The 2025 SS8 Challenge female grand-prize winner shares how smart training, eating, and supplementation helped her drop weight, build strength, and inspire others.
Written by Janet Sanchez
My fitness journey has been ongoing throughout my life and filled with ups and downs. I’ve had periods of focus and consistency, and then periods of basically falling off the fitness wagon. I have a history of gaining and losing weight over and over again. At one point, I reached 300 pounds.
I tend to give in to stress and give up on the consistency of exercise and the focus on good diet and nutrition. The most recent hurdles, so to speak, have been my two pregnancies.
I ended up letting myself go and basically gained lots of weight and stopped being active. Once my husband and I knew we were done having children, I knew I had no more excuses. It was time to focus on me and on my health.
So, a year and a half ago, I was looking into losing the pregnancy weight and came across the keto diet, which did prove successful in terms of weight loss.
Around the same time, I became interested in lifting and came across StrongLifts 5x5 strength-training program. It was my introduction to lifting — it was my first time ever bench-pressing, deadlifting, etc. And I fell in love with it.
I moved on to more involved lifting programs. It was in July 2018 that I was introduced to the world of Jim Stoppani and the JYM Army by a lady named Debbie Stevens .
I was still doing the keto diet at that time. I started with the 4-Week Full-Body Burn on JimStoppani.com, then I moved on to the Super-Man Remastered Challenge , then part of the Super Shredded 8 , as I had to cut it short to start the 2019 New Year's Challenge .
I am now on week 4 of Undulating Mass . I have since started adding cardioacceleration during my lifting, which has been a game changer for me; it was something I never knew I could do.
I also started using more JYM supplements — first Pre JYM , then Pro JYM . Now I’m using Pre JYM, Pro JYM, and Post JYM around my workouts.
What I have seen since July 2018, and after starting the Train With Jim programs, is that my body is changing in form and shape.
And this is exciting to see for someone like me, at the age of 44, who only focused on endless hours a week of cardio most of my life with boring results.
Fast forward to today, and that hard work and consistency paid off in a big way—I was crowned the female grand-prize winner of the 2025 JimStoppani.com SS8 (Summer Shred) Challenge. Winning SS8 was surreal. For me, it wasn’t just about the trophy. It was proof that years of showing up, learning, and leaning on the JYM Army had all been worth it.
I am no longer a slave to the scale. While I know I still need to weigh myself to track, I'm also giving attention to progress pictures and how I look and feel in my clothes. I LOVE the results I’m seeing in shape and body composition.
I'm still a fan of the low-carb/keto diet. It helped me rebuild my relationship with food and helped me realize how I was misusing it with stress. This was the toughest obstacle I’ve had to overcome in this journey. And I believe it will be something I will always need to be mindful of.
At the same time, I'm experimenting with Jim's carb cycling diet to see further benefits of this style of nutrition.
My plans at this time include to continue to train smart, eat smart, and supplement smart. This will include Train With Jim programs and, of course, JYM supplements .
Every week I get excited to see my results. And I'm so excited to see what programs and challenges Jim launches next!
Thank you Jim Stoppani and the JYM Army for embracing me. You have been nothing but inclusive and supportive.
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