His Goal: Change body composition. Develop healthy attitudes and habits.

His Story: After completing the 60day, I went from eating 8 pounds of donuts and ice cream for a food competition to changing my food habits drastically and gaining 8 pounds of muscle. I became a member of Life Time in June 2016 after graduating from college. I played sports from my youth and through college. When it was my time to hang up the helmet, I found a new love for fitness and wanted to grow this love. Unfortunately, I went through unhealthy phases by experimenting with the latest diet and exercise fads.

I plateaued at 210 pounds and felt like I couldn’t gain muscle nor lose fat. My body fat percentage hovered around 11% to 14% and I felt like I couldn’t change. While this percentage is considered low, I had a very unhealthy relationship with food and exercise. I believed I had to earn the calories I ate by first burning these calories in exercise, and binge eating as my reward. For example, I spent hours doing cardio on holidays in order to rationalize my large food intake later that day. The next few days would leave me sluggish, guilty, and telling myself “I must do better”, creating a cycle of performance for reward as a justification for my binge eating episodes.

It wasn’t until I met the trainers and nutritionists at Life Time that my eyes were opened. I was so narrowly focused on input and output, not considering that being healthy is a lifestyle and requires a more holistic approach. I underwent the Resting and Active Metabolic Assessments to truly understand how my body responds to food and exercise. I learned the body utilizes fats and carbs differently, and that calories are not just calories. Body composition is a result of the quality of my foods, not just the caloric quantity. My tendency of performing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) left me “skinny-fat”. I wasn’t tapping into my fat stores and was constantly depleting my glycogen stores without metabolizing fat.

After I had sat down with the trainers, I began the 60day and learned how to drastically alter my body composition, learning how to utilize my resources efficiently and effectively. I learned to work smarter, not harder. I am now a lean 203 pounds. Body fat percentage changed from 11% to 6% all while gaining muscle and greatly increasing my strength and muscle definition. My trainer also worked on activating the proper muscle groups for certain lifts like squats to mitigate the knee pain I experience from my years of playing sports. I also know how to effectively warm up and activate the proper muscle groups, resulting in more balanced and overall healthy practices. Had it not been for my trainer during these 60 days I would have remained with the old mentality that I can’t change my body and that I am forever stuck with an imbalanced composition.

Achievements to date include learning to listen to my body, focusing on the right sources of nutrients, and changing my mentality from immediately switching to the next quick fix to long-term success. This program has been life-altering. My view on diet and exercise is ever growing and I have a new drive to learn, research, and apply the principles in the program post the 60day. I have learned to set and achieve goals in a realistic and timely manner. Before I felt like I had a lamp that barely showed me my next step to take, and now I have a flashlight allowing me to see the path ahead and where I can go. The trainers and my club as a whole, Life Time Alpharetta, are my light posts. I know I am not on this road alone. I have made great friends at the club who encourage me and ask when I am coming into the club next. I am excited to tell others about my journey and to invite them on this road with me.