Dear Reebok and Les Mills, thank you!

Dear Reebok and Les Mills,

In December of 2020, I ordered some new Les Mills-branded workout clothes from Reebok.com. With my purchase, I was entered into your contest to win a SmartBar weight set, SmartStep, and a year of streaming workouts from Les Mills +. In early January 2021, I found out that I was a winner! I received an email message from one of your staff members, with instructions on how to claim my prizes. I danced and shouted with delight. Within a short time, big Les Mills cardboard boxes arrived at my house, and I immediately put the equipment into persistent use.

So that you know that your prizes were put into heavy, heart-felt, and daily use, I wanted to show you how I have put your investment to work in 2021.

I kept a paper record of my workouts in 2021, using colors: green for BodyCombat, red for BodyPump, purple for BodyBalance/Flow, blue for rest days, and pink for walking/running workouts. Polar Flow kept track of every, single workout in their app, too. I use their Polar Ignite wearable.

Six days a week, I get up and put on my Reebok Les Mills workout clothes for Pump or Combat, and spend "happy hour at my favorite bar." That hour of peace, exertion, and even some fun prepares me for all the challenges that my career will bring that day.

When my contest subscription expires to Les Mills+, I will be renewing! Again, and again, and again! Your streaming workouts are one of the things that makes my hectic life as mother, wife, and woman working in technology work.

My husband got me started with Les Mills in 2018. He showed me BodyCombat in your app on Apple TV, and I was terrified. I didn't think I was strong enough, or capable enough to do those kinds of workouts. I didn't think I had it in me. I began a long, slow, deliberate wellness journey. Over the course of three years, I started Body Pump, adding it in to BodyCombat. I moved from short workouts to 30-minute workouts, to 55-minute workouts. I gained more and more strength and capability. I worked off 65 pounds of stress, poor self-care, and imposter syndrome.

Then, in 2021, I won this contest, and had the best fitness year of my entire life:

December 2021 Summary (from Polar Flow)

10 days 4 hours?active time tracked

424102?steps counted

160.73?mi measured in steps

87643?kilocalories burned

In 2018, I had a goal of a certain weight, of a certain clothing size, of a certain way that I wanted to look. I never imagined that I would realize four years later that the journey is the reward. The daily showing up, the daily pushing of myself, the slow build of strength, was a reward in and of itself. I have not yet achieved those numeric goals I set out to get, but they are now less important to me than how I feel at the end of every workout. I feel well. I feel calm. I feel strong. I feel ready for whatever may fall my way that day. I can do this. I can conquer any challenge put before me mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually. My physical conditioning is one of the key tools that helps me be holistically well.

Thank you for these contest prizes. I can hardly wait to see what 2022 brings.

Carem