Doughnut Holes - How Mom And Dad Became Coaches

I am sure you didn’t expect to see a post about doughnut holes ever on my blog. Well, unless I created some sort of healthy recipe that rivaled doughnut holes. But these doughnut holes I am writing about are very different. These doughnut holes were taking money out of my parent’s pocket. I want to tell you how we filled the holes back up with dough! A story of SUCCESS!

Our Doughnut Holes Story

Now, I am no expert on this, but, here’s the story. In 2008 I was at my parents’ house and sharing with a bunch of friends how they can make money as a Beachbody Coach. My parents also listened in, but I thought they were just being polite hosts. After all was said and done, my dad came up to me later that afternoon and said, “I think me and your mom want to become Beachbody Coaches.” I was shocked, stunned and confused. Here was a guy in his mid 60s, just retired, out of shape and I don’t think I ever saw him exercise much other than playing softball or a pick up game of catch when I was younger. So, my initial response was, “WHY?” What I learned astounded me.

My father had been battling Type II Diabetes for about 20 years and my mother had been recovering from Breast Cancer. So both of them had quite a few medications they were taking. My day said to me, “Well, first of all, we’d like to start getting a bit healthier so we can get off of some of these medications and have fewer doctor visits. The other thing, is so we can chip away at these doughnut holes each year that we have to pay out for medication.” I was confused so I asked for him to tell me more about these doughnut holes.

Apparently, there is something called a “doughnut hole” that refers to Medicare’s coverage gap with its prescription drug benefit. Medicare covers your payments up to a certain point. Once you hit that coverage level, you are expected to pay out of your own pocket above and beyond. After you have paid a certain amount to what they call a catastrophic coverage level, then you get out of the doughnut hole and they pay most of your prescription drug expenses through the end of the year. Dad told me their “doughnut hole” was $16,000 a year for the two of them, or $8,000 each. That’s A LOT of money for someone on a fixed retirement income.

Filling The Doughnut Holes

The thing is, I knew we could take it head on and fill that doughnut hole through money that could be made with the Beachbody Coaching opportunity. So, we set a plan. The goal was to fill the doughnut hole within 2 years.

We enrolled my father, my mother and my sister as coaches. We got everyone on Shakeology and a fitness program so they could work on their health INSIDE and OUT. Then we went to work helping as many people as possible to help them on their health and fitness journey. The success stories were amazing! Along the way, more and more people joined our coaching team because they wanted to pay it forward. They wanted to make a difference with their income and finances. We were on the mission to end the trend of obesity and end the trend of being broke!

Within 2 years we filled the doughnut hole and then my parents used anything above and beyond for their vacation fund! But here is the kicker! Because of Shakeology, my mom’s oncologist took her off of 6 supplements during her cancer treatment. Mom has now been CANCER FREE for a few years now!

My dad no longer needs to sees his endocrinologist.But instead of going once a month. His doctor was so impressed with the results he had gotten from Shakeology and exercise that his general doctor now helps him manage his diabetes and he only needs to see him twice a year! ALSO, dad has lost 56 pounds to date!