When I first started at Project MOVE, I was the heaviest I'd ever been. Lots of travel, stress, and…read morecompeting demands over many years had resulted in my weight slowly creeping up and my health gradually sinking down. I wasn't managing my responsibilities or priorities well. Then I responded to an ad promoting the 6-week challenge, and I forced myself to turn my life upside down.
I believe that our health and bodies require stewardship, just like any other aspect of our lives. If you believe in God like I do, then maybe you can agree with me that he didn't give us bodies so that we could trash them. His plan for our best life doesn't include poor health, aching muscles, misaligned joints, and everyday pain. I think that instead he wants us to live in the fullness of health. Our bodies are supposed to be strong and reliable, so they can support us in living.
That might have been what I believe, but I wasn't living it. I had let my health fall lower and lower in my list of priorities, and it was starting to show. So when I started my 6-week challenge, I really had to realign my priorities. I had to adjust my bedtime and alarm clock to make time to hit the gym before work; I had to start saying "no" to friends when they wanted to do things like drink beer and hang out at bars; I had to stop making indulgent decisions in the grocery store; I had to make time every week for meal prep so I wouldn't be forced to order takeout due to laziness and lack of planning.
All those changes made a big difference, and the challenge forced me to implement them all at once. I lost 14 pounds and 4.5% body fat in 7 weeks. When you consider that I only had about 25 pounds to lose to begin with, you can understand that this was a huge accomplishment.
I haven't fully arrived at my fitness goals yet, but I know that Project MOVE will get me there.
What makes this gym different from all the other places I've tried is the personalized connection that you have with your coaches. I'm not an extroverted person, but I felt immediately connected as soon as I started attending classes. The staff cares a great deal and they are invested in your success. They even text you to check on how you're doing and will answer occasional questions via text, even if they're outside normal work hours.
If the gym has one area that could use some improvement, it's the accessibility of the coaches. Coaches here are way more involved than other gyms I've been to, but it's still really hard to schedule a meeting with certain individuals because they are stretched so thin.
That said, they are doing a great job when they *are* available. When they're there and working, they're giving it 100%. The quality of programming in the group classes is SUPER high. There's a great variety of programs to choose from, including yoga, weight lifting, cross-fit, endurance training, etc. I've been limited by my availability (I mostly pick my classes based on what fits into my schedule, not which programs interest me), but there's enough variety of classes at different times that I've been able to sample about 5 different programs so far, and that's less than half of the options.
What really made the difference for me was the nutrition coaching. After years of listening to the current food "science" and nutrition recommendations that float around in the news and social media, I really didn't have any idea what I was supposed to be eating. My first 6 weeks at Project MOVE came with a personalized meal plan, complete with specific foods to eat and proper portion sizes. I started shedding weight immediately from the change in diet alone! There's only about 10 different foods to eat in each macronutrient category (protein, fat, carbs, and vegetables), which some people find limiting. I really loved it, however, because having fewer options facilitates easier decision-making.
Even though the 6-week challenge is over, I plan to continue going to Project MOVE. It's not convenient and it didn't fit neatly into my lifestyle. But now that I've turned my life upside down to make room for it, I don't want to go back to what I was doing before.
