celene Adams at [email protected] or visit writeyourbusinessstory.com.