Prefect timing for a little motivation as we come into a New Year for New Beginnings!
Lisa has come SO far in her journey with Get a Grip. As you will read, she started with the thought of getting a 3-week jumpstart at Get a Grip only to be with us just under 1 year and do something totally out of her comfort zone to setting even BIGGER goals in 2014. Lisa and her husband, Matt, came to Get a Grip and I honestly thought they are driving kind of far they probably won’t stay. I loved them from day one, but I understand that not everyone will stay, but I get 3-weeks to help them jumpstart their health and fitness and create better lifestyle habits. Better than nothing in my book.
They surprised me the last week, with asking what were their options as they were staying! Music to my ears. The rest is history. Lisa made huge improvements in her strength (great arm guns), and then other challenges she faced as you will read below. She excels at everything she does and I am so proud of her and what she has accomplished. I am looking forward to her new goals and the other things she’ll add to her list. It wouldn’t be the same without her and her hubby!
Here is her personal story…
Growing up in small town Iowa, fitness and healthy eating habits were not always on my families mind, thus not leaving me with any idea how important diet and exercise could impact my life. Even though I ran track and cross country in high school I still ate pizza, Doritos and drank mountain dew every day. This habit continued into college (even though I was a nursing and psychology major) it never dawned on me the damage I was doing to my body every day. After getting married and moving to Florida, my husband and I decided to take control of our fitness by purchasing a three week Groupon to Get a Grip Total Fitness, with the intention to join another gym after, well thankfully we didn’t need to join another gym. We fell in love with Get a Grip and their team, after three weeks of exercising and paying attention to our diet, we felt amazing! Cutting McDonalds completely out of our diet and not eating fast food in general as much anymore was a huge change that I never thought we could do without Carrie’s help and encouragement.
After a few months at Get a Grip Matt & I decided that we should set some goals, one of our first goals was to run the 2013 Disney Marathon, with the help of run club, my husband and my workout buddy Tiff, we signed up and completed the 2012 Women’s Half Marathon leading us to our goal and after five “magical” hours we completed the Disney Marathon. It was something I could have never done without the help of Carrie and GAG.
My whole life I have always loved a challenge and love to prove people wrong (including myself), so when Carrie asked us to join the triathlon program, I thought she was crazy, I can’t swim, let alone bike and then run! After A LOT of encouragement, I signed up for my first triathlon. The training was hard, I couldn’t even swim ½ a lap in a pool, or bike at any pace other than really slow, but though the next three months, I grew stronger in all aspects, and with the amazing GAG tri team I completed my first triathlon, with the intention of NEVER doing one again…ever! Have I mentioned how much I hate biking??? Well, again after a lot of peer pressure, I signed up for another one, and then another one…5 sprint triathlons and 1 Olympic distance triathlon later I saw how far I had come and how I even became somewhat faster 😉 Even placing third in my age division at my first Olympic distance tri.
After all of these amazing accomplishments in 2013, I really have to step it up for 2014, so why not do Ragnar, St. Anthony’s Olympic distance tri and Ironman 70.3 Augusta, the last thing I want is a boring year, and with the help of Carrie, the tri team, my tri buddy Yip Yip, of course my equally crazy husband and GAG I am sure it will be anything but 🙂
Yes, that is her in on the cover they used for selling the pictures from the Tri Race we did! That was SO awesome!
So, proud of you Lisa!
