2 Takeaways: 1. Consistency is the real challenge for me I’ve done the yo-yo thing with my weight for years.. decades. I’ll get disciplined for a few months, track food, work out, feel like I’m getting back on track… and then busy season hits, or travel, or weekends, and I slowly drop it. Then by the end of the year I’m 15-20 lbs heavier than I was in the spring. I’ve already been tracking calories/macros for a while, but not consistently enough. This challenge will be a good push to stop treating busy days, travel days, and weekends like exceptions or off days. 2. I need to see health as part of leadership, not separate from work. What stood out to me is that time in the gym now buys time and health in the future. I want to be 80+ and still feel good. I’ve also realized starting my day at the gym might be what actually works for me. I’ve had some guilt around moving from field worker / in-field leader into more of an office/CEO type role. I’m used to leading by being out there and visible, so sometimes I feel like I should always be visibly working. I’m starting to realize this is part of the work now too. I’m committing to the 30 Day MacroFactor Challenge: tracking my food/macros and workouts daily, with no sedentary days.

I have been blessed with having a workout program and tracking my nutrients engrained as a habit from an early age. I have been working out and tracking since I was 15. These habits have served me well and lifting is what first gave me confidence as a teenager. I can definitely tell the difference in my ability to handle stress if I have been inconsistent with my workouts. What did I learn from the video: 1.) there are 24” from my mouth to the table. 2.) I have been on “maintenance” level activity for about 3 years and only weight training 3 days a week. Listening to the video reminded me that just because I do not care to gain any more muscle, the hard activity is still important and will most definitely have a positive impact on my week. I am excited to be challenged to add daily hard workouts and see the difference.

In my 20s, I was highly active—running marathons and playing sports. However, when I turned 30, I got married & my focus shifted toward being a provider; I was balancing a full-time job while launching my business. Over the last 5+ years, the business has required less physical labor from me, and I’ve watched my weight creep up. In December 2025, having never lifted weights before, I decided to start training to get stronger and feel better. Since then, I’ve been pushing toward benching 300 lbs on my 45th birthday (in 8 days), and I’m hopeful I’ll hit it. Once that's locked in, my next phase is dropping 30 pounds of fat while maintaining muscle. I’ve had a solid 3-day workout routine since December, but I'm bumping up the frequency for this month (and possibly longer term). The course was a great reminder of just how much nutrition affects how we feel. I’m also looking forward to using the app—travel usually throws me off my workout game and leaves me guessing what to do, so this will eliminate any excuses. I am committing to the MacroFactor challenge, though for personal reasons, I will be skipping my Sunday workouts.

I've been in and out of fitness most of my adult life, I enjoy setting goals and working towards them with relentless effort but lack consistency when my energy is focused on other challenges. In my intro I shared that I was a semester away from a degree in construction management, I never finished that because I allowed all the negative things Mike talked about in the video occur after I moved out of the field and into the office full time. After a year and half of neglect I was in the worst mental and Physical condition of my adult life and I quit. I blamed the position not being a good fit for me, but lated realized it was me lacking the knowledge and discipline to control myself in that new environment. 10 years later and I feel pumped to have the opportunity to try this again, with more knowledge, the support of this community, and the structure and encouragement of this program. Things I found informative with the course were tracking macros, I always assumed that was for fitness obsessed people. I know tracking workouts helps you stay consistent but never thought to also use that for nutritional awareness. The video also made me consider my role in the business this year, and how the majority of my day is filled leading people. I remembered all the days I didn't sleep great or eat well and how i avoided hard things and generally did a poor job as a leader. It made me reflect on how important it is to bring your best if you expect the best.