Our Breakthrough Spotlight Member this month is Jenny! With her warm energy, and positive mindset, she has accomplished so much since joining us last January, and brought so much to our Breakthrough community. In her interview, Jenny talks about recently competing in the Tactical Strength Challenge, and the power of prioritizing your own self care.
BREAKTHROUGH: Thank you, Jenny, for being our next Spotlight member.
JENNY: Thank you! I am so honored!
BREAKTHROUGH: I am excited to chat with you. So, you started in January of 2025.
JENNY: Yes. I can’t believe it. 2025…
BREAKTHROUGH: And what a year so far…
JENNY: Yes!
BREAKTHROUGH: But before we get into all of that, I want to know how were you feeling before you started? What was going on?
JENNY: Oh my Gosh! I came to you at this sort of critical point in time where I was not feeling healthy. I had started on a health journey, but that was all focused on nutrition. It wasn’t really focused on moving my body in any way. And my norm – I have a pretty serious anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder – so my norm is sort of to hyper focus and worry and have these repetitive anxious thoughts. And that doesn’t allow for a lot of time to move and exercise and focus in any other way. So, between working, taking care of kids, and then worrying about everything, I put no time and attention into physical health. When I came to you in January, I had gotten nutrition under way, and I had really focused on trying to eat better. But I knew that in order to bring things full circle I had to start moving and being intentional about how I took care of my body. So, I wanted strength training, I wanted to move, I wanted to lift heavy, I wanted to do all of these things that, really, before January seemed so unrealistic for me!
BREAKTHROUGH: Well, I saw immediately how you took to this. You learned so quickly. There were so many things that you just immediately said, “Oh, I am good at that… I can add more weight over here.” I mean, it just happened. Like it was meant to be. It was so natural for you.
JENNY: I feel like it was divine intervention that I found Breakthrough. Because it was literally like a google AI search. I needed a small gym that does strength training, but I wanted a community. I didn’t want to go into a big place. I needed that support because I didn’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t want to get hurt. And I came in with significant knee issues. It just so happened that you were so responsive right off the bat. Then coming for our initial meeting, it felt like a very positive, uplifting, supportive space. And so that just let me lean in, which I rarely do. I rarely lean into things. I am constantly pushing up against; I am questioning, wondering, and worrying. Yeah, so I did. I just leaned in!
BREAKTHROUGH: You leaned in big time! So, tell me how you are feeling now, after the last 10 months or so?
JENNY: I will tell you that I just talked to my brother yesterday because I sent him pictures of the TSC challenge and a video that my husband took. And he was like, who are you? We have discovered this entirely different person that no one knew existed before January. Ha, ha! I feel so much better physically. My office is on the fifth floor, and I now take the stairs every day. I would never have been able to do that – something so simple – before this. I feel strong. And I haven’t been wearing my braces for months.
BREAKTHROUGH: I know! I was going to say, you were wearing knee braces when you first joined.
JENNY: Yep! I was!
BREAKTHROUGH: I haven’t seen those in quite some time.
JENNY: In months! And I have no knee pain.
BREAKTHROUGH: That’s great!
JENNY: And more than anything, my mental health is in such a better space. I always sort of scoffed when anybody said you have to exercise because that helps your mental health. Yeah, right! But it has such a significant impact in how I am feeling.
BREAKTHROUGH: It’s huge! That was one of the reasons I wanted to become a fitness coach, and open a gym. As I started to work with a few people, I saw that they were not just making physical changes. Their whole outlook on life was changing.
JENNY: So true.
BREAKTHROUGH: You challenge yourself in the gym. You recognize that you can do hard things. That builds this confidence. Oh, if I can handle this, maybe I can handle other things. And I know that there is more to it than that. But just that simple element of building that confidence. For example, doing a Tactical Strength Challenge! Now, after doing something like that, I always feel like, I can conquer the world! I can do anything!
JENNY: Exactly! That’s what I feel like! I feel like I can focus on something and actually commit to something. And then accomplish something that I never thought I could accomplish. Everything from the endurance part of it with the snatches, to the lifting over 200 pounds – those were all things that if you had told me a year ago that this is what you’ll be doing, I would have laughed and said, “that is so nice of you to think so, but no!”
BOTH: Ha, ha!
JENNY: It is just incredible that I could do that. And it does make you feel like if you can do these things, then there is no limit to what you can actually accomplish.
BREAKTHROUGH: Exactly. So then, finally, we always like to know what is your why. What is the thing that has motivated you to “lean in?” What’s kept you going?
JENNY: This is getting so emotional. Because when I started with you, my why was to get healthy for my kids. I am always so anxious about something happening, so why would I not focus on my health for them. Now it’s for me.
BREAKTHROUGH: That’s so great!
JENNY: I get so emotional because I feel like I have found such support and a whole different community that lifts me, where I am just a tiny part of something that is unique to me. I don’t have to think about all of the other things that are going on in my life. So, my why is ME! Which is pretty cool, right?
BREAKTHROUGH: I absolutely love that. Of course, most of us want to be able to help the people we love. But our worth doesn’t exist only in what we do for others. We are worth taking care of for our own sake. It can be hard to feel that sometimes, but if you can’t give yourself that gift…
JENNY: Right? But it always felt so selfish, though. I don’t know what it is in my mind. You have to be selfless to everything and everybody all the time. And now I am realizing what this does, coming here just the three days a week. It puts me in such a better head space, it makes me better physically, and so that then allows me to do all other things I have to do for everybody else.
BREAKTHROUGH: Exactly!
JENNY: And to be really in my full form, which I was not for a very long time.
BREAKTHROUGH: Well, that is amazingly powerful!
JENNY: That’s because of all of you! It’s really special here. I don’t know if enough people tell you that…
BREAKTHROUGH: Aw, you’re going to make me cry now.
JENNY: It’s pretty remarkable. It is more than ‘just open a gym and let people come.’ It is the amount of support, and encouragement, and just positivity is like – it is a whole different level of a gym. So, thank you.
BREAKTHROUGH: That means so much, really. I think of it like I said to you guys at the TSC, it’s not just you showing up and getting energy from the group; you also bring yours. And that makes all of us better.
JENNY: Absolutely! And you really feel it!
BREAKTHROUGH: So, it’s an exchange that we all benefit from.
JENNY: Yeah! It’s really beautiful.
BREAKTHROUGH: Thank you for sharing all of this and, thank you for being part of Breakthrough!
JENNY: Thank you for having me! Really, thank you so much!
BREAKTHROUGH: Of course! Oh my gosh! It’s a win-win!