Too Fat to Be Fit (eBook)

CHAPTER 1

The Moment that Changed Everything

The first fitness convention I ever participated in was hosted in Chicago in 2012. Two years earlier, I had opened up a fitness studio in my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in order to teach Zumba. A year later, I was developing my own kettlebell-based workout program called Kettlebell AMPD. That program was extremely popular at my own studio and was even gaining interest from other trainers and studios. This felt like the perfect time to try to take AMPD nationwide, and this convention in Chicago was a big step toward doing that.

But I wasn’t a big-shot fitness guru like Shaun T or Jillian Michaels. I was a no-name in the industry, and as such, they put my booth out in the hallway instead of inside the main room. As a newbie, I was just thrilled that I had been accepted to participate in the convention, so I gladly took whatever spot they gave me. I was told I had to “pay my dues” and earn my position. I get it—we all have to do that. So, I was eager to get started on that journey.

In my years as a Zumba instructor, studio owner, and fitness program creator, my husband, Tadd, and I had seen so many amazing results from our participants—or, as we called them, our fitness family. Our programs were designed so everyone from a first-timer to someone recovering from an injury to a hardcore fitness obsessive like myself could get a great workout in and feel better and healthier.

I was initially drawn to fitness as an escape from the challenges and stresses of life. It was an hour during the day when I could get out of my own head and enjoy myself. Plus, I was improving my mental health as much as my physical health. God knows I needed it!

That’s what we were providing for our participants at the studio. I don’t mean to be hyperbolic, but we were truly changing people’s lives in Pittsburgh, and I wanted to share our AMPD program with as many people around the world as I could to make an even larger positive impact. So, instead of dwelling on the fact that I was stuck out in the hallway, I rejoiced in the knowledge that I was going to get to tell more people about Kettlebell AMPD.

Wearing my black workout tank top adorned with a glittery gold kettlebell and a pair of tights, I looked almost exactly how I looked every day teaching our classes. At first, I was brimming with hopeful energy. I was so excited because, in preparation for this convention, my studio had come together for me and really helped me. They were my models, my testimonials, and my biggest cheerleaders. Of course, I loved being able to show them off as well. They were a huge part of why I was doing what I was doing.

Unfortunately, that enthusiastic buzz started to dwindle as I noticed there wasn’t much foot traffic by my booth. Well, actually, there was. It’s just that everyone who walked by me was on their way out of the convention. I was one of the last things they were going to see, and almost no one stopped to learn about AMPD. Even though I was grateful to have been chosen, I was getting really discouraged about making any progress in my mission to spread the word about AMPD. In my mind, the program we’d developed could rival Zumba one day. I just needed people to get on board.

As I watched person after person walk by the booth without stopping, I began to wonder if I’d made a mistake in coming to Chicago. Maybe we weren’t ready for this kind of thing. Maybe I needed to go back to Pittsburgh and work on spreading the word more locally before coming to a convention this size again. The negative voices in my head started swirling. I’m not good enough. I don’t know enough about fitness. I’m not fit enough.

Just as I was starting to get really down on myself, it happened. Finally, someone came over to the booth. And not only was he interested—he was excited. He loved what he was reading about AMPD. I told him about our programs and how we’d gotten started.

As he leafed through our pamphlets, I could barely contain my own excitement. I had made the pamphlets myself at home. They weren’t sleek and professional, but I was extremely proud of them. They featured photos of our daughters’ babysitter, Kelly, front and center on our poster and on the billboard. She was in her early twenties and was more than willing to be featured working out in her sports bra despite not having the typical fitness model body. She was getting in shape and feeling healthier each time she came to our classes.

Also in the brochure was Michelle, one of our best and most enthusiastic Zumba instructors. She had reluctantly converted to being an AMPD trainer and quickly learned how beneficial adding strength training through kettlebells could be for herself and her classes.

Plus, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Cristen, another member of our fitness family. She was a hard-working business owner and mom who wanted to feel and look healthier. We were happy to help her with that goal! Our sessions were about more than just the workout. Ultimately, we became great friends and worked through a lot of issues outside of the gym. She was a wonderful influence within our community, and we were proud to feature her in our brochure.

Then, there were photos of Heather, a nurse in her twenties who had been enjoying her single life, going to happy hours and not having a care in the world, when her weight began to really add up. She’d come to our studio with a friend and immediately loved the format. In fact, she would eventually be so dedicated that she’d become an instructor. She was so beloved by our studio that, years later, when she got married and became pregnant, we threw her a baby shower in the studio. Oh, and she also lost a bunch of weight through our workouts. I add that detail at the end of her story because there were so many other amazing benefits besides shedding weight that she got from setting foot in our studio that first day.

It wasn’t all women in the brochure either. The interested man saw my husband, Tadd, formerly a nerdy, desk-bound engineer with no fitness background, working out with Jerry. In fact, Jerry and his wife, Debbie, were both represented elsewhere in this brochure as well.

Debbie had come to me a few years before with a request. She wanted to get into shape, but she was nervous about the group setting and wanted personal training. She also planned to bring her husband, Jerry, along with her. Jerry was a twin, and his brother had just suffered a heart attack at a young age. This was a wake-up call for both of them, and they knew they needed to do something. But if Debbie was nervous about the group setting, imagine how uncomfortable Jerry would have been walking into a studio that was mostly made up of women!

So, I began training Debbie, and Tadd trained Jerry. As we discovered, it wasn’t just a lack of physical activity that contributed to Jerry’s challenges; it was his whole lifestyle. He was living the typical beer-and-wings life. One thing I always emphasize to my participants is that it’s totally okay to have beer and wings, but something like that shouldn’t be your daily lifestyle choice. For Jerry, it had been. But with his brother’s issue, he was ready to make some serious changes.

Both Debbie and Jerry got into great shape through our studio, but even more importantly, they overcame their fear of the group setting and started to come to AMPD classes. They were welcomed with open arms and became so comfortable that they began to bring their kids to hang out with our kids. The whole crew would watch and encourage us from the waiting area. Through Debbie and Jerry’s choice to come to training, they had completely altered the trajectory of their lives.

But none of that life transformation was evident on the brochure. Instead, a stranger might just see a regular couple in their forties working out, not realizing what that couple had overcome just to get to that point.

That’s why I wanted to use real people in all my materials—because their stories are important, inspiring, and relatable. Most significantly, their stories are real. They weren’t models who got in perfect shape through working out six hours a day and then showed up to swing a kettlebell in a photoshoot. They were people with full-time jobs, families, hobbies, friends, and community involvement who carved out time each week to come to Zumba and AMPD because of the major improvement it was making in their lives physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Additionally, I didn’t make anyone take a “before” and “after” photo holding up a giant pair of jeans. So, while an outsider could see how participants looked on the pamphlets, they had no clue what they had looked like a year prior. And that was okay with me. I never wanted AMPD to be about the superficial results that you might see on a late-night diet pill infomercial.

I specifically—and proudly—chose the photos throughout the brochures because I wanted to showcase the different types of people and bodies and ages that benefit from AMPD. It was important to me to truly represent the people who took our classes.

This guy was so thrilled hearing about our program that I was certain he would love what he saw. He was with a fitness marketing company, so I started dreaming about the ways he could take us nationwide. And he was on board too, saying that we could be huge with the right marketing. After an overall disappointing experience at my first fitness convention, I couldn’t believe I’d finally found someone who thought as highly of...