Bradshaw family turns corporate fitness into family affair

For the last two years I have had the privilege of training a group of employees from Sposato Landscape and putting them through my corporate transformation. The program is designed to teach participants how to get in the best shape possible by combining a healthy diet, weight training and proper cardiovascular training. This year, we have an awesome group, but in addition to training company members, we have extended the program to their families, and the Bradshaw’s have taken full advantage and turned fitness into a team effort.

“I have participated in this program three times since 2007 and have had great results, but I wanted to bring this opportunity to my family to get healthy, so I asked my husband Dale and my daughter Madeline to join me,” said Denise Bradshaw, an employee of Sposato.

The beauty of doing the program in a family setting is that it becomes a lifestyle instead of a short-term solution, and the support and camaraderie usually gives the participants a 65 percent better chance of achieving their goals because they help each other even when they don’t feel like eating healthy or working out.

“I just wanted to get in better shape and have someone guide me through the process,” said Madeline Bradshaw, a 19-year-old 2015 graduate of Cape Henlopen High School. “So when my mom asked me if I wanted to do this program with her, I said, ‘let’s do it.’”

Madeline did a lot more than just join the program. Instead, she took on the role of family organizer.

“I created a chart that we have in the kitchen, and it has listed the amount of weight and body fat each family member loses, and on Thursday mornings we record our progress. Each family member records their own information and when I check it, I can see how everyone is doing.”

In addition, Madeline also goes to the gym with her dad two to three times a week and helps keep him stay on track by monitoring his proper form and making sure he does everything on his workout. He travels a lot for work, so it helps keep him focused.

The Bradshaws not only workout and go to the gym together, but they also help each other with the nutrition. 

“The first thing we did was to get everything bad out of the house, and we constantly help each other with the diet. We go shopping together and mom cooks at night and on weekends dad cooks on the grill.”

There is no doubt that all the effort, hard work and attention to detail is paying off. At their Week 6 Bod Pod test, Denise lost a significant amount of body fat. She is lighter than she has ever been when finishing the program, and they are only at the halfway point. Madeline has last almost 17 pounds in six weeks and is wearing pants she hasn’t been able to fit in since middle school. They have plenty of time left to make more progress. The program ends right before the holidays, so it will be interesting to see what they can accomplish by the time they do their final test. 

There is no doubt that eating healthy and working out is hard enough for most people, but if you can make it a family project like the Bradshaws, chances of success are much greater and you can have a little family fun in the process.