This hasn’t been a 60day challenge. It has been a 7-year challenge, starting from when I became pregnant with my daughter.

See, I work full time, volunteer, am married and a mom of two young kids who have never ending evening and weekend activities. I don’t have time to work out. I eat well…enough. After having two children, there is no way I can have abs and I cannot be strong. – That was everything I believed during most of 2019.

However, despite this mentality, something kept me going to Life Time, to train, to complete two back to back 60day challenges with my husband. It was because deep down, I wanted to become strong, I wanted to make fitness a priority and I wanted to see results on the scale that had not been moving for years.

During the Fall 60day , I saw progress and it instantly became contagious. I joined the Fit & Festive 60day because I loved how I was beginning to feel. I learned a great deal about nutrition and exercise and knew that if I completed two back to back challenges, I could only learn more and I wanted to. So hubby and I joined the Fit & Festive together, we knew we would be more successful doing this if we had each other’s back.  We figured if we kept our body composition and weight the same, that was success at the end of this 60day.

Thank goodness I had a coach because I was severely selling myself short. Mauro kept communicating the same simple messages and the consistency of the messages is when it began to click, consistency was key. I had to push myself, it wasn’t easy, there were days that I wanted to quit but I conquered through those days because I wanted to keep feeling strong, I wanted to work hard and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do this.

The truth is, I needed the time of both 60day programs to be where I am today. I am so proud of myself. In 120 days, I lost 16 pounds and 12.6% body fat.

Completing the 2019 Fall 60day got me on track. It was the 2019 Fit & Festive 60day that made the difference.

It was during this 60day that I learned it was ok to resistance train more than once a week. I said I wanted to be strong, well I had to break my stereotype that women “shouldn’t lift weights too often” and do just cardio. Doing just cardio wasn’t working and so I pushed boundaries and began resistance training 4-5 times a week, my work outs became effective and efficient and I have never felt stronger or better.  I can’t believe I can say this but, I can do an unassisted chin up! I am working on proper form for push ups and I absolutely am loving it. I learned to be patient with myself, to keep practicing and to keep persevering, and as my coach said, to keep “trusting the process.” As I did all these things, the results became visible physically and internally. When I say I never felt better, I no longer have that bloated feeling in my gut that would never go away and make me feel lethargic.  I sleep better, getting more sleep and sounder sleep which felt impossible with two kids. I have more energy, I can start my hectic day at 6am and go through until bedtime without feeling overtired or run down.

The difference was contagious and noticeable. My kids would ask me why I was becoming “Fit & Festive”? I told them I was going to Life Time to be a healthy mommy for them, naturally, they were my biggest fans. They began to ask if they themselves were eating healthy foods. They asked questions about nutrition, what made things healthy or unhealthy and that they wanted to choose the healthy ones. They would start doing exercises at home because, “exercise is important to stay healthy mommy.” I was so happy, I was inspiring them.

My husband started the Alpha program while doing the 60day and he requested specific meals to help him reach his goals. We were doing this together, we were in this together. Hubby had amazing results during both 60day programs and we began not only meal prepping but gym prepping. We both have full time, demanding jobs, the kids have many after school activities. So we changed how we communicated, it became a schedule of who was on point for which pick up and drop off, so the other made the gym time possible. It seemed like it was impossible to make it work, but we were both determined to make fitness a priority and because of that, we figured it out together.

I joined Life Time all those years ago for my family. I did the Fall 60day to support my hubby. I did the Fit & Festive 60day for me.

I did it to show myself that I could still enjoy holidays and festivities while meeting my fitness and nutrition goals. I far surpassed the goals I set for myself and after every week weigh in it wasn’t about the metrics, it was about how I felt. I feel fantastic and this is just the beginning, I have set long term exercise and nutrition goals for myself so that I can continue on my fitness journey and truly be the best wife, mother and person for myself. I ended 2019 on an absolute high, I began 2020 on the same high. So grateful for the Fit & Festive 60day for allowing me to meet my 2019 goals and carry them into the new year and beyond.