"Team TP" On Top! - Fitness Incentive

“We didn’t want just to cross the finish line, we wanted to simultaneously sprint across it, breaking the tape across our hips, then drop and do an extra ten burpees!”

Patty Snider

Dynamic Duo: Patty & Tom, First Place Spring 2021

Eat, Sleep, Breathe…

You know that feeling when you finish a television series that you were crazy invested in, and you just don’t know what to do with your life anymore? We’ve got it! But our “TV series” was this Dynamic Duo fitness competition. We ate, slept, and breathed it…literally! We didn’t want just to cross the finish line, we wanted to simultaneously sprint across it, breaking the tape across our hips, then drop and do an extra ten burpees!

We’re Doing It!

I’ve been a member at Fitness Incentive since 2018, when I moved home from Los Angeles. My mom, Sandy, had been a member for over a decade and swore she had the best gym, insisting that I tag along and try some of her classes. I was hooked from the start! The instructors, the classes, the daycare, the café, the spa & salon, and don’t even get me started on Cor’s muffins (let’s just say that I’m the reason there are never any left when you get there); this gym was firing on ALL cylinders! I had seen and heard about the Fantastic Four Challenge and was always intrigued. So when I was reading my latest Fit to Print in bed one evening and casually mentioned to my boyfriend Tom that it had been dropped down to a Dynamic Duo, without hesitation, he said, “We’re doing it!” It was the ultimate gift and one that I would have never given myself. Thank you, sweetheart!

All In!

I’ve never really met a challenge that I shied away from. If someone else can do it, then I can do it too. This has always been a mindset that pushes me. It’s one of the things that I love about taking classes with all the strong people at FI; I feel motivated by them. While I have never claimed to give 100% at anything in my life (because I always believe that I could have pulled from somewhere deep down and found that extra rep, found a way to give just a little more), what I can do is sit here and honestly tell you that I have never committed myself to anything more than I did this challenge. Tom and I put full faith in our trainer and followed her workouts and nutrition plan implicitly. I was a meal-prepping beast! And while we love our new, stronger, leaner bodies, for me personally, the non-scale victories were my biggest takeaway: my mental clarity from a cleaner diet; a more positive mental attitude and patience to take on my day; a recovery from a reoccurring back injury that only took me out for two days instead of the typical seven due to a stronger core, anti-inflammatory foods, and proper RICE therapy; the new workouts and circuits I can now go and execute myself; the deeper knowledge of a balanced nutrition plan that I will now apply to our everyday lifestyle; and the KNOWING that I AM that strong and I CAN do this!

Push on Through

We’ve all heard the quote, “There are no excuses.” In my opinion, I much prefer to call it like it is, that there are a million excuses, some very legit, but are you going to let them stop you? When your planner looks like this, on any given day, it’s easier to just look at the schedule that lies ahead of you and say that there is absolutely no room to fit in a workout. Of course, it’s easier to skimp out on meal prep and grab a quick, less-healthy alternative. During the competition, my partner Tom lost a very dear friend, and he could have chosen to take a few days to crumble. Nobody would have blamed him. But instead, he decided to push harder and dedicate his win to his late friend, who loved all things health and fitness. The point is, we’ve all got excuses, but just like anything that life hands to you, it is what you make it, or to quote one of the best movies I know…” It’s supposed to be hard. It’s the hard that makes it great. If it were easy, everyone would do it.”

– Patty & Tom, or Team TP (yes, that’s right, team toilet paper)