Sara Ryan. Sara Ryan faced our 8 week Summer Shape Up challenge head on.

Using the LSF App, meal plans, intermittent fasting, and support from our girls doing the challenge right alongside her, Sara kicked her unhealthy habit to the curb, and came out looking even more amazing than before.

From tracking water consumption to showing just the posture you should be using while doing your moves, it was the little things that all added up to create a huge victory. We loved hearing all about Sara's journey during Summer Shape Up! Follow Sara on Instagram @_saragetsfit_lsf!

Sara's 8 week Progress

What motivated you to join us for #LSFSummerShapeUp? Have you done any LSF challenges in the past?

I needed to make a huge change in my life. I came across Katie's YouTubevideos last year and thought she looked really happy and friendly. At first, I watched her transformation video and was blown away but how much we had in common! She also has hypothyroidism, which to me, meant that this was too good to be true! I felt a connection to her. I therefore, continued to watch other videos of hers and checked out her website. It honestly felt like this was the place that I needed to be in order to make an actual change in my life. Katie seemed so relatable and her workouts looked fun! That is what motivated me to join LSF and this amazing community!

What were your goals going into the challenge? Share where you're currently at with them and if there's anything WE can do to help get you there.

The ultimate goal for this challenge was to increase my overall self esteem. It seemed to really have suffered over the past several months and I was always putting myself, and my health, last. I wasn't working out because I felt miserable about my looks and how I fit into clothes…it was quite bad. Another goal that I set for myself was to drink a full glass of water each and every morning when I work up. Lastly, I wanted to try and stick to the Hot Body Meal Planas closely as as possible. Being dairy free and sugar free, I had to make some adjustments every once and a while but I stuck to it quite well! I love to bake and cook so at times I got a little experimental which was fun!

Currently, I have stuck to my rhythm of drinking a glass of water as soon as I get up. My body actually craves it if I don't have it now. If you take a look at my final body photos, you can see the self confidence radiating out of me! Being active, losing weight, gaining muscle mass and eating what is good for my body has helped me tremendously! Thank God for the Hot Body Meal Plan, the Guiltless Nutrition Guideand the Hot Body Sweat Guide! You can't go wrong if you follow these plans! Half way through my challenge, I really wanted to push myself even more so I vowed to increase my cardio and starting running after every workout. This increased my self confidence even more! I started slow and increase my distance each time!

The support that I received from my #lsfteam, my family, my friends, my hubby and LSF community helped so much! What awesome people I have in my life!!! I'm not sure I could have done this without them!!! Can't wait to set some new goals for myself! One of them is to run in an upcoming race! (I was never a runner…like ever…so this is HUGE news for me!) Bring it on!!

Share some of the healthy habits you have formed during SSU.

Some healthy habits that I have formed during the #lsfummershapeup program are: learning to eat what is right for my body (dairy free, sugar free) and when to eat these meals. I was eating way too much garbage and at the most horrible times of the day not even realizing it. Intermittent fasting has changed my way of eating forever! Working out properly – learning not to push myself and to do what is right for me, starting off slow with the light booty bands and as I progressed not being scared to increase the weights, to really challenge myself! Running – this is so huge for me as cardio was my nemesis. I have always been terrible at it and because I was terrible at it, it made everything else so difficult. Learning to listen to my body but also push myself was a huge achievement!

My LSF girlswere a huge part of this as well. Being mindful – taking the time for me, using those Sundays to really de-stress, do some yoga and take a nice nature walk outside to pause and reflect. Lastly, one of the healthy habits that I formed was really being there for my LSF girls. Some girls were going through some pretty rough patches and I am really proud of them for sticking through their challenges. I am also really proud of myself to doing my best to help in anyway that I can along their journey. I loved that they were comfortable enough to chat things out with me even though we have never met. Several healthy habits were formed during this challenge and I hope to continue with more in the future!!

Trying to motivate yourself to reach your goals is no small task. The only difference between you and someone who achieved so much progress is the motivation to do it. When you're surrounded by community, it's much easier to get that push you need. We love showing off the strides you gorgeous ladies are making, and couldn't be more excited to see such beautiful transformations taking place!