Since being a high school athlete, my body weight has fluctuated up and down in an almost 5 year cycle.  My current story begins in 2013 as a fit, healthy and active person whose body began to breakdown as a result of injuries over the years.  I received a promotion at that time to Director of Nursing at a busy and successful surgical center.  Over the last five years, my stress increased while my activity dwindled.  My diet became quick easy processed foods.  As a nurse, I am fully aware that stress from a demanding job, my diet and lifestyle choices were leading me down a path towards ill health, medication and disease.  But I didn’t want to look at it.  Nor was I ready to make changes.

At one point in my adult life I was active and fit.  I would train for marathons and triathlons.  Those days seemed like distant memories. I forgot how it was possible to fit all that training in, while balancing a job and enjoying life.  For years I had eaten a clean diet, sticking with meat, fruit and vegetables.  I had no time to cook now, and survived on ordering out for breakfast and lunch each day.   Something needed to change, I felt so unmotivated.

I joined Lifetime in March of 2018 and in 8 months, I had only 11 visits.   My hope was that something would motivate me to get things going. I still didn’t have the time. I didn’t have the motivation. Through the summer I became more disappointed in myself when I would go to the beach.  I would get out of breath just going for a walk or going up a flight of stairs.  I didn’t want to be on any medications.  I didn’t want to be like many of the patients I would see every day.

In November of 2018 I was to begin a new job in 3 days.  I would have a new schedule and decided I wanted to take advantage of this change and begin exercising before work.  It was time to try again and so I walked into Lifetime for the first time in 7 months.  I just wanted to walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes.  While I was leaving I saw the signs for the 60 Day. I looked up the information as soon as I was home, and I knew this was what I needed.

I signed up right away and scheduled my weigh-in with Orlando my trainer.  I couldn’t believe I was 259 lbs.  I set my goals with him:  improve my cardiovascular fitness, reduce my weight to 235 in the 60 days, go back to eating whole healthy foods, run a 5k.  Within a few days I scheduled a metabolic assessment, bought a Garmin heart rate monitor, and was fully on my way.

I began to cook 3 days a week, taking up only about 3 hours of my time.  Lots of green leafy vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats.  I supplemented with Life Time Whey Protein.  I was eating plenty of good food and not feeling hungry, nor craving my old foods.  I even survived the holidays with ease.

Due to old shoulder and arm injuries, I have stuck with many of the machines for strength training.  With such a variety of equipment at Life Time it is always easy to mix things up.

I based my cardio training on my old triathlon workouts, going to spin class, swimming and walk/running on the treadmill.  Plus I mixed in the rower and the stair climber.  Orlando the trainer has been a great motivator.  He even helped me through a week I was overtraining and even gave me tips to work around my injuries.

Now I’m up at 5:30am every morning, getting my training in.  I look forward to my work out as the start of my day.   I’m forever grateful to Life Time and this 60 Day, as it’s been the best motivation to reach all my goals.  I’m down to 233 lbs. and eating clean.  I’ve run a 5k and have significantly improved my cardiovascular fitness. I feel great and plan to keep up with this new lifestyle that Lifetime has afforded me.  I plan on signing up for the next 60 Day as a motivator to keep things going.

This has been a wonderful experience.  I enjoy the new community provided by Lifetime and this challenge has been a big part of changing my life around.  Thank you Life Time!