By Schae Coakley
After I returned home from college, I had lost my motivation to improve my health and wellness. Mainly because I began living in a new household that was completely different from when I lived at home with my mom. Also, I was starting my independent living journey and hadn’t quite figured out the basics of adulthood. When I lived at home with my mom throughout high school and college, she was always my health and wellness coach. She made cleaner eating decisions and exercised, which in turn made me do the same thing. I took that with me to college and followed in her foot steps. But when I graduated, my world was completely different. I was living in a world where some form of rice was always eaten for dinner, or every meal option was fast food. After having conversations with my mom and looking in the mirror and realizing how eating rice and/or fast food every night was adversely affecting my body, I knew it was time for a change. I talked with my mom about starting the Body Transformation Challenge with Walter back in January. Once I started the program, the huge motivating factor for me was, being around like minded people. Listening to everyone’s struggles and successes, and being on the calls made me aware that I too was facing some of those same things. I knew that starting the challenge was going to be my biggest opportunity to really change my body and my eating regimen, and realized that starting now could place me in a better position to commit and stick to it in the future. I knew I had to buckle down and focus because nothing great comes from mediocrity. Once I set my personal fitness goals with Walter, I made sure I did everything in my power to achieve them. It also helped that I joined the challenge with my mom, because she’s my rock, and we also like to get a little competitive. It drives us. What also helped me get through was setting little personal goals for myself each week. Maybe one week I ran at 5 mph speed. Next week, I needed to make sure I ran at 6mph. I was putting the pieces together to the puzzle. 
Through the program, I received a tremendous amount of support from Walter and my mom. My mom was like my cheerleader and she pushed me through. I’m so glad I went through two cycles of the program, because I’ve learned things that I can take with me throughout my continued fitness journey.