Throughout my life I’ve been an athlete. I played soccer and started figure skating at the age of five. I skated competitively over the next eight years. My years skating taught me about discipline, training, strength, and courage. Although I didn’t have a professional career in my future, the life lessons I learned being a young athlete set me up well for the challenges I faced as I grew up. After skating I played tennis, softball, and I was a cheerleader throughout high school. I loved being around sports and athletes. It gave me great leadership opportunities and I learned to take risks and put myself out there.

I became a runner in high school as well. But I always ran for me – for fitness, for weight loss. I continued to run in college and used running as a tool to mentally as much as physically get me through law school. It wasn’t until after the birth of my twins that I really considered “training” to run anything, other than the occasional 5K or 10K with friends. Months after my boys were born I talked with friends who were training for a marathon. That conversation rekindled a spark in my running spirit. I took off with my jogger stroller and took on the challenge. I ran my first marathon in 2004, two weeks shy of my boys’ first birthday. Quite a milestone following years of infertility, pregnancy loss, and a high risk twin pregnancy. And despite the extreme mental challenge and the plantar faciitis I fought along the way, I was hooked! Since then I have run seven more marathons and to celebrate turning 40 (a few years back), I ran my first ultra-marathon, a 50K.

Although I slogged countless miles alone over the years, I also joined forces with some amazing women in my hometown and helped formed Chasing Sanity, a women’s running group comprised of moms like me – with houses full of young children (I subsequently had my third son), working husbands, part-time jobs and limited amounts of time to run. We racked up most of our miles in the pre-dawn hours while the world slept. It prepared us for our long days ahead, and kept us sane. Fitness with friends does that.

I love my running group and assumed I would always be a pure runner. I disliked the gym and pretty much most other forms of exercise. But injuries have a way of interrupting our human-made plans. Over the last couple of years I’ve been sidelined several times due to injuries, some more serious than others. In an effort to try something new and to fit some time in and workout with my husband, we started Shaun T’s Insanity program in 2012. We committed to the two- month routine and rocked it. Well, completed it. I still remember the final minutes of our final workout in that program. I had tears in my eyes and the overwhelming sense of accomplishment. I literally felt like I did in the last tenth of a mile of a marathon – proud, exhausted, overwhelmed, and inspired to push my body even further. I loved Insanity. I even have the shirt to show “I earned it.” After two cycles of Insanity that year we took on the Tough Mudder, a running/obstacle/ endurance event. What a crazy but thrilling accomplishment.

Subsequently sidelined again with plantar faciitis and some other minor medical challenges, it was time to find more options for my mental and physical fitness. Again I turned to Beachbody and the 21 Day Fix program. I thrive on a schedule – tapping into discipline learned as a young athlete that propelled me to marathon running. I loved being back in the game and seeing how much more I could accomplish each day. After 21 Day Fix I turned to T25 and got myself in the best shape of my life doing Alpha, Beta and Gamma months. Next I turned to Insanity Max 30 – a whole new level of crazy. But oh so good! Shaun T is my favorite trainer. I have a love/hate relationship with him daily. I’ve also taken on 21 Day Fix Extreme and The Master’s Hammer & Chisel and will continue to challenge myself with each new program.

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Because I believed strongly in Beachbody’s products, including Shakeology, the foundation of the nutrition side of the equation, when a dear friend asked me to consider joining forces with her in coaching others about our crazy love for fitness and healthy living, I jumped at the opportunity. I thought initially I would dabble in coaching as a hobby. But it turns out a spark was ignited in me as I began to work with others to get healthy. The idea of being able to help someone gain a love for exercise and learn healthy habits was intoxicating. Seeing their results encouraged me to consider coaching full time. Then God opened up a giant opportunity for me when I left my part-time job and returned home full time. Now I’m coaching full time and I’m totally inspired every day as I watch my challengers have “a-ha” moments on their health journey and we see the results they are getting – both on and off the scale. I am not about helping people “diet.” My passion is to help others discover ways to become and continue to be healthy for a lifetime.

And the friend, Kendra Zierau, who asked me to join her on this adventure? We are now partners in crime on a daily basis. Together we have formed a business we call Team LT which stands for Lives Transformed. It is our collective desire to help give people the tools to be successful in health. And our greatest reward is seeing lives transformed, from the inside out.  To be completely whole we must be healthy in our mind, body and spirit. For me, being a Beachbody Coach gives me the greatest tools on the physical and emotional transformation. Partnering with a dear friend who is as passionate about helping others on their adventure to total wellness is a delight and a privilege.

I believe all of my life experiences have brought me to this point and have given me the discipline, skills and dedication that it takes to be successful on a path of physical health, for myself and for my challengers. Beachbody gives us fantastic tools to help. I’m thrilled to be able to make a living using the gifts and talents God has given me, all rolled up with my passion for fitness and for helping others.