About Me (Cliffs Notes Version)
* Gymnast for 10 years - it was my LIFE!
* Swimmer in high school and in college at Penn State
* Elementary School Teacher in Northern VA after college where I was set up with my husband who taught down the hall from me
* Married in 2005, had 4 babies by 2012 - incurred lots of debt from staying home with the kids while living on my husband's teacher/tutor salary…wrote to Suze Orman and went on her show! - more on that in the unabridged version below. LOL!
* Gained a lot of weight with my pregnancies and after #4, joined a challenge group to lose the baby weight once and for ALL!
* Loved the support, motivation and accountability of the challenge group, lost all my baby weight and then some with Shakeology and different Beachbody programs, felt awesome and decided to become a coach so I could pay it forward and help others feel awesome too!!!
* I LOVE my Creator, faith, spirituality, alternative medicine/healing, dancing, yoga and helping others!
My Coaching Story - January 2014
Hi! I'm Sarah, a mom to 4 munchkins under 7 years old who keep me on my toes! This is my husband, Dave! After having my 4th child in December 2012, I was ready to lose the baby weight BADLY once and for all. I gained 70 lbs with my first and second son, 43 lbs with my third son, and 50 lbs with my daughter! All of this up and down, in only 6 years, needless to say it took a toll on my body. Good thing they are cute!
My cousin's wife, Crystal, emailed me and asked if I want to be a part of her next fitness challenge group. I joined her group in March of 2013 hoping to lose the weight with the support of a group that would also give me accountability and motivation to keep going with my program. I didn't join without hesitation though. I wasn't sure what this Shakeology stuff was all about and "didn't really have the money" to buy a program. We were living on one salary and I was home with the kids. So, my coach sent me the Slim in 6 DVDs. I lost 22 lbs and 24" after 2 rounds of Slim in 6. I loved the accountability of the online group and interacting with everyone daily too. The support of the group made all the difference in my success. I realized there's nothing more important to spend my money on than my health - and if you want something badly enough, you'll find a way to make it happen. And now I can't go a day with Shakeology!
.JPG)
Before Slim in 6 After Slim in 6 (-22 lbs.)
During the challenge group in March, Dave and I were sitting around talking about finances and wondering what to do about the debt from me staying home with the kids and getting ourselves moving forward financially instead of just getting by. Dave said "write to Suze (Orman)!!!" He was joking, but I grabbed my computer and found the contact button asap! I wrote this email to her producers…
"We just had our 4th child, our family is complete and we feel very blessed in every area, except our finances. We are ready to start digging out of the debt we have from Sarah staying at home to raise the kids and living on one teacher's salary. We'd also like to save a down payment for a house. We should have money left over each month, but it feels like we're stuck and not moving forward financially. How do we get out of debt while still making sure we have enough to cover 2 months of summer expenses (no teacher paycheck then) and save for a down payment on a house at the same time? Should the extra money go solely towards debt until it's gone? Do we put a percentage towards a down payment? Or will we not be able to make any progress until Sarah starts teaching again? Sarah is also working on graduate courses so she can teach PE."
What a hot mess of an email, huh?! Where would she even start with us?! I didn't think anything would come of it, but a few days later I got a CALL from one of Suze's producers wanting to chat about what I wrote! She explained that our questions weren't really quick call in to the show questions and that our situation would be better for an in person on camera shoot! OMG! Really?! Did we really have to put all our business out there if we wanted an action plan from Suze? Yes, yes we did. With the encouragement of Dave to put aside any ego, (In fact, I think he said, "You do yoga, isn't yoga about non-attachment and no ego and stuff?" Haha! Touché my dear. Yes, it is.) we decided to go for it with the hope of getting an action plan from Suze that would turn our financial situation around! We filled out several excel sheets with all our numbers and they decided to have us on the show! It aired at the end of March 2013 - as I was in the middle of my challenge group.
Suze gave us an action plan and part of it was that I had to go back to work/teaching ASAP - as in September 2013! My daughter would be 8 months old and she'd have to go to daycare. I was dreading going back to work because I had stayed home with the 3 boys and felt the baby should get that time at home with me too. But we already had so much debt from me staying home with them and it was time to dig ourselves out of the hole. I was taking grad courses to go back to teaching as a PE/Health teacher, but I wouldn't have my certification by September. I knew starting out in a new district in a regular classroom would mean LOADS of unpaid working time before and after school, time that would take away from my kids too. And that just wasn't ok! But I reluctantly started searching school districts for jobs to apply to...
After a second successful month, a coach basics internship, and being inspired by my upline coaches who had clearly done some major personal development and were rubbing off on me…I saw coaching as a possible way to earn an income equal to what my teaching salary would be. If my upline coach could make 6 figures in 2 years, then why couldn't I? WHY NOT ME?! I got out my little whiteboard and wrote down some big goals. I wanted to become a Diamond Coach by 8/31/13 and I wanted to make up my teaching salary (minus daycare costs) by September 2013. This wasn't just an attitude change on my part. Part of being a Beachbody Coach is doing personal development every single day. Making this a habit changed my LIFE. I finally believed that my goals were attainable AND that I deserved to reach them - and I wasn't going to let ME stand in my way any more.
And this is where the momentum just built up like crazy…I put my intention out there that I wanted this to work. I connected with my WHY - my family, the driving force behind why I wanted this to work so much and the reason that would keep me pushing through anything. I loved coaching SO much and loved helping people get healthy. Could I really do this for a living? I got to Diamond by September AND was making what I would have made had I gone back to teaching and paid for daycare!!! Holy moly - amazeballs (Shaun T-ism)! And, because I have an amazing team full of truly great people, I was ranked #500 in the whole company in September, out of over 140,000 coaches! Dave painted the boys and we celebrated a little milestone.
I wrote to Suze Orman's producer again and told her about the coaching and everything we were doing that Suze told us to do. She wanted to do a follow up show because we were doing so well and had put Suze's action plan into motion as Dave was driving home from the first show! We were ALL OVER that action plan and determined to make progress for our family. Dave went back on the show in September.
Just after that show, Dave got bacterial meningitis and was in the hospital for 5 days. It was SCAR-Y to say the least. I wrote to Suze again to let her know that had we not received her action plan, we would have been freaking out about the hospital bills, but because we were in a better position now, we were better able to handle it. She included us in her end of the year 1 on 1 follow up show: (Dave's clip is at 1:28)
Yes, that is SHAKEOLOGY in Dave's hand at the hospital!
I blended up his shake every morning and brought it to him and he mixed up a 2nd shake in his Shakeology shaker cup every evening. Gotta have the right nutrition to heal! (And have you SEEN the "food" they serve patients in a hospital?! High fructose corn syrup laden juices and breads! UGH! Don't get me started!)
So, here we are, January 2014. I've been coaching for 8 months and I LOVE my job. I LOVE that coaching keeps me accountable to my own health and fitness. I LOVE that my paycheck is a direct reflection of the lives I'm changing. I LOVE watching others succeed and BELIEVE in themselves again. Watching their confidence grow over the 30-60 day challenge is just so special and something I am honored to be able to witness. My absolute ultimate goal in coaching is to pay it forward…to show others, the way my coaches showed me, that they can design their lives, that they are stronger than they think, that their minds are so powerful, and that they can do anything they want to if they just believe in themselves and their WHY.
I feel TRULY blessed to have found coaching and to wake up every morning excited to go to work (down the hall, in my workout clothes!). And I know this is just the beginning!
More to come… Much BIGGER goals on the whiteboard for 2014!
