Cheryl Brose wanted to compete in a body-building competition before she turned 40. Considering that she had always struggled with weight and about seven years ago reached a size 20, that was quite an ambitious dream.

However, in 2000, Brose not only participated in a local competition, but came out in second place.

“I put my mind to it and I kept going,” she says in describing how she went from 33 percent body fat to five percent in nine months.

“I wanted it so bad… I can get into a zone and nothing around me will change that.”

Brose worked out six days a week and watched her diet carefully, and 18 weeks before the competition doubled her cardio workouts, went to the gym every day, and completely avoided carbohydrates.

Inspired to become fit while attending Silverdale Fitness, Brose became a personal trainer herself, and for the last four years has been helping others achieve their fitness goals. In addition to being a trainer at the athletic club she also teaches aerobics classes.

She acknowledges that her feat was pretty unusual and required a lot of sacrifices, including family time, but says the main principle is that “you have to do it all” — cardio exercising, weight lifting, and eating right. “You can’t think that exercise is going to cut it, then go to McDonalds to eat,” she says.

The previous guidelines of working out for at least 20 minutes a day, three days a week have been changed for those who want to lose weight to 45-minute workouts, five days a week. The cardiovascular activity — running, brisk walking, elliptical machines, aerobics or anything else that increases the heart rate — is especially important for burning fat because it helps speed up metabolism.

Brose says it’s a good idea to start with a personal trainer who can help set up an exercise program and show proper weight lifting techniques and equipment use. But the trainer can also help keep a person on track in achieving the fitness goals. Workout partners can be good too, but not if they don’t have the same mindset and are not disciplined themselves.

She doesn’t recommend starting out with hefty goals like she did, but set smaller, more manageable steps. “I wouldn’t go for the big picture right away because you’ll set yourself up for a fall. For example, set a goal of going a (dress) size down, then move to another goal. Once you feel you’re in a better shape, you can set the long-term goals,” she says.

Don’t forget to reward yourself along the way, but definitely not with sweets or unhealthy foods; choose something complementary like a massage or a new outfit. Diet is key to becoming fit, especially watching calorie intake. Serving sizes, limiting sweets and other strategies are well-known, but the tough part is actually following them. Brose had to make huge changes in her eating habits and give up sweets, dairy and fruit, but she says not everyone has to give up everything in order to accomplish results.

“The ‘why’ is important, and who you’re doing it for. Don’t do it for anyone else, you have to do it for yourself,” she says.

People may tend to become discouraged after working out for a while and not seeing any difference on the weight scale — but the scale will not change much if a person’s building muscle. “Don’t go by the scale, go by the way your clothes fit you,” she says. “It takes about six to eight weeks to see a little bit of change.”

Keep plunging ahead, Brose advises, and she speaks from experience: This year she participated in the body-building competition again and came out at the top. Not bad for someone who seven years ago was part of the weight-epidemics statistics, along with the rest of the two-thirds of American adult population.