I’ve been going to Shred for a little over two years and the team at the St. Louis location has truly changed my life!
My fiancé proposed to me on December 27th, 2019. About an hour after he popped the question, he asked what the first thing I was going to do to start planning our wedding. My response was, “get a Shred415 unlimited membership.”
I did just that…until Covid hit.
At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, I moved into a different house and four days after that move, I started working from home for the first time in my career. Like many people, I was scared, nervous and alone all day. I couldn’t drive home to see or be around my family, I missed my friends and lost any sense of normalcy.
To compensate, I ate, a lot. Chips, cereal, pasta, pizza, ice cream, you name it. And I drank wine, oh, the wine! By the time I went back to work in person in June of 2020, I weighed the most I ever had in my life.
Around that same time, two significant things happened as well – Shred reopened and my fiancé and I decided to postpone our wedding.
Even though the decision to postpone our wedding was the right one, it was still very stressful and disappointing. I told myself I could deal with that stress and sadness in one of two ways – sit around, mope and eat (like I had throughout much of the spring) or literally run out the negative emotions.
I chose the latter and from July 2020 to Thanksgiving 2021, I lost 15 pounds. It was all done the old-fashioned way, diet and hard, hard work at Shred415.
Thanks to a combination of consistently working out and making better decisions in the kitchen, I have now lost 25 pounds. I did not cut corners and there were no shortcuts. I made healthy choices and I put in the work every single day.
I’m thrilled and proud of how I feel both physically and mentally, which is more important than how my clothes fit. I’m in my mid-30s and I have never been stronger or faster.
I needed my mental strength as this past year, I also lost my beloved grandma. She got sick in January and passed away in September – 100 days before my postponed wedding date.
I confided in a couple Shred415 instructors and shared with them how overwhelming it was to know you were losing one of your greatest role models and very best friends. Kate Payne and Allie Busse pushed me to do something positive for myself and let those emotions out on the treadmill or cry while lifting weights. And I did just that.
For the last year and a half, I have gone through a transformation physically and mentally and I am here to tell you that you can do the same if you put your mind to it. It is never too late to make a change or to focus on your health. Every day you can make a healthy decision, get out of your comfort zone and work toward a goal.
My life is better because of Shred415.
