Reclaiming Energy and Stamina: Jen & Pat’s Vitality Story

Taking the First Step

A few months after his accident, Pat and his wife, Jen, 47, a project manager, started Elevé’s Vitality Program, which developed personalized wellness programs for the couple.

Jen and Pat both started with the cutting edge DEXA Scan tool, which Elevé uses to analyze body composition, including visceral fat, which can be a key health indicator. Elevé also measures VO2 max, which measures oxygen uptake capacity during exertion. 

“It’s a very data-driven program, so they also do a lot of bloodwork,” Pat says. One surprise for Pat, who is a healthy weight and very active, was that his metabolism was imbalanced, pushing him toward a diagnosis of prediabetes.

Jen had some concerns about developing osteoporosis and hoped the program could help her prevent bone loss. “My DEXA Scan did show that I had lower bone density than average for my age, so Elevé developed recommendations for me,” Jen says.

Building Strength and Endurance

Both Jen and Pat wanted to keep up with their active lifestyles—Jen with a competitive tennis league and Pat with downhill skiing, in addition to his busy construction job. They’re avid travelers as well, and “on vacation, we’re always trying new things—hiking, scuba diving, snorkeling—we like to try anything that’s active, really,” Jen says.
Both Pat and Jen had goals of significantly reducing visceral fat, reduce overall body fat, and improving their cardio capacity. 
Elevé had the couple make a combination of changes, including an improved diet, with Pat on a keto diet to eliminate carbs and improve his blood sugar. Jen was on a similar diet, but with healthy carbs to help keep up her energy.
Jen and Pat both added strength training, Zone 2 training (which slightly elevates heart rate, such as through walking), and high intensity interval training (or HIIT), which involves elevating heart rate in short bursts, such as through sprints or intense sessions on an exercise bike.
The couple worked with a trainer and also set up a gym in their basement to help maximize their strength training efforts. “The trainer would put together the program in the gym and create workouts for us to do at home, and we had access to those on an app,” Jen says.

Efforts Lead to Strong Results

While both Pat and Jen were at healthy weights to begin with, “I basically transferred 12 pounds of fat into muscle over six months,” Pat says.

Jen says the most noticeable improvement was gaining a significant amount of lean mass, which plays a significant role in staving off bone loss. “At the beginning they had told me that increasing your bone density was very rare for somebody my age. But I did actually bring my bone density up two tenths of a point.”

While the measured improvements took a few months, it only took a couple of weeks for both to start feeling great. “You don’t see the results yet, but you feel better, you’re sleeping better, you’ve got more energy,” Pat says. “It was amazing how quickly everything started aligning, mentally, physically.”

The Power of Change

Two years out of the program, both Jen and Pat say they’ve been able to maintain the good habits they developed during it, getting back on track when necessary.
“I remember telling (Wellness Coordinator) Katrina (Krenz) maybe three months in, ‘It’s crazy, but I feel way younger than I did than when I started the program.’” Jen says. “I was going through a time when I was really busy with work, and I was managing it all just fine, and I felt amazing, I felt like was 25 again and I could just keep going.”
After making the changes, Pat says “one of the most surprising things coming out of the program was I didn’t realize how much control I had over how I felt. So it’s really kind of motivating to keep things going.”

A Strong Support System

Pat says Elevé took the time to get to know them before they started to understand their motivations, strengths and weaknesses. “We’re both career people, so the food was a huge issue for us, so they really worked with us, getting us on track because they knew that was going to be a challenge for us. There’s no way I could’ve done this on my own.”
“Katrina was good at finding ways to get you to achieve your goals,” Jen says. “I’m competitive, so she would include me in some group challenges she was doing, and those things provided me motivation as well.”
Throughout the process, Katrina kept in touch, sent recipes and provided motivation.
“The program is a framework, and there’s a lot of support,” Pat says. “You get out of it what you put into it, and they set you up for success. I can’t say enough good things about it.”

Advice for Others