How Kayla Sanders Transformed Her Body And Her Life!

Mother, career woman and wife Kayla Sanders can now add “cover girl” to her list of accolades. Here’s how this Oxygen Challenge 4 participant took control of her health and completely transformed her body — and her life!

- Lara Mcglashan, MFA, CPT

Kayla Sanders is the cover girl who almost wasn’t. Even after training and eating clean for 90 days, losing 45 pounds, and getting compliments left and right, she debated about submitting her “after” pictures. “We all have an inner critic who instills you with doubt, and I didn’t know if I wanted to put myself out there,” she says. “Thankfully, I am surrounded by a great tribe of women who empower me because I would not be on the cover of this magazine otherwise. I also have two little girls looking up to me — Makena is 13 and Levi Grace is 17 months — and here I am doubting myself. They saw me working hard, and then what kind of example do I show them if I don’t submit my photos? I had to be bold for them as well as for myself!”

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

Sanders had signed up for Oxygen challenges before, but she had never actually completed one. But this time, she believed, was different: She had gained 60 pounds during her pregnancy, and because of her nutrition choices, she hadn’t lost much of that weight, even with breast-feeding the baby. She was horrified by the photos of herself and her body at Levi’s first birthday party, and one day at work, she had a revelation.

“I am in cardiac surgery sales, and I see patients day in and day out who are on the table having heart procedures,” she says. “There is so much we can control with diet and exercise, and it dawned on me one day that I know better. I lost my father to heart disease, and I knew that I could not be the person on that table! Something had to shift, and I had to do better.”

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