The TODAY show’s monthly fitness challenge is underway, and a local woman is sharing her journey. Moira O’Connor-Servis is a special needs high school teacher. During the pandemic, she struggled to maintain a health regimen. Wanting to have energy for her students, she joined the Start TODAY Facebook group.
“I was going back in the classroom,” explained O’Connor-Servis. “I had to be positive for the kids…I had to be that beacon for them and the light, and stay strong and get them through it.”
She came across a post that would change everything. It was from Stephanie Mansour, TODAY’s health and fitness contributor.
“She resonated with me because it wasn't a diet, and it wasn't taking away food and restricting,” O’Connor-Servis said. “It was always nuggets of information to make your life better all the way around.”
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
Mansour helps run the Start TODAY Facebook group, now over 139,000 members strong. She posts fitness routines, nutrition tips, and encourages members to give themselves grace.
“I like to make it so they feel like they have their trainer in their pocket, they have their coach with them,” Mansour said.
Start TODAY is a monthly health challenge, focused on walking. Members receive a daily newsletter with fitness routines and healthy recipe ideas. For the month of April, members will focus on using fitness bands to get healthy.
Health
“If you’re hitting a plateau or you’re in a rut, it can be very demotivating,” Mansour said. “Oftentimes you just wanna throw your hands up and give up. But what I really advise all of our viewers and all of our clients to do, is change up what they’re doing.”
While O’Connor-Servis, who lives in Allentown, hasn’t seen a change in the numbers on the scale, she’s celebrating what Start TODAY refers to as “non-scale victories.”
“The results were in my bloodwork,” explained O’Connor-Servis. “I just got some new spring clothes and now I need to go down a size….I tend to focus more now on my mental health more than the scale moving.”
In good times and bad, she says members of the Start TODAY Facebook group have been there to cheer her on.
“It's huge… it's like if somebody has a down day, there's somebody else picking them up,” O’Connor-Servis said. “Somebody has a good day, other people are celebrating.”
You can read more about TODAY’s Start TODAY fitness challenge here, and join the Start TODAY Facebook group here.
