My 60day lifestyle change has brought me to a new level in my life, that has helped me layout a new foundation of a more healthy, routine way of life. My 60day challenge reflects the very nature of why I choose to work at Life Time in the first place. I knew starting a job here (a month prior to the 60day) that I wanted to make a healthy lifestyle change but I always had excuses or injuries to keep from even beginning. My sister Caitlin Sweeney works for Life Time and was my initial push to leave my un-happy lifestyle and commit. I was committed more than ever setting a very high goal of losing 22 pounds to attempt to get me back on track with my yearly goal set back in January.

Starting off, the first couple of weeks were very annoying and by that, I mean, I kept having the same old injuries reoccur when I’m finally getting in the groove of things. In the past I’ve torn my labrum and sprained both my meniscus’s (one of which happened 2 months prior the start of the 60day) still tender I had to pick and choose my workouts carefully to prevent further damage and also to continue being able to work out in general. It took me the first couple of weeks to find the right routine for me through trial and error. I remember doing a leg workout in week 2, trying to be careful with it, I re-tweaked my knee putting an early end to the week for me and felt super disappointed not being able to work out the remainder of the week. I had to figure out something I could do.

I contacted my trainer Brooke Pinkos for some advice and she does the Burn classes, so being a full-time employee, I wanted to try out the free week they offer. She got me back on track by learning a few low impact workouts and simple helpful knowledge during the class, but mainly by pushing me more towards ellipticals and swimming. I love to run, bike and swim. I soon started doing 30 minutes of each a day, five times a week to get started. That soon turned into 6 miles of running, 7 miles of biking and 1000 meters swimming…. a day. I was feeling it, running on an elliptical and swimming helped heal my knees to where I wasn’t feeling any awkwardness. So right when I’m finding a great groove another setback happened. I play in an adult men’s softball league every week and feeling a new rhythm in my running abilities, I was going from first base to home plate in a hurry. As I was turning third base, I felt it. I felt the awkward re-tweak in the knee again. I still scored the run but so disappointed, I thought I won’t be able to work out the rest of the week. A day of rest later and I had to at least get going and do what I could, even if it was only a little. What happened next was a delightful surprise to me. The more I stayed with the routine the better my knee felt, sure enough a few workouts later, I was back feeling it again. To this day I haven’t felt anymore discomfort in my knees, that alone is my biggest triumph of the 2-month period. In the end I didn’t not reach my lofty goal of 22 pounds, but instead lost 19.9 pounds!! But what’s most important is that I finally made the lifestyle change I wanted and feel very confident in maintaining this new routine. I’m going to keep this momentum going into the next 60day. Overall, I feel excited I’m back on track with my yearly goal and as a result set some new goals for myself. I’m going keep this momentum going and plan to enter a triathlon with my sister next summer and crush it. Last I want to thank myself for not giving in to old habits and really making an effort to go for it, can’t wait to see what’s next.