This is the 2nd time that I signed up for the 60Day, however this is the first time that I’ve been successful at it. The first time that I signed up, I didn’t use any of the resources that were provided and tried to do it on my own. This lead to me feeling like I couldn’t lose weight and accomplish my goals. Fast forward 9 months and while working with my trainer Andrew McGovern at the Pickerington, Ohio location, we discussed this 60Day and whether I was ready to try it again. He told me that if I listened to him and did what he said for those 60 days, I would see real progress on the scale and in my strength gains. I thought about it and talked it over with my husband as I would need his support from the accountability and nutrition aspect, then I decided to go for it.

This time I sat down and wrote out my goals. I went into it with the goal of following the program as it was laid out for me. I know that some people go into challenges with a weight loss goal, but for me it was more important not to let myself down anymore. I’ve started and stopped so many plans and I’ve rarely completed anything. This time I wanted to honor my promise to myself and just do what I was told to do and see what happened. I told myself that I could handle any and everything that comes my way. This is what helped get me through.

Andrew worked with me to program both my exercise and nutrition and this 60Day was like night and day compared to the last one. I started this challenge at the heaviest I’ve ever been in my entire life. I knew that my weight had been creeping up, because I was eating fast food entirely too much. Those nights that I simply didn’t feel like I had time to cook resulted in picking up fast food on the way home. In fact, some of the days that I picked up fast food were right after my training sessions. Honestly, I believe that the stress of my husband and I becoming empty nesters was a reason for the additional stress eating that I was doing.  However, once I started this 60Day I did not have an option to pick up something on the way home. My husband has been my biggest supporter because he ate what I ate and didn’t bring anything crazy into the house that would derail my efforts. We ate at home 97% of the challenge and the excuse of not having time to cook has gone out of the window. We’re settling into our new routine, our new normal of being empty nesters, we are doing what is necessary for us to live long lives.

On top of that, I’ve gone to the gym more. My programming has me working with Andrew twice a week, once on my own, plus three days of cardio. There are days that I may not be able to make it to the gym, however I still do something in its place to keep up with my conditioning. What has been interesting to me is that my name made it to my gym’s leaderboard. I had no idea that I was capable of doing that. I figured that my weight loss would be a half pound to a pound a week at best. Little did I know that I would average over 2 pounds a week. It was nice walking into the club each week and finding my name on the board! By using the InBody scale to check in weekly on my progress, I was able to adjust as I needed to.

I’ve lost over 20lbs during this challenge and my husband, while not officially completing the challenge lost over 20lbs as well. I’m so proud of both of us! This has not been easy, but my journey isn’t stopping here. I still have a significant amount of weight to lose before I reach my goal (it’s not a specific number, just a feeling). There are plenty of tips that I received during this challenge now that the challenge is over. My goal is to use these tips to keep pushing forward until I reach where I want to be.