Unfortunately, this past year I overfilled my list of duties and began to put my health heavily on the backburner- as I believe many of us do. It started with my diet. A couple extra high carb meals here and there turned into daily fast food lunch runs. And my dinners steadily began to look similar. Then it was skipping breakfast to have more sleep, not exercising because I lacked motivation. Body-image issues were also holding me back, and simply just entertaining unhealthy activities led to the overweight physique I felt trapped in. Before entering the 2017 Holiday 60-Day Challenge, I was worried for my health and not sure how to best handle it. Immediately upon joining, I was asked to define my goals: I aim to be more fit and active again. Apart from these goals, I’ve seen a couple relatives, my dad, and my late grandmother all struggle with diabetes. I know that I have to try and distance myself from the unhealthy lifestyle I’ve come to lead. So because change was necessary, I entered the Challenge. Ultimately, I hope my story inspires others to go out and achieve their personal fitness plans as well.

One day in November before the Challenge, I received a call. It was Life Time calling to see if I had any issues with the club. As I sat up and wiped the morning crust out of my eyes I remember asking myself out loud, “When did you last go to Life Time?” If you have access to your Life Time account online, you can check. As soon as I did, I decided it was time. Right when I walked into the facility I could see the fancy 60-Day Challenge table calling my name and as corny as it sounds, I signed up that night. I was lucky enough to be weighed in by Kathleen who, honestly, took really good care of me. This woman knows the ins and outs of fitness. Everything from what I should eat, when to eat, what I should not eat, what supplements to take, how to work out, how hard to work out, what to work out. You name it, we talked about it. She put me on to a better way of life, and I ran with it.

One key factor in all this was changing my diet. I decided to increase the vegetables, alter my meat intake, make smarter choices at fast food restaurants, and start the day with fruits that will allow me to have energy through break time at work. After one week I began to remove sodas because before the Challenge, I was drinking sugar like it was my life force. Now I opt for water at meal times and fruit smoothies before work. And whenever I’m not able to make one at home, I try and grab one from the LifeCafé after work. My favorites contain bananas and strawberries but I plan to explore more of the smoothie menu in the future to decrease the monotony. I also really like the breakfast at Life Time. I go when I have days off of work, or on the weekends. On top of this, I was able to get a discount on Life Time’s Life Greens and Vegan Protein+, which Kathleen highly recommended, and I use them as supplements in place of my diet if necessary.

Equally essential was my movement. From the first millisecond of the day, I try to begin stretching right in bed when I wake up to help my muscles recover from the prior night’s workout. With time constraints and all, I’ve been using the stretch machines and the massage machines at Life Time to help me recover after the heavy lifting. In the future I plan to go back to attending yoga sessions in the morning to help my muscles recover in multiple ways. My night workouts usually consisted of 60-70% cardio on the treadmill or playing basketball and 30% heavy lifting on the other side with weights and machines. If I do legs today, I do back and chest the next time, then the rest of the muscles in the body the third day. After the three muscle group days are complete, I repeat. In the future I plan to try and attend classes that adhere to ab workouts because I need to change up my now-boring ab routine.

At the beginning of this weight loss journey I was 229.3 pounds of potential issues. By the last weigh-out I was 178.8 pounds of better. I’ve been told by doctors, as well as my family, that I have a hereditary predisposition to diabetes. I listen. And I have invested more time into my health. There’s no denying Life Time’s facilities have helped me achieve this healthy lifestyle I aim to continue. Even more so, the knowledge from Kathleen’s initial fitness 101 as well as the 60-Day coaches’ regular emails, the Try-It Tuesdays, the monthly Experience Life I receive, and the 60-Day website will be put to use in my future fitness endeavors. Thank you to Life Time for having these Challenges. By pushing me to become more, I have regained a newfound passion for fitness and a hope to inspire others in their own weight loss goals as well. Remember that if you also need to change your fitness, it all starts somewhere. I entered the Challenge and by fully immersing myself into the Life Time lifestyle, I plan to keep growing. Maybe you can too.