January 23, 2017 became a pivotal day in my life. This was the day that my best friend Shawn Donovan won the 60-Day Challenge. I witnessed first-hand how he had neglected his own health to focus on his daughter in the NICU. The stress of ongoing NICU life, leaving his job and moving to Ohio became the perfect storm that led to multiple heart attack scares. His inspiring transformation has become my motivating force.

Prior to the Challenge, I too found myself in poor health. My job had me kept deskbound for up to 8 hours daily. During this same period, I had 3 surgeries that required extensive recovery time. To aid in recovery, I had to cut out workouts and remained sedentary for over a month. It was at this time that I got heavier than I had ever been. I found myself, buried in weight and medical bills. Shortly after, I quit that job to start my own company. After working on that project for many months, I again had to start looking for other options due to lack of funding.

Due to lack of income and my unhealthy lifestyle, I found depression setting in. It was getting increasingly hard to find a job because of the lack of recent employment history. Later that week, Shawn won the 60-Day Challenge and immediately began encouraging me to make a change. He convinced me that if he could improve his mental and physical health while juggling the stress of helping his baby through her troubling time, so could I.

I joined Life Time Fitness with a new determination to regain control of my mental and physical state. Brook Baker, a personal trainer at South Jordan, helped me get started with an initial assessment that was included in the sign up that helped me realize exactly where I needed to begin. We built a plan for me and my body type immediately. Due to a prior wrist surgery, I had physical constraints. Brook altered the workouts to accommodate all of the exercises that I couldn’t do because of those restrictions.

It was recognized early on that my diet plan was going to be the hardest part of changing and we immediately changed things to help keep my metabolism working. This was the biggest challenge as I hadn’t eaten a vegetable in months and my diet consisted mostly of fast food and barbecue. I was immediately instructed to cut all carbs and sugars in my diet even if it was found naturally in foods. This immediately helped me to start losing the weight that I needed. I was eating more food than in the past, only this time I was eating smart and healthy as instructed.

As my body became metabolically conditioned to the workouts, it became necessary to change them constantly to avoid hitting a plateau. I worked with the online trainers provided by Life Time and Brook to constantly change what I was doing to maximize my results. We implemented additional fasted cardio and swimming, and made a change in my diet plan to accomplish this. I was also advised to start doing yoga to help with my recovery, stress, and flexibility and fell in love with the program.

By doing this Challenge I have gotten physically fit, but I have also improved many aspects of my life. I now wake up earlier and dedicate my morning to personal self-improvement. This includes workouts, at least 30 minutes of reading before work, and any tasks to do for the day before I dedicate my time and my energy to my new career.

The support of Life Time Fitness has been unprecedented in my Challenge as I had the support of other members including all of the staff and management even including the General Manager of my local club, Steven Cutler. It is amazing to feel the support and positive energy that is a part of Life Time. I always have the staff and other members rooting me forward, constantly asking where my success is and where I’m going. Because of this, I never missed a day knowing how many people were pushing for me to succeed. Life Time’s training and nutrition program helped me immensely, altering my workouts/diet according to my body type.

I am now in the best shape of my life as I’m starting a wonderful new career. Life Time helped me get out of the “slump” that I had allowed to be a part of my life. I feel like a new man with new vigor as I march forward, and I consider this my biggest win yet.

Life Time Fitness is the driving force in the positive change in my life as they provided the proven methods, services, and products that work. Brook Baker is an amazing trainer with vast knowledge and experience that helped me push further than I was able to by myself. Shawn helped me realize I needed to change, so I did. This is my win as I have a new energy towards life and work. I again thank Shawn for believing in me before I did and giving me the initial motivation to sign up for the 60-Day Challenge.