The small fitness successes I experienced in my past were not as transformative as I had originally thought. My journey to physical health began in 2010. At this time, I dropped a great deal of weight and thought I knew what it meant to be in shape. Unfortunately, I went about it all wrong; starving myself and focusing on the quantity versus quality of what I was eating. My workouts revolved around the treadmill. I felt great; I was skinny and I had reached my weight loss goal.  Unfortunately, it didn’t last. Having met my goal, I felt I deserved a reward. Well, one reward lead to another, and before I knew it I was heavier then when I started. Life became busy and I couldn’t maintain the unrealistic lifestyle I set for myself.

In 2014, I joined Life Time and was introduced to the 90day. This challenge taught me that there was more to body transformation than burning more calories than what I consumed. Throughout the 90day I did well, though, I never gave it 100%. I was stubborn and wasn’t ready to heed the advice I was given. Once again, I set unrealistic goals that were easy to meet in the short-term, yet unsustainable long-term.

Meanwhile, my life continued to get busier. In the span of a couple years, I graduated from college, had two children, started a new job, sold a house and bought a new one. Our new house was less than 2 blocks away from Life Time, yet within the span of two years I had visited the gym less than a dozen times. My life felt too busy and I had difficulty getting motivated to put forth any effort to better myself; it was easier to find excuses not to go.

My stress level heightened and I stopped caring about my physical health. I was making poor nutritional choices and continued to gain weight; I felt more and more defeated. My sleep was impacted; I had no energy and would start my day with a giant diet pop. Throughout the day, I would drink another two to three of those giant pops just to maintain my energy. Consuming all of that pop resulted in me eating more and staying up later. It was a vicious cycle that seemed impossible to break free from.

It took a long time for me to reach a point where enough was enough. I began to see how this unhealthy cycle was affecting my work and family life and knew it was time to make a permanent change. Like many, my newest transformational path began as a new year’s resolution, though this time would be different. I didn’t set a weight loss goal or a timeline, instead I set smaller realistic and sustainable lifestyle goals without an endgame in mind. First, I cut pop completely out of my diet. I knew there was no scenario where I could continue to support this unhealthy habit and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Next, I began meal prepping. I knew my meal choices were based on convenience and decided to make it more convenient to pack a lunch or eat at home. Once I established a good reasonable routine for my diet, I began to do the same with my exercise.

Initially, I thought I would go to the gym when it fit into my schedule. This worked for a short time, then it became clear that I needed to build regular gym time into my schedule. My wife and I decided that working out at the gym would become a family routine, and we started going as a family at least 3 weekdays and every weekend. Making this into a routine made it much easier to follow through. Shortly after we developed our gym routine, I decided to take advantage of a free personal training session with Ryan. In this first session, we ended up discussing my goals and how I could achieve them. We determined that a little extra motivation might help and the 60day was a perfect fit.

The biggest factor in my success with this 60day is the extra accountability. I have spoken to multiple trainers throughout this challenge and each time I leave the conversation feeling more motivated. The positive reinforcement and acknowledgement goes a long way. The addition of the Sample Saturday to the Try it Tuesday was also beneficial; this allowed for more flexibility in my workouts and provided me with the opportunity to mix things up and avoid getting bored with my workouts. Once I started seeing positive results and realized that I could maintain my lifestyle changes I decided to begin weight training. I found a great resource through Life Time called the Strength Stack from Coach Cliff which walked me through a weekly strength training regimen that was easy to understand and follow.

By utilizing the resources, support and nutritional education I received from Life Time, I have finally been able to set myself on a path to reach my ultimate goal of maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle. I am looking forward to the next 60day because I know my journey is never over, I will always have more to accomplish and I have no doubt that I will continuously succeed.