Inspiring: Behind every fitness goal met is a wellspring of motivation, and these women have enough to go around - mail

This was may body, and this passion came from the inside out. It came freely, it was permanent, and I owned the experience -- nobody else could take credit for it. That was the best part.

If you're neither an athlete nor a gym rat, you may not understand where Harr, the winner of 25 triathlons, is coming from. But you will if you've wrestled with willpower and won, particularly in terms of getting to the gym to meet your fitness goals. Regular progressive exercise that includes stretching your preconceived limits and pushing your body to the maximum is passionate, exhilarating stuff. And as some of our readers share here, the benefits go far beyond losing a few pounds or an inch off each thigh. Exercise truly changed their lives.

RELATED ARTICLE: SHANA DANIELS > age 37 * Moorpark, California

If someone had told me I'd gain 50-plus pounds with each of my two pregnancies, I would've thought they were insane! Yet that's what I ended up doing, much to my dismay each time, and it was actually the best thing that ever happened to my body.

Although I'd been active as a child and teen, I began to overeat and put on extra weight after high school. As my body changed, my self-esteem plummeted and I felt I had no willpower or discipline. Seeing a picture of Rachel McLish in a bodybuilding magazine inspired me to regain control, and I even became a personal trainer after college. I trained hard and dieted strictly, and won a couple of natural bodybuilding shows. After the contests, however, I'd fall back into my self-destructive behavior.

After much trial and error, I devised a balanced nutritional program that would allow me to slowly shed the extra weight: I limited my fat intake, ate moderate amounts of lean protein and "clean" carbohydrates, and stopped eating complex carbs after 4 p.m. This helped me stay within 5-7 pounds of my competition weight and at a reasonably low bodyfat without killing myself.

Then five years ago 1 became pregnant with my daughter Cassidy. I thought the 25-35-pound weight gain my doctor recommended should be easy with my healthy lifestyle and diet. I was indeed humbled when I gained 50 pounds. It took me six months to lose the weight after having Cassidy, and then three years later I gained 55 pounds while pregnant with my son Austyn. At 5'4", I weighed closer to 200 pounds than I thought was ever possible.

Each time, even though I knew a miracle was growing inside me, I couldn't help but feel like a prisoner trapped in my own body. After working so hard to overcome my obsession with food and believing I'd found the answer to staying in shape, all I craved were high-fat, high-carb foods and I was faced with losing my hard-earned definition. My husband Glenn says my pregnancies taught me the very important lesson of surrender: I had no choice but to surrender to the wisdom of my body when it came to gaining the weight needed to produce a healthy child.

I remember starting back at square one after my pregnancies and getting winded just walking around the block. Was this the same woman who once ran the L.A. Marathon? But I knew that if I kept at it, I could do it. It took me a year to lose the weight after Austyn was born, but once I reached my pre-pregnancy weight, it was as if my metabolism changed for the better! I wasn't watching my fat intake as closely or doing as much cardio, but my abs were back and I had better muscle definition than before. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but many healthy and active women have told me they experienced the same thing. It was a huge blessing, and I've won two fitness titles in the past two years.

It's always a challenge fitting exercise into a busy mom's schedule, but taking care of yourself makes you better able to take care of others. Remember, when you honor your body, it honors you with good health and more energy -- something every parent could use more of!

CHRISTA ADIT > age 84 * Crestline Ohio

BERNIE ROSS

Many women dedicate all their time to others, and Christa is no exception. She's a wife, the mother of three girls, a hairdresser and a cheerleading coach, and she also runs the household. She was always last on the priority list. For the last 20 years, she has been an emotional eater: Since the age of 14, food had been related to all aspects of her life. Finally, it was time for what she called a "life change." She didn't tell anyone of her decision because she was afraid others would expect her to fail.

Christa thought eating foods low in calories and fat meant she'd have to follow a bland diet and essentially starve, but she quickly discovered this was untrue. When cutting out the refined sugars and saturated fats in her diet, she found she could eat much more and still lower her calorie intake. There were many difficult times, particularly when Christa wasn't sure she could continue to make the changes necessary to succeed. To her, every change would mean more weight loss and better fitness. By keeping a food journal, she learned how her body responded to certain foods and that the more nutrient-dense foods were her best defense against hunger and feelings of deprivation.