As I think back on how this whole crazy journey began for me and when I really started to focus on my health, it all comes down to my twin boys. Carrying twins is hard. Life after they are delivered is hard and crazy, and I just didn’t have time or the desire to focus on myself. Then, one morning I woke up, and they were 2 years old. I was exhausted and unable to keep up!

I started walking and jogging and even did several 5Ks with my work, but I plateaued. That winter, I completely back slid because I couldn’t exactly take twin 2 year-old boys out in the stroller for a 3-mile run when it’s 10 degrees out. I got completely frustrated. By that point, my kids were in daycare with a family member 3 days a week, and she was having some of her own health issues. Together, we started working to motivate each other. We would meet up to walk, and she introduced me to THM. I started losing weight again slowly.

During one of our meet ups, we were talking about different workout/nutrition plans. While there were a ton of great plans on the market, most were ridiculously priced or took a ton of time. As a society, why do we constantly price people out of things? We price kids out of sports and activities. We price most people out of getting/staying healthy in a lot of ways. In my experience, I always have had much better success with a strong support system. Most of the weight-loss programs out there require that you spend a ton of money monthly in order to to get any sort of real support.

I went home with that conversation rattling around in my brain. With all the technology available and social media making connecting to others so easy, why did it have to cost anything at all to support one another?

I use Facebook for everything, so it wasn’t really that big of leap to propose creating a group that we could invite our friends to so we could support each other as we worked to get healthier. I think we started out with about 20 ladies just talking about what was and wasn’t working for each of us and encouraging each other.

That was in 2016. Now in 2020, we have 200+ members, about 100 of which are active at some point during the month. We run daily challenges and steps challenges all completely free to our members and weight-loss challenges that are just $5 to participate in with a chance to win the pot!

I’ll leave you with some things to think about….

• Never be afraid to challenge the norm. You might just come up with something great!
• What do you want out of a healthy living community?
• How can you help ladies in the community?