Trusted Saskatoon owner and founder Sara Wheelwright recently accepted a fitness challenge from the excellent team at Trusted Saskatoon gym Fitness Focus. Over the next few months, you can follow along on her fitness journey as she blogs and video journals her motivations, successes, failures, frustration and her pain as she struggles to get fit and fabulous in her forties!

Sara's Fitness Focus Motivations.

The first warm day of Spring in Saskatoon brings out hordes of people. They swarm the sidewalks, parks and river trails on bikes, roller blades, or just on foot. It is the Saskatoon way of saying good riddance to a long cold winter. We all celebrate the arrival of warm weather and look forward to a glorious Saskatchewan summer of decks, lakes, fireside sing songs and other outside activities. We live in a weird place, this April I saw people sunbathing on the downtown beaches as chunks of ice floated by on the Saskatchewan River. When the warm weather arrives, Saskachewanians dust off Summer wardrobe and pack away our big bulky coats and winter boots. In fact, we try to completely forget that Winter and the minus 40's are inevitably coming back again in 7 months or so. The shorts, summer dresses and bikinis are pulled out, and the weight we put on over winter starts dropping off as we move around more. Although for me, I've been gradually losing Summer clothing options, the stuff I have that I like got tighter each year and then most just didn't fit, so for the last two years or so I have been resigned to buying larger roomier items that feel comfortable in public.

I was always pretty trim, and before I started Trusted in 2011 I was at the gym three times a week and felt great( the pic below is - just over seven years ago... I had abs!). If I put on 5lb or so on in the Winter, I lost it pretty quickly, and I was never concerned about my weight or my health. So what changed??

In April 2011 I left my fulltime job and took the risk of following my dream to start Trustedsaskatoon.com. Not long after this, I cancelled my gym membership.

I did this for two reasons:

1. To save money. My income was much lower as a new business owner, my life savings and every spare $ went back into the company.

2. I couldn't justify the time. As a single Mom with three young children and new business to grow I felt I had to put 100% focus on those 2 areas- so my needs came last.

Now I realize that was a huge mistake. My sedentary entrepreneurial lifestyle combined with getting older ( I turned 40 in 2014) and my love of wine and good food has caught up with me. I have put on 30lb, have aches I never had, sleep is more fitful, and my ability to handle stress has most definitely been affected. In 2015 I had an attack of shingles, and it has happened a few times since (that's a huge indicator that my body's immune system is weak). On top of that, I feel I have aged in the last six months, and this is not what I want for myself or my future, so I have decided to take on the challenge and make the change.

There is nothing more motivational than making a goal public, it doesn't get more accountable than that! The team at Fitness Focus had brought up the idea of a fitness journal blog last year, I wasn't ready then, but I am now.

I met with the fantastic Denise Kominetsky from Team Warwyk- who are the personal trainers based out of Fitness Focus, she asked me to fill out a questionnaire and send pictures, and today ( May 6th, 2018 ) I had my first personal training session. I know this is NOT going to be easy, so we have several goals for the next 12 months. I am going on vacation to the UK to visit family at the end of July, so my first goal is to fit in the clothes I want to take with me!

Check out my first video below and follow my journey as I pursue a new lifestyle of health and fitness. Thanks must go to Fitness Focus and their dedicated team of personal trainers!