By Becca Habegger, full story and video
It already feels like summer, especially after this week’s weather, but is your body summer-ready?
I know mine wasn’t three months ago.
WBIR and Cityview Magazine are teaming up on a project called Transformation Knoxville.
I, WBIR reporter Becca Habegger, have been traveling this journey for three months now. Through this challenge, I’ve shed a total of 13 pounds, 23 inches and 7 percent body fat, all since Feb. 1.
The results are encouraging, I feel healthy and energized and the message of Transformation Knoxville is: You can do it, too!
It’s been a challenging three months but also some of the most transformative months of my life, thanks to personal trainer and nutritionist Michelle Williams, co-owner of Totality Living Well.
She’s been working with me while her husband and business partner, Scott Williams, has been working with Cityview Magazine publisher and owner Nathan Sparks. He came up with the idea for the Transformation Knoxville project when he decided he wanted to reclaim his health.
“You sit at a desk and it catches up to you! You don’t realize you don’t move around enough,” Sparks said. “Suddenly, you’re in that position where, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t do that anymore!’ And that really bothered me. I didn’t want to be that guy.”
After three months of the Transformation Knoxville project, Sparks has shed 15 pounds and 3 inches off his waist.
Whether man or woman, younger or older, fitness and wellness are attainable by all!
“It’s all about movement and quality of life,” Scott Williams said. “When you’re in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, don’t you still want to be able to do the wonderful things you wanted to do? You want to play with your kids, you want to play with your grandkids. You want to see that and have a quality of life, and you don’t want to just sit by and watch life go by.”
Sparks and I have a one-hour workout several days a week at Workout Anytime on Kingston Pike, near the West Knoxville-Farragut border. We do an hour of cardio on our own several times a week, and we eat healthy meals filled with protein.
“Instead of less, you get to eat way more! You get to eat five times a day on this program,” Sparks said. “You’re never hungry and the workouts are great, you know. About an hour a day. Some weight resistance and then some cardio.”
“I think a lot of people, too, think that they need to white-knuckle it and be perfect all the time,” Michelle Williams said. “Really, it’s about balance.”
Sparks and I are three months into what we hope will be a lifelong journey of wellness and health, and we encourage you to join us!
Sparks and I will be continuing our official Transformation Knoxville project through the summer, detailing our progress online and in the next two issues of Cityview Magazine.
In fact, the May-June issue is available online right now!
Hard copy issues will hit stores on Tuesday.
You can also follow our Transformation Knoxville blog online.