Karen is ready to learn how to live a healthy lifestyle.
Karen Maranto spends her days helping to save the lives of others. As a 911 communications supervisor in Bloomingdale, she’s helped rescue people from bad situations for the past 24 years.
Now, she’s the one in need of a little saving.
At 5 feet, 8 inches and 288 pounds, the 47-year-old Bloomingdale mom becomes emotional when talking about having to stay behind while her family went zip lining during a family trip to Mexico. On another trip, to Europe, she had trouble fitting in a small car.
“I feel like I’ve lost out on a lot of opportunities in life,” she says. “I want to go on an airplane ride and sit in the chair. I want to go to a Hawks game and not worry about who’s sitting next to me. I want to participate in things with my kids — going on a boat and not worrying about where I sit.”
In between raising her family — including three athletic sons — and a stressful job, “everything comes before me,” she says.
Now she’s ready to put herself first. An upbeat person who has always been supportive of heavier people, Maranto says her goals are realistic. She doesn’t need to be skinny, she just wants to be healthy. “I don’t think this whole challenge is to turn me into a thin person,” she says. “It’s to give me guidance on a way to live and what you have to do to be healthy.”
She wants fitness to help her “allow my outside to reflect the person I am on the inside,” she says. “I know it’ll be the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but I’m ready for it.”