The Journey to Kilimanjaro.

Thank you for your COMMITMENT & DEDICATION. My wonderful clients, from all walks of life,  all have their own reasons for working out and staying fit. Commitment and dedication, though, are two distinct qualities they have in common. Mike, in particular, inspired me this week to write about these qualities.


Our culture has become so deathly afraid of these two words.   I mean, geez, this entire article probably daunts you because:

1)It's too long 

2)The Facebook bug is creeping in OR  

3) there aren't any pictures of funny cats or #hashtags to accompany it.

"It's like, I dunno, maybe, who knows, like let me think about it!". With the many advances of today, one hard truth is that we live in an age where attention spans go about as far as your index finger!  "ADD" gets tossed around like candy, often used as a term of endearment as if it's a quality to be admired. It's not. ADD is actually quite debilitating for those who genuinely suffer from it. Pardon moi, I digress.

Let's start again- As this work week began, I started to think about how lucky I am to have such COMMITTED and DEDICATED clients, who gave me hope that there are those who still carry these qualities like our mothers and fathers and all those who lived before FaceTweetGram.


Mike specifically inspired me because next week he departs to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro - a journey that started in December of 2012, when he approached me with this goal. For those of you who are not familiar, Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest free standing mountain in the world and a VOLCANO!! By December 2012, I had been training Mike for several years and he always challenged himself physically, but this decision to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro was the biggest commitment yet. We discussed in great detail what kind of training regimen this climb would require, the obstacles, and the level of commitment and dedication needed.  It was almost as if I was trying to talk him out of it.. I mean this is a guy who works 60+ hours a week, he is married, and has a dog! After laying out the plan and discussing the training regimen he looked at me with a big smile and replied with two words, "I'm ready!" And so it began, the journey to Kilimanjaro.



Here we are almost 9 months later and the metaphorical egg is about to hatch. He has worked his ass off! Training with me 3 times a week, eating right, and sticking to the plan. All of this has led him to be in the best shape of his life, feel the best he has ever felt, and have such healthy blood work that doctors ask him for advice.  This will most certainly be a monumental moment in his life. A moment that represents what hard work, dedication, and commitment really are.


If you've made it this far through the article, thank you!  You are one of the strong who can move past the "fear"  that is so prominent in our everyday lives especially when it comes to health and nutrition. It is my belief that commitment and dedication require self discipline, accountability, the ability to see beyond today, and most importantly hard work. Qualities I see everyday in my clients. Clients like Mike.

It is in you. It is in all of us.