Still So Good – Melissa Miller Uses RydeOn! Indoor Cycling Classes to Get Her Game (Back) On

-Dawn Wolfe

Melissa Miller's game was volleyball. “Volleyball is my passion and the love of my life, and I swore I would be that girl who played until I was no longer competitive or couldn't physically play anymore,” she said, and in fact she did keep playing with the women she knew in high school and college after they graduated.

After several years, though, “...girls were getting married and having babies, and volleyball quickly took a back seat,” Melissa remembered. And once her friends dropped out, Melissa stopped playing, too – which put her on aweight gain/weight loss roller coaster that quickly sapped her confidence. Even when people asked her to play volleyball, Melissa begged off . “I made up excuses when people would ask me to play because I had zero confidence and my weight was holding me back. I was defeated and didn't want to be that girl that people looked at and said, 'She USED to be so good.'”

In October of 2011, Melissa was fed up and decided to start exercising to get herself back in shape. That was also the month she found a Groupon deal for RydeOn! indoor cycling classes. Melissa took her first class in December and has been with RydeOn! ever since. The results? – between her RydeOn! classes and the gym, Melissa has lost twenty-one pounds and a total of thirty-six inches!

Melissa likes RydeOn! classes so much she has signed up for RydeOn! University – so now, instead of twice a week, Melissa has increased her classes to three. And though she started her exercise program by going to the gym, Melissa said she likes RydeOn! better because, “I felt like going to the gym I could always talk myself out of pushing myself, or not doing something. When I am spinning, sure I could slack off, but I have the numbers staring me back at me from the computer on the bike, pushing me constantly.”

The commitment to get back in shape isn't an easy one to make – something Melissa knows very well.

“I think first and foremost the biggest obstacle was just finding the motivation and self worth to get my healthy self back,” she said. “I was scared to death to go to my first spinning class but finally sucked it up and did it. Now I can't help but think of the two months I wasted just trying to get up my nerve to come.”

Today, Melissa is using her Facebook account to share her success and said that she's “...amazed at how many people say how I'm inspiring them – little old me! I never knew that was possible.” She added that she's recruited some of her friends to join her at RydeOn! indoor cycling classes and that they all look forward to their time together, “because we know we wouldn't probably see each other otherwise.”

In addition to becoming fit again, Melissa said that her main goal when she started exercising in October was to become a runner – and in October she signed up for and completed the Big Heart Big House 5K in Ann Arbor in forty-two minutes by switching off between running and walking. But in March, after taking RydeOn! indoor cycling classes for a bit more than three months, Melissa completed the 5K Shamrocks and Shenanigans run in 35:17, running the whole way!  With these achievements behind her, Melissa's next goal is to complete the Big House Big Heart 10K this month.

Not that Melissa has forgotten volleyball.

“I want to feel the court under my feet, the ball in my hands, and the love/passion in my heart again. … I will have to accept the fact that going on thirty-eight I will never be as good as I was when I was in my twenties, but I will be the girl that people will look at and say, 'Wow! Look at her, she's STILL so good!'”

Melissa isn't the only RydeOn! client who uses Facebook to share her success. RydeOn's Facebook page has over 200 members who check in to support each other, share their successes, and receive news about specials and events. RydeOn's Facebook members are from all over the Saline area and Ann Arbor  – join us at  http://www.facebook.com/pages/RydeOn