When you lose faith in the future, you lose power in the present.

I served 4 years from February of 2012 to February of 2016 and within that time, fitness was even more important, not only for me but for the wellbeing of all those around me. My junior Marines looked up to me for support and guidance not only in reaching their physical goals, but their mental ones as well. I transitioned from the Marine Corp in February of 2016. While most would think of this as an exciting time and full of great opportunities, I was not feeling that way. I no longer had the drive to go to the gym or even eat healthy. I felt a bit broken and run down from all the years of physical demand put on my body from the Marine Corp.

I turned to what I thought would make me feel better, not moving or working out, but fast food and drinking. I started to pull away from my friends and family. No matter how hard they would try to bring me back, I felt that I was better off without it. I quit going to the gym or if I would go I would just walk through the motions. I no longer felt the love for fitness or living a healthy lifestyle. I began to push away all that was so good in my life, even my relationships with those I cared for most.

Flash forward to September when I found Life Time Fitness. I was amazed by all of the friendly faces that truly seemed to care about me and I felt like I had a team around me again that was there to support me. I trained there a few times and found that my body actually felt better when I moved and so did my mind. However, it was not easy and I felt very out of shape. I was searching for something. Something to push me and challenge me, something I had been missing since I left the service. I had no idea what it was, but I still didn’t have that old motivation back yet.

Enter the end of October, and I heard about this 60-Day Challenge. My fiancé encouraged me to sign up for the Challenge with her as a way for us to do something together and to help motivate us. That first day when I weighed in and had my body fat tested, I was upset to see how far I had let my body go. I never thought I would look or feel this way either. Just as I was about to grab all my things and leave, there was this little voice inside my head saying, “This is your chance to get back on track, push yourself now and you’ll thank me later.”

From there I went and talked to Natasha Kubek, a Life Time Fitness Professional. I was interested in doing something new and she mentioned Pilates. I tried some of the Pilates sessions with her and found that it truly did help with my posture and alignment. My body started to feel good again and I was noticing some amazing changes in my appearance. She would always come over and ask how I was, what did I work on today, how she could help me better optimize my training. I would take bits and pieces from her and put them into practice. She also mentioned the Try-it Tuesday events from which I was at first very skeptical of but came to enjoy it immensely. Some of the fun I had lost in my life had come back to me now that I was part of a group again determined to reach their goals together. The Metabolic Fix seminar was also a big eye opener for me. I have a newfound respect for what the body can do and how much everything is tied together. I now sleep better, eat better and train smarter because of this seminar. It came at a time when I felt like I had hit a wall and was not seeing results any more.

With the implementation of the stress management piece and sleep hygiene I have well exceeded any goal that I had set for myself at the beginning of the 60-Day. I made a decision to talk to the Dietitian, Jill Olson RD in the Proactive Care clinic. I guess eating fast food and drinking every night is not something that was helping my body and mind. Big shocker right? I began to make small changes with the help of Ms. Olson. I started to meal prep and increase my vegetable intake. We discussed my GI health and with this I learned that the gut needs to be healthy in order for me to optimize my food intake and training demands. I started taking Fibermend, a probiotic and a fish oil. Within a week of starting this on November 10th, I noticed a huge difference. I was truly in awe of what small changes I could make that had such a dramatic outcome on my body.

Throughout this 60-Day Challenge, I have found my passion for fitness once again. Some of you might say that passion can be bad. What I have found to be true though is this; if you’re not truly passionate about what you are doing, you’ll never be truly great at it. In my mind I now have the tools to not only flourish during these 60 days, but for the rest of my life. Some of the trainers and people I have met here will have lasting effect on me because the relationships we have formed have made each of us stronger. Change is hard to do by yourself. But with the right combination of expertise and the effort and concern of others, positive