Christina Land

How the 2023 Holiday Shred Challenge female winner found her motivation to change and a plan to achieve her goals.

Written By Jim Stoppani, PhD

Updated March 28, 2024

When you’ve got motivation and a detailed roadmap, any goal is within reach. Christina Land is living proof of this. For six weeks, the 44-year-old nurse from Middleburg, Florida, buckled down and followed the HIIT 100 workout program (the roadmap) and was crowned the female grand prize winner of the 2023 Holiday Shred Challenge on JimStoppani.com.

Her motivation? It was partly fueled by the challenge, of course, but health problems in her family played an even larger role.

“My fitness and wellness journey began several years ago upon seeing the prevalence of chronic illnesses and their tragic outcomes, not only in my nursing profession but in my own family as well,” Christina says. “I lost my father in 2012 and my younger sister in 2022 to preventable health-related issues. It struck a chord with me, and I knew I wanted something different for my family and myself.”

Aside from general health and wellness, Christina also had lofty yet reasonable fitness goals, but she kept hitting a sticking point.

“I just wanted to be confident in my own skin, fit in my mid-40s, and be in the best shape possible,” she says. “I know it’s normal to hit a plateau at some point in your fitness journey, but for me, this plateau lasted for years. I couldn’t get over that hurdle to meet my personal fitness goals.”

She found her plateau buster in the Holiday Shred Challenge.

Overcoming the Hurdles

Christina came across JimStoppani.com on social media when an acquaintance posted about her impressive results following the programs and diets on the website.

“I became very interested in Dr. Stoppani’s workouts,” she says, and decided to join his upcoming Holiday Shred Challenge in late 2023. “I didn’t have high expectations for myself, but I had tried everything else, so why not? I signed up and started doing the HIIT 100 workout program to see what would happen.”

She educated herself with the HIIT 100 program overview, watched several videos, and got plugged into the JYM Army for further support and instruction. She also added JYM supplements to her routine, namely Pro JYM and Vita JYM.

The results started showing within a couple of weeks, and “at the end of week 6 of the challenge, I had lost 10 pounds, 2 inches in my waist, and changed my body composition considerably,” she says.

After the challenge ended — before she even knew she’d won the grand prize — Christina stayed consistent with JimStoppani.com workouts and nutrition plans for the next few months and lost another 4 inches off her waist, 2 inches off her hips and thighs, and added lean muscle mass.

“Nothing worth having comes easy,” she says, “and these programs require consistency and dedication to see results. But it’s not difficult to achieve this if you make health and fitness a priority in your life, as it should be.”

Christina’s Advice For Others

Staying the course on a workout and nutrition plan is easier said than done. For Christina, mindset was the key to her success.

“It was difficult some days, after a long day at work, to find the motivation to work out,” she says. “I treated my workouts like my job, showed up every day, and did the work. If you look at it like a job or commitment, it’s harder to talk yourself out of going. At this point, I can’t imagine not finishing my day off with a good workout!”

Being able to pivot when circumstances are less than ideal is also important — for example, when you’re not able to get to the gym but still want to squeeze in a workout.

“If you don’t have the right equipment, you improvise,” Christina says. “I was working with a small home office gym with minimal equipment, but I found a way to modify and improvise for what I was lacking, and it got the job done.”

Christina has found even greater purpose in motivating others to get active and make a change.

“I’ve had so many friends and family come to me since completing the challenge wanting to know what the heck I did and how they could do the same,” she says. “Most of these people are now following JimStoppani.com programs and doing a phenomenal job. Being able to watch others grow and change their lives has been the most rewarding thing yet. The programs require hard work and a higher level of effort, but it has all been mapped out by Dr. Stoppani and is backed by research and science. The results exceeded my expectations, as I know it has for many others as well.”

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