The Life Time 60day challenge has given me the tools I need to live a healthy and well-balanced life. I enrolled in this challenge with the encouragement of my wife Erin, who also did the challenge with me. I met with Coach Bailey for an initial consultation and we had a heart to heart about my progress and goals. I have known Bailey for a few years now and she has been my personal trainer as well as a group fitness instructor in the past. My biggest problem in the past has been staying consistent with a routine—I would often get started with a diet or an exercise plan and life would hit and then I would revert back to my old ways. One of my goals, therefore, was to hold myself accountable by logging my calories in MyFitnessPal and to log my workouts daily. Accountability helps ensure that I achieve my fitness and life goals. The results (weight loss, improved physique, etc.) are secondary as to what matters more is that I stay consistent with eating healthy with awareness of foods, and staying active with daily exercise.

Prior to the 60day, I would often grab snacks in the middle of the night and what was even more troubling is one snack would lead to another, which would lead to another. It was as if I was always hungry, and when I ate junk food, I would have more cravings. The smartest decision I made initially was starting the Life Time D.TOX program at the beginning of the program.

The D.TOX program was a drastic change from my previous diet and way of life. My wife and I eliminated some of the foods/drinks we loved the most—sugar, caffeine, wheat, corn, soybeans were just some of the items we took out from our diet. The first few days of the D.TOX program were super rough. I had headaches, fatigue, mood swings, and cravings, of course, for the foods we eliminated. I really enjoyed the time my wife and I spent meal prepping and shopping for healthy foods. Every ingredient I ate had to be verified. I started logging the foods I ate in MyFitnessPal as well, and this habit continued throughout the program. The awesome part after finishing the program was an awareness of the good foods and bad foods that I eat. I discovered at the end of the program that I likely have a gluten sensitivity and am now avoiding foods containing gluten, something I would have never done had I not been in the program.

I also enjoyed the workouts I did during the 60day program. I enrolled in the Life Time Small Group Training classes and enjoyed doing the GTX Strength and conditioning classes. During the month of April, I took pride in logging my workouts on social media during the LTClassDash program. I often got compliments from my family, friends, and coworkers who were tracking my progress following my Instagram posts. It was a lot of fun pushing myself to the next level and using social media to track my progress helped me maintain a positive attitude about staying fit. My wife and I also started walking daily and we would use our Apple Watches to keep track of our progress. We achieved 2 milestones together in a single weekend–walked 3 miles in our neighborhood on a Saturday and followed that with a family hike in Martin Nature Reserve with our kids. This was our first family hike and we are looking forward to many more hikes together and we even booked a trip to Alaska to hike more!

Even though the 60day is coming to an end, I feel that the healthy lifestyle and outlook I have developed from this program have just started. I am looking forward to living a healthier and happier life with the good habits I developed from this program and feel I have just scratched the surface with the healthy way of living.