60 days and beyond…

I turned into one of my clients…. I am an ex personal trainer, an ex-high-level athlete, etcetera. After transitioning over from Personal Training to being an Account Manager,  I found myself recalling my glory days of being able to run a 6-minute mile, deadlift 500 lbs and jump so high that you would have thought I had stumbled upon an anti-gravity device.

Like way too many of my clients, those days were long behind me even at the ripe old age of 32, and I was determined get them back.

I’d signed up for 60-Day Challenges in the past but I always lost steam relatively quickly. I’d embark on my journey full of exuberant discipline for the first few days only to fizzle out and eventually ditch the wrist band along with my hopes and dreams of getting the body of my dreams back.

This time I was determined for things to be different. My main objective/theme during this Challenge was just to finish. This was the one thing that had eluded me during my 3 previous Challenges, and if nothing else I was going to see this thing through.

The best thing I could have done was recruit some help, and I can tell you that I was fortunate enough to work with the best. My personal trainer and ALPHA Coach extraordinaire Nik Hecht was responsible for reminding me twice per week that my comfort zone was to be avoided like the plague, he pushed me to my limit and beyond.  Sally Sawyer my coach throughout this whole 60-Day process took care of everything from my cardio coaching though the AMA 2.0, to constantly being the angel on my shoulder, keeping me on track with sage advice, text messages, complements, tough love, and hugs!

The Core 3 Philosophy was pivotal in my approach to this Challenge. The Know It element was crucial in terms of making sure that my efforts were well directed and had laser precision. The Nourish It element provided the foundation for my caloric deficit that is a must have on any weight loss journey. Understanding through the Resting Metabolic Assessment exactly how to best create that deficit was a game changer.  Last but not least, the Move It element (designed by Nik and Sally) ensured that I focused on the most effective type of training for weight loss and nothing else.

One of the main sources motivation for me was my 4 month old son Winston.  I simply didn’t feel comfortable setting a bad example for him not only from the standpoint of healthy habits but from the standpoint of self-discipline. Given that this 60-Day fell over the holidays, I knew I was in for a stiff challenge. Candidly, the biggest contributing factor to my success was the support of everyone one around me from my sales team, to the awesome personal training team here at LIFE TIME who were keeping track of my progress and cheering me on all the way, to my wife Marguerite who was instrumental in keeping me on track at home. Cultivating my environment was key for me in this process. This Challenge creates a vacuum of success where the people around you almost seem so invested in you doing well that you genuinely feel like you dare not let them, or yourself down.

I decided to take a break from the Challenge on Thanksgiving and Christmas day and that almost proved to be detrimental. Fortunately I had Coach Nik, and Sally to pull me back on track.  With their help I have been able to maintain pole position in my category through every week of this challenge.  Leading the pack has been somewhat tough because I haven’t had a moving target to chase and I’ve had to stave off the ever present notion of complacency every step of the way. Again, I have to give credit to my support system at home and at LIFE TIME for making sure that my eyes never left the prize.

Doing this challenge has taught me some lasting lessons including how to remain disciplined in the face of temptations and how to see a task through to completion. It’s taught me that I don’t have to be a slave to the holiday season and operate under the dogma that holidays equal inevitable weight gain. In fact it seems the opposite is true. With the help of a structured plan (like the one provided with the 60-Day Challenge), an ever present support system and a definite objective in mind It’s possible to achieve remarkable results even at the what was previously considered to be the most difficult time of year for results.

I bought in to the program. I worked with one of the best trainers I have ever come across in Nik Hecht. His custom built program helped me tremendously on my weight loss mission. I did the AMA 2.0 and the RMA to optimize my fat loss with Sally Sawyer, a coach with unparalleled expertise and experience. I finished up the challenge on the D.TOX Program (Sally’s recommendation) to ensure that the weight loss train kept on rolling.

This has been a truly transformational experience. I certainly lost a significant amount of weight but the changes that won’t show up on the scale are arguably even more impactful.