10/21/2025
Each month, we will highlight one of our amazing members and share their fitness journey. We are inspired by many personal stories...we hope you will find something in their wins and setbacks that will motivate you in some way on your own journey!
This month, we would like to introduce you to Rae Lynne Stone, IHL member since February, 2025.
Tell us why you exercise. "To feel better about myself and retain a level of health and fitness that will allow me to live my life to its fullest. It also makes me very happy and offers me a great mindset to get through my day...one day at a time."
What activities or workouts do you enjoy at the IHL? "Classes in water aerobics, weight training, cardio, and T'ai Chi."
What goals have you achieved or what barriers have you overcome? How did your gym membership play a role in that journey? "Over the years of working at a desk job and not being very active, my health suffered and took its toll on my body. Knee injuries and poor dieting resulted in my highest weight at 352 pounds. My job was eliminated, and I retired in 2018, moving to Longview to care for my mother. It became more and more convenient to rely on a cane and a walker to move around the house and also with trips to town for groceries, doctor appointments, and church. I had to hire help for my mother to assist me in getting her to doctor appointments and just around the home. I was becoming more and more depressed and unable to cope with everything, and finally, the diagnoses of heart trouble, digestive issues, and a needed knee replacement came."
"In the summer of 2024, I had an appointment with a heart specialist for my yearly follow up. The doctor inquired what dieting measures I had tried. I explained any and everything I had attempted in order to achieve success. At 50, I had entered a marathon race and spent the year prior training and exercising. All the popular diet programs had lured me into a yo-yo reduction of weight and feeling fulfillment, but I always returned to the original weight and even exceeded it when a crisis or sad event occurred. The doctor recommended the bariatric program, and I made a call. When I received the packet introducing me to the program, I was overwhelmed but quickly dismissed that feeling, deciding this might be my "last chance" to achieve what I knew deep-down in my heart I could and should do. I didn't want to live the rest of my life as a debilitated onlooker and watching the world pass me by. I signed up for dieting classes in Lindale in the fall of 2024. It gave me time to practice good eating habits. The bariatric program had a boot camp training - lessons in diet and nutrition. It helped me see how to eat nutritionally and why I was craving and eating what I had been eating. I got to see the nutrition coaches inside the gym working out themselves - seeing them as role models for success."
"I had my surgery in January 2025 - I consider this a rebirth of my life. Once I was cleared to work out in February, I signed up with the IHL and began working out with a trainer, getting started on my road to recovery. Julie Caswell called me and immediately set my mind at ease with her professionalism and expertise. Initially, I felt the exercises were too easy to be any help to me, but I soon realized my mind was sabotaging this experience. I stuck with it and kept working hard, doing the exercises Julie recommended. As I became stronger and more confident, she added new exercises that were more challenging. Each month I could see progress and the healing of my mind and body. Each month I could see goals being met, and I was progressively erasing the 38 years of bad habits that had been taking my life away from me."
"Now my goal weight is feeling more and more of a possibility. My blood work shows my body is functioning correctly, and I am able to reduce my medications. I am buying clothes in sizes I hadn't worn since my 30's. Doing yardwork and working in my garden isn't a debilitating effort any more. I am traveling more, planning trips to dream destinations everywhere in the world and excited about my life once more."
"Thanks to the specialized team with CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Health System and the IHL, I am living the life I always dreamed I could have. I believe in prayer and second chances - never giving up hope and believing dreams can come true!"
