This Wheelchair-Bound Mom's Exercise Blog Will Totally Inspire You

In 2012, mom of three Jamie Goodwin knew she had to get serious about losing weight. But Goodwin, who has been wheelchair-bound since a car accident when she was a teenager, knew it might be a challenge. So she and her husband, Will, made an audition video for "The Biggest Loser." Although producers loved Jamie’s video and she made it to the final round of casting, she ultimately wasn’t chosen for the show. But her weight loss journey had already begun.

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Inspired by a personal trainer who reached out online, Goodwin launched Wheelin’ Weightloss, a Facebook page dedicated to following her road to health and fitness. “If somebody in a wheelchair can lose weight, anybody can,” Goodwin told Yahoo Shine. Soon, thousands of people from around the country were following Goodwin’s journey and getting inspired by it. Georgia native Goodwin, who is paralyzed from the chest down, was able to do arm-centric exercises like pull-ups, lifting weights, and even boxing.

For Goodwin, balancing her role as a mom to three boys has been more of a weight loss challenge than being in a wheelchair. Her boys, who range from age 5 to 11, are picky eaters who hate some of the things that mom has now included in her diet. Now, she makes food for herself and a separate meal for her husband and sons. And for the first time since giving up teaching school to become a stay-at-home mom, she spends part of every day focusing on herself by hitting the park and the gym.

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“Now that my two oldest are in school and my youngest is in preschool, I drop them off and then I go to the park. Does it mean my house is not always clean? Yes. But I am devoting my next two years to reaching my goal weight, because I need to be around longer for my kids and my husband. I feel a little guilty sometimes taking time for myself, but I haven’t done it before,” she says. So far, Goodwin, who was 231 pounds when she started her Facebook page, has lost 38 pounds, and is well on her way to reaching her goal of fitting into her wedding dress again.

Luckily, Goodwin has some very important supporters, number one being her husband and “biggest cheerleader.” Though the two went to high school together, they didn’t know each other until Will, a pastor and worship leader, sought Jamie out following her accident. At first, Jamie admits, she found her suitor kind of pesky and annoying. One day, he offered to write a song for her about a subject of her choosing, so she requested “a song about people who use handicapped parking spaces when they shouldn’t.” On Valentine’s Day, he showed up at her house with a single red rose and a cassette tape. On side A was the song about parking in handicapped spaces. And on side B was a song entitled “I Love You.”

“I listened to the first song and I loved it, but by the end of the second one it was like God said, there’s your man. I knew I was going to marry him. I called him the next day, and we dated through college, and we got married. Every single Valentine’s Day since then, he gives me a rose and writes me a song,” Goodwin says of her husband, with whom she celebrates her 15th anniversary this month.

Thanks to Wheelin’ Weightloss, people from around America have been able to follow along with Goodwin on her weight loss journey. She says she gets many letters, mostly from women, who are inspired by her commitment. “They want to get healthy and they see someone who can only use her arms — there are no excuses. If I can help someone who is physically able but just doesn’t want to do it, I am all about that.”