Mother of Three Gets Fit and Passes it on

As a wife, mother of three children and fitness instructor at four gyms from San Jose to Campbell, Heidi Mohs still manages to get to the movies, go to church and make home-cooked meals for her family.

The former preschool teacher lives in Campbell and has been a permanent fixture at neighborhood gyms like Curves and since she decided to get healthy and get fit, leaving her more than 100 pounds lighter.

Campbell Patch sat down with Mohs to find out just how she fits it all on her plate. 

Campbell Patch: What is a typical day for you?

Heidi: I get up at 6:40 a.m. I wake up three children: two teenagers and the little 7-year-old who will jump up out of bed and be excited. I will get them fed, get lunches made and be in the car at 7:30 a.m. I drive them to two different schools by 8 o’clock. Then drive over to East San Jose to teach a Zumba circuit class at Curves then go to another Zumba at another Curves.

I go home, pick up the children, make dinner, try to answer e-mails and sometimes have another class in the evening.

Patch: What else do you teach?

Heidi: I teach an amazing, fun, wonderful turbo-kick class, which is like a dancey-kickboxing. I teach hip-hop, I teach strength-training, and I have taught Pilates and yoga. I can almost teach anything as long as I read up on it.

Patch: Do you have a full-time job?

Heidi: I’m not teaching or training eight hours a day, but I am teaching and training enough and doing things at my kids’ schools, that I am very busy.

Patch: How do you juggle your busy schedule?

Heidi: No. 1 is that I have a super husband who is an amazing partner and is home as often as he can be.

Mostly, I try to only do things that will benefit my family, not do so many things that, even though I enjoy it, it becomes detrimental to my family.

Patch: What sparked your interest in fitness?

Heidi: Up until 2004, I’d always been overweight. I didn’t like exercising, and the highest I ever weighed was 285 pounds.

I just decided I was done fooling around. I didn’t want to get diabetes; I didn’t want to have high cholesterol; I didn’t want to have a heart attack.

Patch: How did you start teaching classes?

Heidi: I always thought I was just going to do personal training, then my boss said, “No, you are going to teach group classes.” And that was just everything for me. It filled a need in me to perform. I get to work out, perform, try to be funny, try to do all these things that I’ve always really enjoyed, and I have a captive audience.

Patch: And do you get dinner on the table, too?

Heidi: Not everybody likes cooking, but I absolutely love cooking. I did not start cooking until 2000. Everything came out of a box or was a frozen dinner, and then I discovered cooking and chopping. It is quite therapeutic.

Patch: Besides working out, what else do you enjoy doing?

Heidi: I love passionately to go to the movies. My husband and I love to go to the movies and I will even go to the movies by myself, because I can escape for a little while.

I will watch different TV shows and cooking shows just to relax.

My favorite TV show is Biggest Loser. I absolutely love Biggest Loser, because it can show a person that there are no limits to the things they can do.

If that show was on when I was still 285 pounds, I probably would have auditioned.

Patch: How many people do you teach during the week?

Heidi: About 300 people or more. That is a lot of people.

Patch: Besides your health, how has fitness enriched your life?

Heidi: I have made countless friends and relationships with people in the classes. I’ve seen people lose weight because of the classes and the information that I give. I’ve seen them get healthy.

I’m not just there to teach; I’m there to educate and do what I can because I’ve been there.

It’s just been a fabulous five years.