LifeStage Fitness to Host
Change Your Life Challenge
Article By: Rachel Gilmore
for more details - 815-464-5870 or 815-685-3305.
The ROL Youth Foundation in Mokena is pleased to announce its latest effort to promote healthy living in the Lincoln-Way area. This spring ROL founder and president Jackie Evans, along with son Dan, will be active co-hosts in the LifeStage Fitness Change Your Life Challenge, teaching cooking and exercise classes. The Evans, Frankfort residents, were contestants on season 5 of “The Biggest Loser”.
“ROL’s mission is to develop programs that build a healthy mind, body and spirit for all. Through our own transformation over the past year, Dan and I have developed a true passion to bring fitness to the community, and we’re thrilled to be a part of the Challenge. It fits perfectly with our Foundation’s vision.”
Running the Challenge will be LifeStage Fitness manager Joe Ranieri. Like Jackie and Dan Evans, Ranieri is a man on a mission. “My philosophy is that New Year’s resolutions don’t work. Life resolutions do,” said Ranieri, who has thirty years of experience in the fitness arena. “I am critically opposed to people just wanting to lose weight. The bottom line is that this country has been so focused on weight. I wanted to offer something permanent. I want people off the roller coaster of fad diets and taking pills. It doesn't’t work. Fitness is a life journey. It involves the triangulation of mind, body and spirit. That’s the whole life stage philosophy,” he added.
The Challenge, inspired by Jackie and Dan Evans, is designed to be a complete body, mind and spirit makeover, which will encourage contestants to adopt a permanent lifestyle of fitness, healthy eating and energy management. To enter the Challenge, an application form must be completed, which will be followed by a personal interview with Ranieri.
“It’s all about commitment,” Ranieri explained. “I want to know, ‘How is this going to change your life? What’s your commitment?’ I want to hear that the person can communicate what’s in their heart.”
An initial forty contestants will be selected and will have thirty days to achieve the most points, awarded for workout time with LifeStage personal trainers, attendance at seminars, blog entries, inches and body fat lost and participation in special events. In mid-April twenty contestants will be cut, and the remaining twenty will continue the Challenge until mid-May, when the eight finalists will be selected. This group will have until mid-July to accumulate the most points in the above categories, and the winner will receive a five-day cruise for two.
“My purpose is to convince as many people as possible to do it the way God intended,” Joe added. “Use your body. Feed it right. Rest it right. If you have the will, I have the way.”
Chris Podobailo, a LifeStage member, had this to say about Ranieri’s approach: “You gave me every opportunity to succeed at losing weight. No one has ever done that for me. No one has ever given me the direction to change my life not only physically but mentally, too. You made me believe in myself, and because you believed in me from day one across the desk at the interview, I began to believe…that I could succeed…I can never thank you enough.”
To register for the Challenge, visit www.lifestagefitness.com, click on the Change Your Life Challenge link and follow the instructions. Interviews will be held on February 27, March 1, March 6, March 7, March 8 and March 13. The Challenge begins March 16. Please call LifeStage for more information at 815-464-2222. LifeStage Fitness is located next to the ROL Youth Foundation at 8500 W. 191st Street in Mokena. For more information on the ROL Youth Foundation, visit www.ivyleagueafterschool.com.
LifeStage Fitness announces partnership with The Biggest Losers' Jackie and Dan Evans
September 2008
Joe Ranieri of LifeStage Fitness is pleased to announce his partnership with two of his newest fitness members, Jackie and Dan Evans of Frankfort, Illinois. Jackie and Dan Evans are best known as the mother/son team on season 5 of The Biggest Loser Couples.
Jackie Evans founded a non-profit organization with her husband, Bernie, named Reach Out for Life, which provides after school care for children as well as year-round recreational activities for youth in the community. Jackie’s son, Dan Evans, recently released his debut rock/country CD entitled Goin’ All Out’, which reached number 7 on the country billboard. Dan also works as a camp counselor at the ROL center, entertaining the campers with his music.
The Evans' family became members at LifeStage in early July and has been training there regularly ever since. Ranieri and Evans share many of the same philosophies about adult and youth fitness, and have decided to join forces under one roof at the Reach Out For Life Community Center.
ROL/LifeStage Fitness is located at 8500 West 191st Street in Mokena, Illinois. For more information about this powerful fitness force, call 815-464-2222.
