Growing up in Chicago, LaJune “Junie” McFarland (known as @junie_getsfit on Instagram) never had a real issue with her weight. In fact, she was one of those skinny individuals who people used say should eat more because they wanted to see some meat on her bones. Even when she became a mother and had her son, she was still small. But when the 35-year-old had her second child, her daughter, that’s when things changed completely. No longer was she skinny Junie. It took looking at herself in a photo at her sister’s wedding for McFarland to realize she’d gone way past that point and needed to make a change. “February 9 2014 was when I got my membership and started my whole fitness journey,” McFarland told us. “I’ll always remember that date.”
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She remembers that date because it was the beginning of a fitness journey that has been a success for her entire family. Not only has the mother of two been able to drop a significant amount of weight and add muscle to her frame, but she was also to help her boyfriend of 18 years do the same and foster healthier eating habits for her children. So how did she do it? We talked to McFarland, who now lives with her family in St. Louis, about losing weight with her man, why she is a proponent of working out at home and the importance of not being focused on a scale or pants size when it comes to her health goals.
MadameNoire: So Junie, tell me about how you decided to start your fitness and journey and what exactly spurred it.
LaJune “Junie” McFarland: I’ve been underweight my whole life. It was always, “She’s too skinny! She needs to eat!” When I had my first child, I was my ideal weight. When I had my daughter, that’s when I became overweight. So, it wasn’t until 2013 when my sister got married and I looked back on those photos. I didn’t know I was that fat. I looked back at the pictures like, “Oh my God.”
My sister is a Zumba instructor, so she’s always been into health and fitness. She’s also a full-time teacher, but I was always like, “That’s crazy. I’m not working out. I’m not doing that!” That was until I started my journey. I was just tired of feeling depressed about the way I looked or how clothes would feel and me lacking self-body confidence. And I just went to the gym and started working out and eating healthy. I actually downloaded this app called Lose It!, and that really helped me get my calories under control because I was a beginner. I didn’t know where to start and what my calorie intake was. I worked out six days a week, just on the treadmill walking because I couldn’t run or do anything like that, but I gradually worked my way up.
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How about your workout plan and diet? What is it like?
I work out five to six days a week. I believe in balance when it comes to food. Food is no longer the enemy, because for so long throughout my journey, it was the enemy. With everything I looked at I was thinking, “Is this going to make me fat or is it going to make me skinny?” So I have a balanced diet now. I believe in eating when I’m hungry and honoring my health. I eat in moderation and practice portion control. I just needed a balanced diet. I don’t want to deprive myself of the things that I want or any of that so I had to learn to balance everything out. And with all things, I had to learn to honor my health by giving my body the nutrients it needs, making sure I work out, making sure I drink water. And then, when I don’t necessarily eat healthy, it’s more so just a treat, not something I eat all day, every day anymore.
Speaking of that, I read that you’re not a fan of restrictions when it comes to your diet. Some people cut things out of their diet completely because they feel like they can’t find a balance with it. How are you able to?
I read about intuitive eating and was like, “What is this?” I decided to learn it, and in the beginning, I did mess up. I had to really relearn my body because it’s a mind thing. I had to be disciplined enough to know this is what I’m going to eat, and this is the reason I learned to start cooking healthier. So I don’t feel like I’m neglecting myself. I had to learn how to cook these healthy meals that make me feel satisfied and when I cook these healthy meals, I don’t want it to feel like, “Oh, I’m eating healthy food.” I want it to be like, “I’m eating delicious food.” I wanted to know and feel that I’m eating healthy and delicious food so that I don’t turn around say, “I want McDonald’s because this meal right here was just blah.” It’s about learning your body, your power, being consistent and being determined. When you’re determined to do something you’re going to do it.
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How did your husband become motivated to living a healthier lifestyle with you?
He’s always been supportive. We’ve always maintained a very healthy relationship, and part of a healthy relationship is your health. It’s the best form of love to want to see one another healthy and add quality to their life. It’s not about you getting me a designer bag or you taking me on a cruise so I can post pictures. The highest form, to me, is that you want to see each other healthy and be healthy for our kids and so we can enjoy activities that we do. Add quality and years to our life. So he joined me because it was a positive thing and he wanted to support.
How has being on a fitness journey together made it better or more successful for you?
It’s made it better because sometimes I lack motivation, so he balances things out. When I’m lacking, he’s having it. When he’s lacking, I’m having it. So when I just want to be like, “I don’t want to work out, I’m not going to work out,” he’s like, “C’mon. We’re going to work out. Let’s go.” So it keeps me motivated just getting to work out with him. Even when I can’t find my motivation, he’s my motivation. And when we’re working out or in the gym and I’m like, “I’m only doing 10 sets,” he’s like, “Keep going!” He gives me that extra push.
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How important has it been that Clarence has offered so much support whether you’ve been big or small over these last 18 years? Has he ever said anything about your weight or not wanted you to lose it?
He loved from big Junie, and underweight Junie, and average Junie, and ideal Junie to fit Junie. I always said to him, “Clarence, you never told me I was this big” and he was like, “Look baby, I love you for you.” He never said “You were too big” or “You were fat.” He just never made me feel like anything other than the woman he fell in love with. He never made me feel like “Oh I need to lose more stomach” or “Oh, I need to lose more weight.” He said, “I fell in love with you, the whole package — whatever comes with you.” But he always made me feel like the woman he fell in love with 18 years ago, no matter how much my body changed. And he never pointed out anything. And I would ask him why he wouldn’t say anything. He was like, “Hey, baby what do you want me to say? I just love you as you.” I said, “You could have told me I was fat [laughs].” He said, “What would me saying you’re fat do? What would that make you feel and what would that resolve? It wasn’t going to change the way I felt about you. That had nothing to do with the love I have for you. That’s not going to change.”
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And as a mother trying to maintain a healthier lifestyle, how do you balance making healthy meals for yourself when you have children to feed?
My challenge is my daughter. My son is older, he’s 18. My daughter is 11. I grew up not knowing good health. It wasn’t something my parents taught me and this is my second child. I didn’t introduce her to vegetables. I would eat so badly or the vegetables she did have, the nutrients would be completely cooked out. Broccoli would be covered in cheese. So it’s still a challenge with her. I don’t make different meals. I make one whole meal. My son will eat whatever I cook, but my daughter, sometimes I’m challenged. Sometimes if I’m making chicken and I stuff it with spinach, I’ll put a little less spinach in hers. With vegetables, she doesn’t want to taste it so I use a really small amount. It’s a challenge with her. It really is.
I know you used to have a home gym. Can you speak on the importance of not relying on the gym? Because when people can’t go it’s almost like things fall apart and they use that as an excuse.
I go to the gym here twice a day sometimes, but I also do little squats here and there. I have stairs I can run up and down. I can run outside. I’m still a firm believer that if you can’t make it to the gym, that doesn’t mean you can’t still work out at home. Because there was a time during my journey where my car broke down, so I couldn’t go to the gym. I was either going to use that as an excuse not to work out or I was going to find a way to work out. I used YouTube, I looked into weight training, did research on home exercising. People like GetFitWithNic_, who has a body that is nice, never went to the gym or used gym equipment, so I was really inspired. But you can work out at home. You can use the couch, get your chair — there are a lot of workouts you can do at home.
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Years into your journey, what keeps you motivated to stay on it? I find that without a plan or endgame, people reach a certain number on the scale or fit back into an old dress and then they stop with everything completely and go backwards. What is your goal?
My goal is healthy. I stopped tying healthy to a number because if I hit that number, next thing you know, it’s like, “I’m at this number. Now what am I going to do? Eat how I was eating before?” So my goal is to be healthy and every day you have to decide to be healthy. In order to be healthy you have to work out and eat the right nutrients for your body. So that’s my motivation because…life. I’m going to be alive, I’m living, so I have to make life my motivation and not tie it to a certain number or pant size. Those are all goals you can reach in a certain matter of time, but healthy is everlasting. That’s something you have to work at every day. You have to drink water every day. You have to feed your body every day. So that’s my goal. That’s my motivation. When you have kids and you have a family, that has to be a motivation, because you want to keep adding years to your life until it’s your time to go.
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The post Fitness Fridays: LaJune “Junie” McFarland’s Workout Buddy Is Also The Love Of Her Life: “He’s My Motivation” appeared first on MadameNoire.
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It’s no secret that people of all races, genders and classes love “Game of Thrones.” It’s a hit. No one can deny that and the hold it has on people.
Still, that doesn’t mean the fans of the show are willing to give an unquestioning pass to the showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Most times, people just want you to stay in your lane. Because when reports that HBO announced that they were going to be creating a period piece centered around modern day slavery called “Confederate.”
In the series, Benioff and Weiss will create a world in which the South was successful in seceding from the Union and slavery remained legal in today’s times.
If you’ve watched even a single episode of “Game of Thrones,” you know that all of the characters are White, like their showrunners.
So the fact that these two would leave this world to create another one in which White folks are dominating more than they are now, just doesn’t sit well with me. In these days and times, when it seems like White people would love to go back to the days slavery, when White people in the street and in the government are going out of their way to oppress Black folk, now is not the time…if there ever would be one.
