JUNE 2025
This month’s member spotlight is on the amazing, determined, and inspiring duo—JT and Angie!
JT got her start at Fit2Live in April of 2021 after a challenging pandemic. She was frustrated with the loss of her fitness and looking for a community to support her and luckily found Fit2Live to pick her back up and keep her on track.
In October 2022 Angie was ready to join JT and get some aches and pains addressed while wanting to improve her mobility, endurance and bodyweight training.
Over the years these two have seen some amazing results and consistency with their health and fitness at Fit2Live.
JT is a regular in the 6am classes. She brings the focused intensity with the right amount of fun to the 6am crew.
Angie is a regular in our evening classes, she brings her leading presence, hard work and team support to the evening crew.
From working hard together in our Spring Fling competition to 750 classes for JT and 250 for Angie, these two are huge staples in the Fit2Live community and we are certainly lucky to have them.
On top of their fitness accomplishments they are both pretty amazing parents and professionals.
For these reasons and many more, JT and Angie have been chosen as our members of the month for June!
Read all about JT and Angie’s amazing Fit2Live journey below!
Tell us about yourselves, where you’re from, what you do for work, hobbies, what do you do outside of work and Fit2Live?
JT- We originally both grew up in Taylor, Michigan a few blocks from one another, but did not know one another. She doesn’t claim to be from Taylor but I still do! I work for University of Michigan Medical School doing learning and disability support. We’ve both accumulated an impressive amount of hobbies, but these days outside of work and Fit2Live we raise our two wonderful teens and one needy dog and they run our life.
Angie- I did grow up Downriver and moved to the country when I was 7. Our neighbors were horses and we had chickens, a goose, rabbits, dogs and we grew corn, pumpkins, zucchini and peppers. I played all the ball sports growing up, rode ATV’s with my family and developed a love of food from my Spanish/Mexican/Italian heritage. I work for an engineering consultant, Black & Veatch, as an Engineering Manager and Sr. Substation Designer for power utility companies. No, I cannot turn your power back on when there is an outage. As JT stated, the kids and dog rule our lives for now and we are happily along for the ride.
Tell us your love story but spare us some of the sappy details. How did you meet, first date, proposal details, etc.
We met in roller derby but it was far from love at first sight. We were teammates first, and learned to tolerate one another, grew into friends for years, and then realized maybe we liked one another more than friends. Though we had a lot of the fun, new dating stuff, we also put a lot of work into developing our relationship. We got married in the Masonic Temple on roller skates after a closed roller derby bout, in the same room in which we met. Everyone gets to write their own love story and this is a favorite part of ours.
When and why did you get started at Fit2Live?
JT- Foundations with Ryan April of 2021. First day of class May 24, 2021. Though I had been an athlete my whole life, I struggled to find a CF style gym I liked and then the pandemic wiped me out physically and emotionally. I came in rough shape. I told Ryan “this is my last attempt at CF” and he said, deadpan, “no pressure then”. Those foundations classes worked so well because he combined his technical movement knowledge with an acute sense and adjustments for my motivation.
Angie- Personal Training with Brandon in October 2022. JT had been trying to get me into the gym for years but I was determined to never do another burpee for the rest of my life (we did these as punishment on roller skates in derby). Gyms didn’t work for me in the past, but like many people, the pandemic was devastating for our family and I was at my lowest point physically and especially mentally. I had to do something to get moving again. JT put me on an email chain with Ryan, and he set me up with Brandon for my intro session. Brandon was the perfect combination of patient, encouraging and funny. He put the barbell in my hands, taught me a proper back squat and I was hooked, which helped when I almost passed out on the echo bike at the end. I did 2 months of PT with Brandon to get my courage up and started group classes on December 19, 2022.
What do you love most about Fit2Live, what keeps you coming back consistently?
JT- I’ve seen this question answered this way so many times, but it’s true, the people! The community feels like a true community. The coaches are knowledgeable and caring. Brandon joked once folks don’t say programming, but I think that’s contained in “the people” answer. Everything is thoughtful, planned, reflective, and that brings an entire experience from culture to programming to results. The results are feeling included and cared for, getting stronger, having a place that walks the walk on consistency over perfection which is so important for me.
Angie- It’s really the whole package for me that keeps me coming back. I have signed up for and cancelled more gym memberships than I can remember over the years. I always got bored and unmotivated and would eventually stop going. Having a Fit2Live membership is more like joining a sports team for me, which is perfect. I have coaches that I see regularly who care to learn about me and my skills. They appropriately push me when needed and keep an eye on my form so I improve and don’t have to deal with injuries. The group classes have many consistent members in them so that’s where the “team” feeling comes in and now I look forward to seeing our friends. The programming is varied, smart and never gets boring. Tracking my progress, of course, taps into my competitive nature.
You’re pretty busy parents with full time jobs. This question is all about parenting.
How do you both prioritize and make time for your fitness at Fit2Live?
It really takes a determined commitment to get it done. Then it’s like playing Tetris with the calendar. Since JT joined first, she shifted her work schedule so that she could make the 6:00am class and go to work afterwards. I used to get the kids to school in the mornings and then she would be able to do after school pickups. That made the evenings my time for classes. Knowing there was no flexibility in our schedules and seeing how much better we felt by getting to the gym regularly, set the tone for not missing our time slots. The more we enjoyed going, the easier it was to stick to it.
Give us your favorite parenting hack.
Cheesy but true, but just love them. There is a lot of noise in parenting, how you were raised, what folks think you should do, pressure to do it all well. Love is an action, a choice, it means working on yourself, understanding they are on their own journey, and stopping to think about what does love look like in this action or moment. If you can do that, I think the rest sorts itself out.
One surprising thing you’ve learned from becoming a parent?
Our kids are pretty amazing all around, which makes it fun to take them on new and bigger adventures as they grow up. I always knew I would have fun watching them grow and growing with them, but I did not see it coming that I would miss some of the things we did when they were little. I used to say things like, “The kids are taking me to the zoo today” or “The kids are showing me the Hands-On Museum this weekend.” It was a fun way to show how excited I was to be doing those things with them. We still do really cool adventures with the teens and I love it. It’s a little bittersweet when we do not renew a membership that they’ve grown out of.
You both were/are superstars in the roller derby world.
Tell us a little more about your derby days, what you like about it, how someone can get into it, anything else you’d like to share.
Let’s be clear, one of us is a superstar and the other is a very serviceable utility player. We both played a lot of years, played on travel teams, and love the sport. We share that we were girls who always wanted to play contact sports, but didn’t have that many opportunities. The culture of roller derby is unique and skater driven, skater owned. We LOVE to help recruit folks to derby (cough Maya cough). Both Detroit Roller Derby and Ann Arbor Roller Derby hold boot camps that anyone can sign up for. You do not have to know how to skate. You can follow both leagues (and others) on social media for those opportunities or talk to us. We’ll hook you up!
Give us a fun, maybe unknown fact about yourselves.
JT- One of my hobbies is chasing Northern Lights and I know a surprising amount of science nerdom about them.
Angie- I can juggle.
JT, describe Angie in 1 sentence to someone who hasn’t met her. Angie, describe JT in 1 sentence to someone who has never met her.
JT- She is the most authentic and well-rounded person I have ever met, someone who truly lives by her core values.
Angie- She is thoughtful and inclusive, a fierce fighter for what is right, the most passionate person I could be lucky enough to do life with and I am so proud of the amazing Mama that she is to our kids.
How are you two alike and how are you two not alike?
How many pages do we get? We are alike in what we think are essential, core tenets of what life is about, how we want to care for people, what we hope we can say we did at the end of it all. We have a lot of crossover in interests, travel, adventure, and how to live life. We’re different in how we’re going to get there and what skills we bring to the table. We process information quite differently so we work on speaking and understanding each other’s language a lot.
Give yourselves a power couple nickname. Now make a power couple workout with that name. What movements, repetitions, format, etc?
In derby, couples get couple named, so going off that: Spanish Wows
Partner WOD IGO-UGO
Partner 1: Max back squat
Partner 2: 50 burpees for time
Partner 1: Bike 1000 m for time
Partner 2: Max deadlift
Partner 1: Max bench press
Partner 2: Row 1000m for time
Favorites!
JT:
Song- Breathe Again by Joy Oladokun
Book- Great Expectations, though some of our book club selections could be contenders
Movie- Stand By Me
TV Show- I was pretty into LOST, but anything weird dark and twisted, bonus for literary references.
Quote- You will be too much for some people. Those are not your people.
Angie:
Song- You Learn by Alanis Morissette
Book- The Great Gatsby
Movie- A League of Their Own
TV Show- Gilmore Girls
Quote- Knowledge is Power
What is your biggest fitness accomplishment to-date and what fitness goal are you most pursuing/working towards currently?
JT- Despite loving cardio, my last CF Total was numbers I never thought I’d get on a day I really did not feel like being there. It was a huge testament to four years of consistent, not perfect, work. I’ve been in “just survive and get there” mode for a while. I’d like to get really consistent on nutrition (yes EJ knows and we’ll be sitting down in June!) and see what that can do for me.
Angie- 12 Days of Christmas! This was my first group class in ‘22 and I only made it part way into Round 11 back then. It took 2 years, but I was able to finish all 12 rounds (appropriately scaled) while adding in Rx weight in ‘24. Cardio is not my strong suit, so that paired with it being my first class benchmark makes it an extra special accomplishment.
Latest goal: 300lb back squat
THANKS FOR BEING AWESOME JT AND ANGIE! KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK AT FIT2LIVE!
NEXT UP: PETER HOFFMAN MEMBER OF THE MONTH MAY 2025
