It’s the seminal moment during personal training.
The one where both parties – the trainer and the trainee – are frustrated.
The trainer is thinking “they just need to change. They need to embrace a healthy lifestyle. They need to put down the doughnut.”
At the same moment, the trainee is thinking, “he doesn’t get it. Doesn’t he know how hard this is? He has no idea what it’s like.”
My name is Drew, and I’m a personal trainer. And for years, I’ve been on the “trainer” end of that moment – not understanding how someone could choose to be overweight or in less than ideal shape. I thought that I could just push people to be healthy by forcing them to listen to my sound advice.
But what I realized, is that the trainee is right.
- I don’t know what it’s like.
- I don’t get it.
- I’ve always been in shape.
- I’ve always been healthy.
- I don’t know how hard it is.
Until now.
My website, www.fit2fat2fit.com is about my journey of forcing myself to understand what it is like for someone that struggles with weight, exercise, and eating.
Because if I’m going to help, I first need to understand.
For the next 12 months, I will take the journey from fit to “fat” to fit.
For the first six months, I will force myself to not exercise. My diet will be free of restriction. I’ll delight in some of the foods I’ve denied myself for years. And I hope to finally understand what it’s like to struggle with weight, cravings, food addictions, and a lack of desire to find the “healthier me”. My goal is to gain 60 lbs. in 6 months.
At the midpoint, the tables will turn and I’ll move from “learner” to “teacher”. I will put myself through my own meal plans, workout routines, and discipline. I will invite others to take the journey to “fit” with me. I hope to show how simple, every day foods and behaviors that we believe “aren’t bad for us” actually keep us from reaching our health goals. I hope that my experience will allow others to make small, meaningful changes in their own everyday lifestyles.
Yes, the personal trainer in me will probably win out. I will get myself back to the health I’m accustomed.
But I hope to do so – and to teach people how they can as well – by first understanding what’s its like.
- By “getting it”
- By feeling the pain
So when I start to teach people (and my 60 lb. heavier self) how to make true change, I’ll do it like everyone else.
And when someone else is in that frustrating moment of “they just don’t get it”, I’ll be able to say that I do – and I made my way back.
I believe a lot of people lack the knowledge and the hope or inspiration to succeed, and I plan on giving them both.
- Join me on the journey at www.fit2fat2fit.com.
- Follow me on twitter: @fit2fat2fit
- Follow me on facebook: facebook.com/fit2fat2fit
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About fit2fat2fit
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