Winners / Christine W

Christine W.

19.83% weight loss, 39.7lbs *

*Results not typical

Christine W Front

In typical New Year’s Resolution fashion, I got on a scale in the beginning of January this year after not having gotten on a scale for a very long time. What I experienced at the time I like to call scale shock. I joke that I nearly passed out after seeing the number on the scale. I knew it was getting bad, but I conveniently never had time to put batteries in the scale so I didn’t have to look at the hard number. It was easy to find excuses not to face what was happening. I am the busy mother of six children currently ages 10, 8, 6, 4, and twin 2 year olds. My life is a little on the crazy side trying to keep up with the demands of our day to day life. In the past, I have generally been athletic and fit-ish. With each of my first 4 children I gained over 50 pounds while pregnant, but afterward was able to lose all of the baby weight. Before I got pregnant with my twins, I probably was in the best shape I had been in since college, which for me was a big deal at age 38 with 4 kids. Then a twin pregnancy at “advanced maternal age” after already having had 4 c-sections was rough and complicated. I was on complete bed rest for 3 months and my uterus ruptured at 32 weeks. We luckily had just arrived at the hospital 5 minutes before the rupture and I was able to rush right in to surgery. All 3 of us survived, but I had to have extensive uterus repair, a bladder repair, 5 units of blood transfused and was in the hospital for 10 days. Both babies had to be resuscitated at delivery and were in the NICU for 4 weeks. I’m sure I don’t have to detail that twins at children number 5 and 6 was/is difficult. I started struggling with post-partum depression when they were 9 months old. We also moved to the other side of town when the twins were just shy of 1. Fast-forward to January 2017 and the scale revelation. How could I be the same weight as when I delivered twins? How could I be 30 pounds heavier than when I was 9 months pregnant with my 4th child? Reality is tough. Somewhere along the way I lost my motivation. I was too tired and lacked the self-discipline to make my old go-to routines work for me. And guess what, exercising and eating healthy is hard!

Scale-shock helped me determine it was time to do something new. Enter Life Time Fitness. My first impression of Life Time was that it didn’t smell like a gym. I have been a member of several gyms in town over the years and they all have that tell-tale gym smell. Not so with Life Time. I liked that Life Time felt more like a lifestyle than a “gym.” I felt welcome instead of intimidated and signed up. During my on-boarding with Steven he suggested that team training might work well for me and also thought the 60-Day challenge would be good motivation. I decided to do both of those things. My goal was to lose 50 pounds during the 60-Day Challenge. Why? I wrote down, “To get back to the real me.” I knew that there was an athletic, fit-ish person in me somewhere and I hoped the Life Time’s 60-Day Challenge would help me find her. The Team weight loss class helped me overcome my laziness. The support of our trainer Kim and the group helped me push forward when on my own I am positive I would have quit. I also attended Life Time’s other group fitness classes. I was motivated to do better in a group setting than I would have done by myself. There is something to be said for feeling a little peer pressure when it comes to working hard or wimping out. Another great tool I utilized was the metabolic testing. I had no idea my metabolism was so bad, although I should have guessed that would be the case being over 40 and over-weight.

I also cannot fail to mention the awesome Kids Academy. I would not have been able to achieve the results I did without the great people and facility at the Kids Academy. I didn’t worry about my little people while they were at the Kids Academy and I could focus on doing what I needed to do to get in shape. And let’s be honest, having two kid-free hours daily to workout, shower, eat at the LifeCafe or get a massage at the LifeSpa is pretty amazing.

As a result of joining Life Time and completing the 60-Day Challenge I have been able to come off my post-partum antidepressant. I have more energy. I can fit into a lot more of my clothes. I have more confidence and feel so much better. Is my life still crazy running around after 6 kids? Yes. I’m afraid there are no magical Life Time fixes for that. But I believe I am a better me and doing crazy a bit healthier now. It is hard to believe that in just 2 short months my lifestyle has changed so dramatically. Before I joined Life Time Fitness, I thought it was impossible to eat healthy or fit exercise into my life. Now it is not only possible, but is happening regularly and is fun. I have found that I actually can accomplish the fitness goals I set for myself and that I can do hard things. I now refuse to believe that I am too old, too tired or too busy to be healthy, fit and happy thanks to Life Time.