Weight Loss Transformational Journey of Sherri Bogue, EP 214

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to the award-winning champions mojo, hosted by two world record holding athletes and health life and leadership coaches. Be inspired as you listen to conversations with champions and now your host, kelly Palace and Maria Parker.

Speaker 2 0:17

Hello friends, welcome to the champions mojo podcast. I am your host, kelly Palace, and, as usual, i am with my co-host, maria Parker. Hey Maria, hey Kelly, it's great to be with you here today. Yes, and Maria, this is a special edition of Champions mojo from the pool deck and we have a great interview for you today. It's brief, it's short, but it's powerful.

Speaker 3 0:46

Yeah, i wasn't there, but I was able to listen to the interview and some great takeaways.

Speaker 2 0:53

Yep, we hope you'll stick around and catch the takeaways. And here we go. We are at the inspiration on deck at the YMCA national championships and I am with Sherry Boog, who I am so excited to be with her. I've watched Sherry for the last. How long have we known each other? 10 years.

Speaker 4 1:15

I've been back to swimming for 14 years so I've been in. Masters 14 years.

Speaker 2 1:20

Yeah, and so you're a part of one of my favorite teams at St Pete Master. We see each other every year. we go for those high point towels, we try to go for those high point towels. Yes, sherry, everyone on deck is calling Sherry the incredible shrinking woman. and Sherry, tell us, how much weight have you lost?

Speaker 4 1:36

It's right at 135-140 pounds, since I was about 45.

Speaker 2 1:45

So to lose 135 pounds is just so amazing. How did you do it? What was the motivation? How did this whole thing start?

Speaker 4 1:54

I know part of the motivation for me was I knew I wanted to get back to my normal size and I was struggling with it. I was in the gym four days a week. I was in the pool four days a week. I was still succeeding at swimming, but not where I knew I could be, because I had been a swimmer before. I knew where I should be and I knew what my body was telling me. So you have to listen to your body. That's the biggest thing is listen to your body, understand it. I finally after my mom passed, unfortunately in 2019, i did get down. I lost 40 right then, but I couldn't break that 300 and I was sitting at 300 pounds in the gym, hitting the water and doing, and doing and nothing was happening And about. I want to say about a year and a half ago, i finally found a doctor that wanted to sit down and talk to me, sat down and talk to me for two and a half hours, said he thought he knew what it was, and we found out that my hormones were out of balance. We found out that my other hormones were in line, but my testosterone was almost three times what a woman should have, and at that moment he knew I would never lose the weight if we did not get at the testosterone under control. And since I've been with him I've lost another 95 pounds. So today I am now under 200 pounds, which to me was the biggest goal, and we're going to shoot for another 20 to 30 pounds and try to get my body back in line.

Speaker 4 3:10

And swimming has been probably the best thing for me, because I see myself every day. I see myself in different suit sizes. I started in a 44 tech suit. I'm down to a 36, which to me is like amazing. I still don't believe it. I still see the large girl. I do. I look in the mirror in their days. I still see the large girl. I keep pictures of it on my phone to inspire me to keep going, because I know where I can be. And then I look at my times and I had personal bested this one meet in the 500, the 200, the 100. And my split in the 50 yesterday and the relay was a metapersonal best.

Speaker 4 3:46

So It's when you do stuff like that that you know that you're coming back, you know that you are who you're supposed to be And it's nice to know that your friends see you on deck and they come up to you and they give you the hug and they're like you're going to do it, keep going. And I think that's been the biggest thing is having a swimming family behind you and knowing that swimming family is not going to let you not succeed, no matter where you are in the rankings, that doesn't matter. It's your individual success And I think that's what keeps me motivated the most, and I want to motivate others. You don't have to be in the top three, you don't have to be in the top 10. My gosh, i'm like sitting at 12th and most everything I do, but I'm still hitting my personal best. So every swim is my swim. I do it for myself And I think that's the biggest drive in knowing that you've got your family behind you And it's just great friends that are behind you, motivating them every day.

Speaker 2 4:42

Yeah, and I see this scene really close and I see what needs. What does that team mean to you? What are the St Pete Masters mean to you?

Speaker 4 4:50

They've. Actually it's like a surrogate family and it really is. And I think you've always got different friends and different types of friends with any swim team. But I think what really is, you find who your true friends are and you find out who really cares about you. And it's not just my St Pete Masters friends, it's friends like you, it's friends like other people in Palm Beach And it's all throughout the state of Florida.

Speaker 4 5:12

And when I started swimming, scary thing is I was getting beat by 70 year olds and I made really good friends with Pat Tolman, joni Campbell, martha Henderson, joyce Hutchinson from the villages And I'm like you know what one day I'm going to beat you guys and they're like go for it. And that was very inspirational to me was knowing that they wanted me to beat them. They didn't want me to always be in the first heat, they didn't want me to always be in the slow heat. They were like come on, you can beat us, you can beat us, you can beat us. And when I started taking them down, it was the hugs that I got from them, even telling me you know what? you beat me today and I'm flat, do it again. And now one of them actually comes up, calls me your pace car. So it's really fun, i become the pace car. They were my pace car.

Speaker 4 5:56

So, it's really nice to still have that camaraderie, even with them in their 80s and 90s now.

Speaker 2 6:01

And it's just And we didn't talk about your age, but you're 60.

Speaker 4 6:04

I'm 59.

Speaker 1 6:05

59.

Speaker 2 6:06

So I want to just go back a little bit on wishing. Is your testosterone too high or too low?

Speaker 4 6:12

Three times the height. It was three times what a woman should have. So I was. I am very, still very hot.

Speaker 2 6:18

And how does that?

Speaker 4 6:20

heat one from losing weight. Apparently it drives our body differently because women's, we use our hormones a lot different. We use our estrogen and different things And even going through the change, one would have thought it would have lowered. But apparently my pituitary gland decided that I'm not just going to mess with your thyroid, i'm going to mess with your testosterone too, and it's normal And we've done all the tests on it. But my body just generates that much testosterone. So now, medically, we've got different drugs and we've done different levels of drugs And from them I'm losing the weight and the testosterone is finally starting to come down. But we think the weight, if we can get it off, then maybe we can work the other.

Speaker 2 7:00

So if you were going to encourage someone that needed to lose 100 pounds or 50 pounds or 150 pounds, what would you tell them to start with First?

Speaker 4 7:10

I would say find the doctor that's going to listen to you, because you know your own body. Second, have them run every damnit of blood work you can do and make sure that you get everything tested and make sure that they actually monitor you and listen to you.

Speaker 2 7:23

Find somebody that's going to listen Oh awesome. So I know you're swimming, getting ready to swim. The last thing I like to ask from a spiritual, fun point of view what is sharing? What do you feel when you dive in the water?

Speaker 4 7:36

Oh gosh, it's almost euphoric for me. Every time I dive in, I look at that black line and I'm like you know what I'm going to beat myself today? It's me against the clock, It's me against the black line And I'm the only one that can beat myself. I try to strive and bake it better every day.

Speaker 2 7:51

Thank you so much. Thank you for being an inspiration to all of us and sharing your journey. Yeah, I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 7:57

Thanks All right, thanks All right.

Speaker 1 7:59

Stay tuned for the takeaways.

Speaker 2 8:43

So Sherry Bogue is such an inspiration. Oh my gosh. It's such a joy when in one's everyday life you can be inspired by people that you see here and there, that just touch your life here and there. And Sherry has been showing up at Master's Meets, as I have for the last 10 years Watched Sherry. People are calling her on deck, the incredible shrinking woman. I've seen her and have loved connecting with her story and just watching this incredible champion, the willpower, the perseverance. What she's done has inspired me And I just thought it was a great story to share on Champions Mojo And Sherry is amazing as a swimmer and a champion And I loved chatting with her. Maria, what did you get out of this? listening to Sherry's interview?

Speaker 3 9:40

I mentioned with you to you earlier. I just found Sherry's interview inspirational and approachable for me as a new master swimmer. She's not setting national or international records, but she loves swimming, heard. The story of her weight loss is very, of course, inspirational, but also just the story of how supported she is by her swimming community and how swimming has just been there for her through this journey that she's been on. But I think one of my major takeaways is something she said about her weight loss is that she finally found a doctor who would listen to her, and so my takeaway from this is, if you have a problem and you have a medical issue or some kind of a problem, find someone who will listen and who will help you And it's worth it. She finally found a doctor who did the blood work, who found the problem, and now she's succeeding in her weight loss and feeling healthy and very inspirational And apart, it's just I love what she said. Like I'm not, i'm finally being some of these seven year old.

Speaker 2 10:43

We love that.

Speaker 3 10:44

Yeah, I'm sure that's where I would be. But she said I come into well every time, but I'm getting personal best and that's enough for me And I thought, yeah, okay, I could do that. I love that. Thank you, Sherry.

Speaker 2 10:55

Yes, and this is master swimming, it's all, it's all fun, very good, all right, maria, love you. Love you, kelly Bye.

Speaker 1 11:04

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