Couch potato to an athlete (52 year old mother of 2’s journey)

This Transformation Tuesday blog is written by Susan Dovydaitis, a client since November 2013.

Susan has been a stand out client since the beginning.

This is her first Transformation Tuesday, not because she has not been worthy of the recognition previously, but because I knew there would be bigger and better things in her future…. Well, I was right! 🙂

After finishing our last 5 week transformation challenge as our #1 bootcamper, she proved it!

We call her our “Silent Ninja” because she does all the right things, all the time, and you never hear a thing. She works in silence and lets her results, her success and her effort do the talking.

Without further ado, here is Susan’s Transformation Tuesday success story, enjoy!

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I am an athlete. I don’t know where it came from. My mom and dad weren’t athletic or into sports at all. Even at 4 or 5 years old I was racing the boys.

In my pre-teen years I swam. In middle and high school I ran cross country and track. In college I took up tennis and volleyball.

Post college I met my husband while playing in a rec volleyball league. We would go on running dates. He taught me about weightlifting and we played beach volleyball tournaments up and down the Long Island and Jersey Shore for years.

I continued to play beach volleyball through my pregnancy with twins up to a month before I had them and was back in the gym a month later. I loved competing and how my body looked and felt in top condition.

But as time went on life finally caught up with me – work and kids and home – I started slacking; let the gym membership lapse; lost my enthusiasm; I was content watching the kids play soccer or whatever else they were into.

I’d re-up the gym membership go for a few weeks then not go …go…not go. Suddenly I was lost in gym.

I’d let myself go so far I had no idea how to start from scratch because I never had to before. I wasn’t bouncing back like I used to.

Holy crap I was getting old and I wasn’t even putting up a fight. I’d given up my athlete status.

I’d entered the couch potato zone.

So that’s where bootcamp came in….

Jen (Klo-J) and I have known each other since our boys started playing soccer together ten years ago. She’d started doing some “bootcamp”.

She’d be like “Yea Sue, you gotta try it”.

It took me a while but the big 5 – Oh was fast approaching and that was the kick in the pants I needed to get my butt there.

The first few weeks were not pretty. I fell a bunch of times. I felt like the Tinman who’d rusted up.

But something was happening to me.

It was crazy – my knees started feeling OK during the workouts – though they felt like hell after – but eventually even that stopped.

My competitive juices started flowing again. I loved the positive atmosphere. Inspiration was all around me from Mama Jean and Ben and Tisa to Jen and Lynn and others and I finally started to believe I could get there.

Then I was ADDICTED.

I’ve had some struggles along the way with some injuries – people it sucks getting old – but with Derek’s guidance and modifications I’ve been able to work through them and improve in spite of them.

I can say I’ve left the couch potato zone far behind.

I plan on fighting against this age thing and happily have picked back up my athlete status.

With that I’m thinking it’s time to look for a new challenge.

Something to push me past my comfort zone.

Something my family and friends outside of bootcamp would never imagine but that with the support and encouragement and knowledge of Derek and the rest of my Bootcamp family I know I can do.

Guess I’ll be buying some stripper shoes (OK my husband’s going to love that) and a bathing suit I’ll never go swimming in.

(I think she means that she’ll be competing in a bikini/fitness contest in the near future!!!)