I started working for Life Time about six months ago. After getting a job in member services I knew I needed to start experiencing some of what Life Time had to offer in order to better serve our members. I decided not to do the Spring 2017 60 Day Challenge because I didn’t really think it met my fitness goals. The truth is I just didn’t wanted to put in the effort and I didn’t really think you could change that much in 60 days. When the next one rolled around in the spring Lane Louive, one of our trainers, asked me if I was going to do it and I said, “yes”. I said, “yes”, because I knew was going to do it at some point and I do try not to procrastinate.

I initially had the goals of getting down to 10% body fat, being able to hold a hand stand, and doing a standing back flip. I wasn’t being honest with myself when I made those goals with Lane. I realized that in order for me to really experience the 60 Day Challenge I needed to commit to making some real changes and I changed my goals to simply getting down to 6.5% body fat. I knew I was going to have change my diet, continue my workouts, incorporate more cardio, and make sure I stayed motivated.

The first thing I did was to go to the Try-It Tuesday nutrition seminar where I learned a lot. Such as the fact that milk is actually a sugar and peanut butter is a fat. I considered these both proteins at the time and one of my favorite snacks was peanut butter toast with a big glass of milk. As it turns out all I was doing was filling my body with carbs. I then met with one of our nutritionists, Amy Armbrust. Amy accurately predicted that I probably crashed mid-morning after my workout due to the number of carbs I was eating beforehand. She suggested continuing with Life Time StrengthStack pre-workout and adding U-Can while removing my pre-workout meal. It made a difference right away.

I also knew that I need to start meal prepping more than I ever had in order to be prepared when I was hungry. What I found interesting is that after spending an hour or two in the kitchen preparing six to twelve meals I had the same amount of satisfaction as if I had just had a great workout. One of my most common things to make is a chicken breasts with mixed veggies, but I learned in the nutrition seminar that I also need a healthy fat. Now I just add some olive oil on top it’s not only healthier, but it tastes better too!

For my workouts I was already doing Alpha about 4 days a week with a couple of other workouts I’d plan on my own. Alpha is always a great workout for me because I’m competitive. Some days I might not really feel like going and I’ll end up having a great workout because I see the guy next to me pushing hard. In addition to TEAM Alpha I needed to start incorporating cardio in order to really lean out. I did steady state cardio two to three days a week and I’m sure I ended up doing more cardio in the last 60 days than I have in the previous 12 months. I started by going on the elliptical for 40 minutes making sure to keep my heart rate pretty low. During this time the club I work at had an event to promote Life Time Run and I ended up signing up for the fall marathon training and intend to complete the Twin Cities marathon in the fall. It’s been a goal of mine since I was young and it feels great to be making progress towards it. The power of “we” is phenomenal when it comes to staying motivated.

Another way I was able to stay motivated was by asking other members and team members about their progress in the challenge and sharing about my own personal goals. They would then come up and ask me how my challenge was going and it would help me to keep on track for the day. Another thing I did was wear the 60 Day Challenge bracelet for the duration until I had my final weigh out. It helped out a lot during the first week while my body was adjusting to the new lower carb diet. I found it helpful to weight out with a trainer a few times as well. It’s really inspiring when you see the numbers start to go down and your physique start to change in the mirror.

In addition to changing the way I treated my body I ended up having the most productive two months I’ve ever had. I found more discipline with my healthy lifestyle carrying over into my work and my school work. I had to prepare for the following day the night before, sometimes two days before by making sure all my meals were ready, my clothes and workout bag were packed, and that all my homework was done. By doing more cardio I found that sometimes you have to do things you don’t like in order to get the results you want I also found out that cardio is enjoyable once you get going. I also found that my own greatest motivator is sharing with others. I’m grateful to Lane for asking me to do that 60 Day Challenge, to Amy for sharing her nutrition knowledge with me, and to everyone else who shared with me or allowed me to share wit