I'm a Believer!

Welcome to my NEW BLOG…The Future Looks Fit!!

? Question to ya - Why not improve your health now so you can live life abundantly in the future?

If we consider the areas of our lives we need to take care of to be healthy, 5 categories come to mind: Physical, Emotional, Spiritual, Financial, and Relational. The intent of this blog is to get you motivated to improve your physical health - the by-product, of course, being to improve your emotional health as well.

Working as a cashier in a high school cafeteria, I see WAY too many kids well on their way to their graves, NEEDLESSLY, by their food choices alone! We won't talk about the gross imbalance in the ratio between the amounts of exercise their fingertips are getting verses their bodies. Cellphones -ugh!

Will these kids go into their golden years able to be active in retirement or able to run around with their grandkids should they be blessed in that way? Fairly confidently, I say “no.” Hell, if I’m blessed with grandkids, not only do I plan to run around and play racing games with them, I plan to beat the little boogers (so much for building their delicate self-esteems)! So, what about YOU?!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Being this is the first post on The Future Looks Fit, I will start by telling you my story. The success I had with personal training and the fact my goals were reached in an astonishingly small amount of time is beyond me. All I know is, when you combine setting goals with a good personal trainer and make better decisions about what you feed yourself, YOU WIN! It works! 'Nuf said. Future posts will contain easy-read info covering a variety of topics that will hopefully lead YOU to living a healthier lifestyle.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On with the story...

Most people who turn to personal training do so because they’ve gotten serious about their “losing” game – losing body weight/body fat. My story is different. The sole reason I turned to personal training was to avoid a knee replacement consultation with a 3rd opinion doctor. So, my story is not about losing anything, but rather, a story about winning…winning my life back!

History: NOVEMBER 2007: I was involved in a car accident (rear-ended at 50mph, then immediately struck by oncoming traffic). I believe my knee hit the dashboard, but God only knows. For the next 1 ½ years, I was plagued with chronic knee pain and acute low back/neck pain. All the while, I was under orthopedic care and tried a host of different treatment plans, including knee surgery, to relieve the pain. For 10 months, I religiously followed a 5-6 hour per week physical therapy regimen. All plans failed.

Hopeless: APRIL 2009: I felt hopeless the day my orthopod doc released me from his care as he gently stated he had no further explanation for my pain or how to manage it. That day, I finally came to grips with believing I would never be able to jog, run around, or play golf again, let alone be able to go up/down stairs or even continue my rehabilitative exercises without pain.

Not giving up, however, I decided my next and final step would be to get a knee replacement consultation. I started asking everyone I knew for names of the best knee replacement docs in St. Louis. I even asked the personal trainers at O'Fallon's Club Fitness gym I lazily frequented once, maybe twice a week, for advice on a good doctor.

Mighty Mouse "I've Come to Save the Day" That’s when I met DFM Trainer Jordan Feigenbaum. After talking a bit, Jordan commented on how my inner thigh was gone, and probably the same was true for my hamstrings; quad tone was fair. I knew he was right, but was astounded that none of this was addressed by my doctors or former physical therapists; especially since the goal of therapy was “to build your muscle tone in order to properly support the knee and alleviate your pain.”  Hmphf!

Jordan asked if I wanted to set up an appointment for a free, hour-long session so I could experience his style of workout. I was skeptical he could help me and shunned him 3 times (yes, 3 times) over the course of a couple weeks. I finally agreed to do it, partly so he would leave me alone!

1st workout -MAY 2009: I remember that first workout vividly. I was on the verge of tears (but I didn’t cry!) as we trial-and-errored through several exercises during this “getting-to-know-you” workout. My bad leg was so weak I could hardly do the most basic of exercises without pain. In fact, I performed so badly that halfway through the workout I was sure Jordan was getting my point and maybe he’d agree I'd better go for the knee replacement. To my surprise, Jordan stuck with me, listened a whole lot, and quickly came up with a multitude of exercises that worked fairly comfortably for me. Desperate for personal training to be the magic bullet, I signed up for 24 sessions, or 2 days/week for 3 months.

“I WAS AN ELK!” Beginning with the 2nd session, Jordan, being a nutritionist as well as a trainer, started asking me about my diet. Diet!? HA! Was he kidding? He obviously didn’t “get to know me” too well in that 1st session or he would have found out I was known as the potato chip kid for 40 years! I hadn’t been on a diet since...my whole life! Well, Jordan emailed me past issues of his newsletter (a unique perk for his clients). They were instrumental in convincing me I had to, as one issue described it, "eat like an elk" and "go Paleo." I knew conforming would get me the biggest bang for my per$onal training buck. So, I chose to make the switch literally overnight, and by the 3rd session, I was an elk! My progress steam-rolled from there.

24th workout - JULY 2009: The results are in and they’re nothing short of a miracle!!! I can jog up/down stairs w/almost no pain, jog from my car into work, and can do short sprints now. I’ve golfed and even played sand volleyball several times this summer, too!

So, what have I won back through personal training with Jordan? 

• HOPE for a pain-free future
• CONFIDENCE
• an ACTIVE LIFESTYLE (uh oh…”Fore!”)
• ENERGY
• LAUGHTER  

In the process of winning, I’ve also dropped a dress size, regained my desire to wear skirt-less bathing suits, and cut my ibuprofen intake by 50%! I feel 30 again!

Ultimately, personal training helped me win back MY LIFE - because I'm happy and I feel good!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now for the Thank You's:

Thank you faithful and loving GOD! You answered my prayers. You stretched me, drained me, made me think, forced me to help myself, encouraged me not to give up, and finally led me to someone who was able to carry out your will to heal me. Thank you! Now, on to bigger and better things, for both of us!

Thank you Jordan. You are the reason I'm BACK! Your perseverance with asking me to give personal training a try is commendable. From your knowledge on efficient workout styles and nutrition, to the breadth of exercises you use to make workouts fun and challenging, to listening, to keeping me motivated, and lastly, for inspiring me to at least consider work in the fitness/nutrition field...KUDOS to YA! Thanks, guy!

Thank you Matt, Erin and Jamie. Your love, support and patience, particularly during the past 2 years, have been fabulous, darling, just fabulous! Thanks, babe-ziz.