Cassandra Dybvig: My Story

Hi Everyone, I'm Cassandra.

I'm a wife, a mom of 2, a retired dancer/showgirl turned fitness fanatic, and on a journey

to get in the best shape of my life while helping others achieve their best self too!

I love inspiring and motivating others, I never knew that being a Beachbody coach

is what I always wanted to be. I thought dancing for 25 years was my passion but fitness

is an extension of that and I love it!

The cool thing, I haven't been to the gym in over 6 years. I do all of my workouts at home.

I started my Beachbody journey when I was 5 months postpartum.

I did Insanity and drank Shakeology.

And then I did Focus T25

I now I weigh less than I did before I had my second baby!

Sometimes I can't believe that I actually did it! I just dedicated myself,

committed to the program, joined a challenge/accountability group, sweat,

cried and worked my butt off. And it was all worth it!

I lost 50 pounds total and weigh 10 pounds less than I did

before I got pregnant.

I love Beachbody, I love their programs, I love the people.

So I decided to pay it forward, become a coach and help other people

on their journey as well!

UPDATE:

In September of 2014, we got one of the biggest surprises of our lives when I found out I was pregnant with our 3rd baby. We totally weren’t expecting or planning for it but we quickly got excited and laughed about how big our family was about to become. So we started planning for our future. We bought a bigger vehicle, went through old baby clothes wondering if it was going to be a boy or girl, took pictures of my growing belly, hung up our ultrasounds after hearing the heartbeat. I started to feel the baby kick and move pretty early on. It’s always the most amazing feeling in the world. I was going to be a mom of 3, I couldn’t believe it!

I had a pretty rough pregnancy, the first 3 months, I was extremely nauseous with morning sickness 24/7. It was so awful, I could barely get out of bed. Finally in the 4th month, in the 2nd trimester, I started to feel better. I started to get that “pregnancy glow” and my belly was proudly on display. Things were looking up and I was almost halfway through my pregnancy. We were over the moon! And then it ended…..

On Dec 31, 2014, when I was 19 weeks pregnant, almost 5 months along, we lost our precious baby. We woke up on New Year’s Day 2015, heartbroken, empty and with the most enormous, stabbing, painful grief I could NEVER imagine.
I cried. Every single day. I still cry. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever been through in my entire life.

Depressed, broken, grieving, numb….for weeks I just sat. And whenever I looked in the mirror, I would cry some more. With every pregnancy, you gain weight. Well, I did. And it made me even more depressed because I had no baby to show for it.

After about 3 weeks, I looked over at my husband and said, I need to do something. I need to dive into something that will take my mind off of this because if I don’t, I’m going to go into a downward spiral and I have 2 kids and a husband that still need me. I needed to heal my body. Ironically, Insanity Max 30 just came out. Planning on doing it after I had the baby, I immediately said that is what we are going to do. I lost all of my pregnancy weight from my 2nd baby with Insanity and T25 and it was life changing for me. And that’s exactly what I needed at the moment.

So that’s what we did. Not having been able to work out for months prior because of my morning sickness, I was a bit out of shape . The first couple of days I cried after the workout. It was exhausting and my body seemed so foreign to me. Taking my before pictures was excruciating and I hated it. I didn't even recognize myself.
It…was…hard.

But I pushed myself. I got up, no matter what, and worked out. Some days were robotic because I couldn't even think. I just did it. And then little by little, I got stronger. Don’t get me wrong, it was never easy. But I was able to do more and more pushups each time. My max out time got longer. TWICE I made it through the entire 30 min without stopping.

I started to smile again. I actually looked forward to working out every morning with my husband because I knew for at least 30 min, I didn’t have to think about anything. And we were doing this together. I knew he needed this as much as I did.

We finished the entire program last week. And I’m thankful. I had every excuse in the world to not do anything but I made myself get up every day, even when I didn’t want to. I ended up losing only about 7 pounds but I lost over 9 inches all around and even gained 1/4 inch in my arms (from the gazillion push ups! ) I'm not at my goal weight yet but I know I can get there and I will. No, I don’t have a six pack. I’m not trying to look like a fitness model. I’m just trying to feel good in my skin again. And I think I'm achieving that. This challenge has helped me heal not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well. The happiness it brought me means so much more to me than any number.

I still struggle with our loss every day. It’s been only about 4 months and the pain is still raw. But I keep putting one foot in front of the other every day and keep going. Not just for my family but for me, too.