I had signed up for the Life Time 60-Day because it was time to change. I have always been athletic; I was a competitive swimmer in high school and college and always liked running, cycling, hiking, and any other sport which keeps me active and preferably outdoors. I have even done a duathlon and a sprint triathlon! Unfortunately, over the last two years I have gotten very off-track.

I found myself with more responsibilities at work and would consistently choose to work more instead of work out. I lost my balance. The “cheat meals” that I allowed myself previously now became my regular diet. My refrigerator looked different—and although I consciously noticed the bad habits and choices I continued to make, I kept making excuses to why I was making each bad decision. I knew that the best thing to do when I was hungry was to have a healthy snack, but instead I would hit a fast food chain. Since working out had been how I managed stress since I was about 8 years old, I began getting side effects from stress I had never experienced, including chronic neck and back pain. I even started avoiding people taking my picture so I did not have to look at the changes my body had incurred (40 lb weight gain, loss of tone, completely different body shape, change in face shape, etc.).

The big moment that I knew I needed to change was when I saw a picture of me and my husband hiking in Denver. The picture was… well, let’s just say it was bad. I signed up for the Life Time 60-Day Weight Loss Challenge a few weeks later and also decided it was time to do the Active Metabolic Assessment so that I would know the most efficient way to get where I wanted to go. My results showed that I needed to move a lot more—my Zone 1 was tiny! Anne at Savage also sat down with me and helped dive into other changes I needed to make. We talked about changing my daily habits, from bedtime to diet, and structured out a plan for the Challenge.

I struggled at first getting into a good routine and making the right choice day after day, and week after week, but am super proud that I have gotten started and am very glad this event was available at this specific time in my life. I would do 1x/week sprints, 3x/week fat burn cardio, and 1x/week endurance cardio + weight training when I could add it in there. For cardio I would typically jump on the treadmill unless there was a cycling class going on that I could fit into my schedule. I love our EDG classes and Cycle Sculpt! With the treadmill workout, I would alternate jogging/walking and work to stay in my zones, and always try to add in time in the sauna to keep my heart rate up if time allowed.

The Savage Life Time is a great fitness home! Everyone was so supportive when I started this, from the Member Services folks who would say “hi” as my husband and I walked in to the trainers who helped up stay motivated (thanks Anne and Josh!) with hellos and killer workouts and follow up. Josh’s Kettlebell class was a great workout that I look forward to continuing—what a great full body workout! I had never done small group training before but really loved the dynamic. At Corp 5, I had a great group of support as well. I had numerous folks check in with me every week after weigh-ins to ask how I was doing, share recipes, and I started going to fitness classes with co-workers again! There is no better break in the day than a workout break! That said, I feel like this is only Step 1 of my get-back-into-shape plan, but every journey starts with a first step. I am very glad that this holiday season I lost weight versus gained weight and that I made some significant steps in the right direction for becoming a better me in 2017!