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Get Fit, Get Healthy: Faithfully Fit

There are a few things that can really help people stick to a workout routine.

One is to make sure you’re having fun, whatever you do.

In this week’s Get Fit, Get Healthy, Michelle Dunaway and Corey Adkins take us to a class where the participants find inspiration in other ways as well.

This could be any fitness class in any gym anywhere in the country, but these ladies get a lot of their strength and motivation from a higher power.

"The class here at New Hope is called Faithfully Fit. We focus on faith, obviously, fitness and fun. So we speak to not only the spirit or the soul, but the mind, the body and the heart to try to be a positive, uplifting class for the community as a whole," say Shawn Sredersas, group fitness instructor.

Shawn started Faithfully Fit at the beginning of the year at the New Hope United Methodist Church in Mecosta County.

Everyone is invited.

"It doesn’t matter if you’re Methodist, or Baptist, or Catholic, or whatever religion you may be. This is a great opportunity for all of us to come together as a whole, because we can all relate to the music and motion," explains Shawn.  

She wants to make sure this is accessible to everybody: men, women, fit and not-so-fit or those who have dealt with injuries in the past.

"This is not a hard core boot camp kind of a class. That’s not to say the individuals aren’t sweating when they leave here," says Shawn.

Linda Sbraccia says, "For me personally, when I hear music I want to get up and dance. Because I had a double knee replacement I have to be careful about what I do, so I love that this is low impact and I can do about 90 percent of it without worrying about falling on the floor." 

Linda does what she can, and every step gets her closer to her goals.

"The second night of the class she had each of us come up with a word that just spoke to us, and my word was strength, and I want this class to give me strength, not only for physical fitness strength but strength in my personal and spiritual life as well."

Yulanda Bellingar has another, more specific reason for being here.

"I’m trying to lose weight. I’m trying got get more fit because I want to keep up with the grandkids,” explains Yulanda. “We have granny camp every summer and it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with them. There’s six kids. I just want to be one of those grandmas who can enjoy their kids and do things with them."

Together this group embraces their faith…

"It restores your faith to be a Christian you don’t have to be up on a pulpit. This is another form of ministry," says Yulanda.

Their fitness…

"I get so much out of it I love. It’s a heart’s passion of mine to get people to move because everybody needs to move," says Shawn.

And there’s no question, they are having fun.

"I look forward to Tuesday nights very definitely,” says Linda. “We’re having a lot of fun."

The Faithfully Fit class meets every Tuesday night from 5:45 to 6:30.

All donations go to the New Hope United Methodist Church.

You can find more information