Amy Hyde

This stay at home mother of four reclaimed her body by "challenging" herself and kicking bad habits.

Written By Jim Stoppani, PhD

Updated August 28, 2024

Written by Amy Hyde

I'm a stay at home mom of four busy children. I had baby number four in December 2014, and in January 2015 I set a goal to lose 30 pounds that year. In May 2015 I had my bodyfat tested and it was at 40%! I knew then I had to do more. By December I had lost the 30 pounds, but my bodyfat was still at 30% and I wasn't happy with my shape. I decided to join in on some transformation challenges to help give me that extra accountability. The before pictures were hard for me to share, so I used that as motivation to make sure I had some great after pictures to make up for it.

The New Year's Challenge on jimstoppani.com was one of the three challenges I took part in. I absolutely loved the Fitter, Faster, Leaner program that we had to do for the challenge, and I dropped my bodyfat 6%. By April 1st I had hit 10% body fat lost and was at 20%. It was so empowering to see what change I was capable of making for myself! I had been using Pro JYM and Post JYM on and off before just because that's what my husband used and was available. When I started the challenges my husband stocked me up with pretty much the whole JYM Supplement Science line . Daily I was using Pre JYM , Post JYM, Pro JYM, Shred JYM, Omega JYM , and ZMA JYM . I know, without a doubt, that these supplement played a big role in my progress at the gym.

At first, my motivation to make a physical change for myself was to be a more healthy and energetic mom and wife. I realized when it got hard the importance of accepting that I needed to do this for myself, that I deserved to make this change for myself. My husband, Kevin, was a huge support during my journey. We planned meals and meal prepped together, eating healthier as a family. We cut back on how often we went out to eat and made better food choices when we did go out. I think my biggest challenge was overcoming my bad food habits. I was “the finisher” – if my kids left food uneaten I would finish it. When I got stressed, you could find me in the pantry. Kicking those habits was hard, and they still tempt me, but I'm much happier being a fitter version of myself now.

One of the most rewarding things has been having other women at the gym come up to me and tell me that I'm motivating them, or inspiring them to be better, or just complimenting me on the changes my body has made. I feel that if I was able to stick to a program and get the results that I did, anybody can do this. I hope by sharing my story it might help anyone else that has been sitting on the fence or is only halfway committed to getting started on their health and fitness journey. I plan on continuing to use jimstoppani.com for my workouts and programs and will definitely be continuing to use the supplements. I can't wait to see what else I can accomplish on my fitness journey!

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