Finalists / Emily Y.

Emily Y.

Colorado Springs, CO

Emily Y

As a mother of three boys as well as a full-time career woman it is difficult to find the hours in the day to complete everyday tasks, not to mention squeezing gym time. When I occasionally did make it to the gym it was because I had to, not that I wanted to.  My fitness, or lack thereof, started to control my entire world. I lost all self-confidence and sank into a dark depression. In turn, my fitness, took a huge toll on my marriage and negatively impacted my relationship with my boys. I was simply too tired because of being overweight and unhealthy to put any effort into spending quality time with them. I frequently found myself putting my children to bed early because I lacked energy to be with them. When the mornings came, I would drop my kids off at school notice other moms and think to myself I wish I were that skinny and had that much energy. Hopeless, and feeling as though I was losing everyone close to me, I looked for some sort of change.

I soon fell into the cycle of trying every fad diet available. They promised quick results with minimal effort and admiring the before and after photos of each trend I wanted the same results so bad! I tried diet after diet and was not able to get the same results causing me to feel like a failure which dragged me deeper into my depression. Tipping the scale at 262 lbs and in a plus size 18W, I felt defeated and began to accept that I would never be one of those before and after photos. But, looking at my boys one night I knew this could not and would not be the rest of my life. That was the turning point in my life where I had to be real with myself, I was done standing behind the excuse of not enough time to go to the gym and I was determined to cook nutritious meals and cut out the junk. Daily, I drove by Life Time and decided I was going to call and see what they were all about. And with that call, I can honestly say Life Time has changed my life forever. I set out with a goal to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle for myself and my kids.

Since joining Life Time, the trainers, staff, classes, and offerings have made this difficult journey manageable. To start, I have worked with the best trainer in the universe, Cameron Kolling, he has pushed me past every goal I set out to obtain and won’t allow me to fall short of what he knows I can accomplish. The Alpha Strong Class taught by Cameron is where I found my true passion for functional fitness and weightlifting and where I attribute majority of my success. I never realized how important muscle building is to losing weight until I joined this class. I began to see that the more muscle I built the more weight I was losing which in turn helped me to lose inches quickly. I started the 6 Day in a size 14 and now I am fitting loosely into a size 10! In class, we took advantage of the variety of Lifetime offerings to help us along our journey. One key offering that has helped me is the metabolic conditioning test. It personalizes a plan to my needs. The personalized program developed from my metabolic test is just the right amount of challenge. It balances not be discouraging from unattainable goals but makes me reach for the sky when setting new goals. Next, the Life Time app mirrors this personal program by keeping track of my heart rate. I always know when to push harder or when I need to slow down. I found that at times it was very challenging to overcome the unhealthy habits I have set into motion over the last 20 years, specifically in regard to my nutrition. The biggest challenge during these 60 days were the holidays, ALL three of them, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s landed within the 60 Day. Throughout the holidays there are desserts, EVERYWHERE! Thankfully, I had the help of the Life Time 60 Day recipes, to learn healthy alternate nutrition substitutes to avoid my main pitfall, sugar!

The results are in and along with my physical weight and appearance the 60 Day has given me more positive outcomes than I could have ever imagined. Coming out of this challenge, I am no longer depressed, I have more self-confidence, and I have more energy than my rambunctious three-year-old!  The encouragement that I get at Life Time daily from the time I enter the building to the time I enter my class and all the personal trainers who cheer me on is second to none. Being a part of the Alpha Strong class, I have a community of people that believe in me and help keep me motivated to get to the next goal. I have realized that being strong and healthy is better than skinny.  #IchoseStrong. Lifetime has revealed to me my new-found passion which is powerlifting because it is the one thing that I never would have imagined myself doing and now I can’t imagine life without it. I plan to compete in a powerlifting meet this summer. I could have never set my goal this high without #LT60day #AlphaStrong and Cameron Kolling.