In February, just before the 60day began, I looked at a photo of myself in a tank top.  I know it’s cliché, but I didn’t recognize the woman in the photo. I “hid” the photo on my phone and reached out to my former Alpha instructor at Life Time New Hope.  I was looking for structure, accountability, and have always loved the strength and cardio mix the program offers.  I just wanted to be and feel like myself again. On his recommendation, I signed up for a trial period at Eagan.  I got up at 6 am (two hours earlier than I had been waking up for the entire pandemic), hauled myself to class where I met coach Ariel and the other members of the Alpha program.

That same week, I noticed the 60day promotional signage up in the club. I’ve signed up for the 60day before. Twice, actually. Weighed in, lost a few pounds, and then promptly forgot about it. Until today, I’ve never even submitted a story or after photos.  Maybe it was that photo I saw of me in a tank top, but something was different this time. I signed up for the 60day and committed myself to Alpha before my trial period ended.  At my initial body reading, I topped the charts with my body fat percentage. At first, I seriously thought it was a mistake. I literally said, “those things are never accurate”. I’ve weighed more before, how could I be fatter now?

Well, four years ago I ended my collegiate softball career. As a former athlete, I have been training my entire life to physically compete.  Over the past three years, I’ve continued eating like an athlete, though my workouts weren’t on par.  When the pandemic hit last year, I went fully remote for work, gyms closed and frankly, it was just starting to get nice out so why bother working out? I guess that’s why they say use it or lose it.  The muscle, the strength I’ve built over the last 15 years were for the sole purpose of trying to be the best softball player I could be.  I never actually cared what I looked like, I was an athlete and a home run hitter at that. I needed to be big, and strong, it’s just who I was.

After my first week going to Alpha, I noticed an IMMEDIATE difference. I had more energy, I was more focused during working hours, and my relationship with my boyfriend got stronger.  It was at that point I started waking up even earlier, going to 6 am Alpha instead of 7 am, and hitting some extra cardio in the evening after work.

The 60day, paired with Alpha programming was exactly what I needed.

Two weeks later I was hooked. Addicted to the endorphins, I was feeling good.  I was seeing my body stats changing.  I don’t want to say my whole experience was hunky-dory and everything went exactly how I envisioned it in March. There were a lot of family birthdays, coupled with holidays, I had packed my own food for, maybe having just a spoonful of cake. It was the food that was the challenge for me. I cut alcohol and dairy out of my diet entirely, cold turkey. The beginning was the toughest, but after time I’d notice it really did take less volume to actually feel full.  Through this 60day, I discovered things about my body I never would have learned without making these changes or getting lab work done.  My body would throw fits at the slightest re-introduction to dairy. This is the first and biggest takeaway for me from the 60day, something I’ll have to carry with me and apply for the rest of my life.

It wasn’t until a month in when the physical gains started showing up.  Not only am I looking more like myself, but I started moving my own weight around unlike I EVER have. I’m not talking about getting my lifts back to previous bests, but my own weight. My body. Today, I run further and faster than ever before. I now do burpees, lateral movements, box jumps and am slowly but surely getting to my first unassisted pull-up (decreasing band resistance).

For the future, I plan to stick with my current Alpha programming at Eagan. With the way I’m moving now, I plan to start training in Jiu-Jitsu (martial arts). I’m a competitor at heart and have been looking to compete in something new since the day softball ended for me. With the progress and newfound strength and conditioning, I’ve found at Life Time Eagan, I’m finally confident enough to take the next step and dive in!

Lastly, I want to give a big shoutout to Ariel L. my alpha coach for everything she’s put my body through over the last two months.