“You can’t out-exercise a bad diet.”

One of my dear friends, Lori Mason, came up with this awesome quote. Lori became a Hurley Warrior parent with one kid running and another throwing.

As most parents of traveling competitive sports will attest, you become like a family going to practices each week and going to meets, ball games or performances most weekends. Typically, parents will watch their children while they practice, but I always encourage parents to use this time to get their own workout in.

On the track or trails, it’s easier since you are not in anyone’s way, but there are other ways to use this time to be active yourself.

Lori took it to a whole other level. She is, as I like to call it, a fuller or fleshier woman.

Lori, with the support of better half Scott, went on a journey to lose weight and become more active. Well, she did it. At one point, she lost 110 pounds with a healthy diet and exercise, which was an amazing transformation. She is now teaching water exercise and is a lifeguard, and she still teaches preschool at the Wee Center.

I remember that she would get excited about the little things, like being able to get out of a low chair without using her hands. To this day, she is keeping most of the weight off.

As anyone can tell you, losing weight is typically not the hardest part. Keeping it off is where many people struggle. Lori felt she found the secret of keeping off the weight. She thought that as long as she exercised enough, burning the calories she was eating, she could keep her weight where it was.

Wrong.

Personally, I feel that if I am very active but if my diet is high in fat, sugars, preservatives and who knows what, I cannot out-exercise those calories. When I go on vacation, I am still very active but typically we are eating out every night, eating and drinking things you typically don’t and sometimes gaining a couple of pounds. So most of the time I eat a sensible, very tasty diet.

I have my cheat days, but what I have found over the years is that I don’t feel good when I eat high-fat, high-sugar foods, and most of the time it’s not worth feeling the way I do afterward. I just try to minimize those times.

Lori ran into the same issue. She figured she could exercise and start eating some of her comfort foods again. Wrong. She gained some weight back. She came to a conclusion and coined one of my favorite quotes.

She is back to a 90-pound weight loss and continues to work to lose more weight, at least the 110 pounds she lost before. I know she will be successful, and I am super proud of her.

I always try to get people to put the emphasis on health through a healthy diet and exercise, and the rest typically will come. Weight loss, lower blood sugar levels, lower cholesterol, less joint pain, increased mobility, and increased stamina and strength are the results of improved health.

When I am presented with a low-nutrition, high-fat, high-sugar option, I always stop and think — is it worth the calories? But most important, is it worth my health? And yes, once in a while it is.

Ester Marsh is health and fitness director of J.F. Hurley Family YMCA.