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30 Years Ago

In 1996, my life was quickly falling apart. I was wrapping up my sophomore year in college, I was struggling with a lot of personal turmoil and I was identifying with some degree of depression.

My doctor put me on a medication to help and it only made things worse.

I was hospitalized 3 times that summer for circumstances relating to suicide attempts and suicidal ideation.

I tried going back to school for my junior year, but I was so heavily medicated, it was hard to stay focused on coursework.

And around that same time, I started to venture into street drugs.

I dropped out of college midway through my first semester of my junior year and by year’s end, I would be back in the hospital again, my fourth time in less than a year.

We finally found a doctor who could test me again for everything previous doctors had diagnosed me with and he pushed back on the results.

He told my parents: Jason doesn’t need any of these medications and he doesn’t have any of the diagnoses you were told that he has. He just needs a sounding board to help him deal with his challenges.

Slowly, he weaned me off of all the medications.

However, the illegal substances were starting to pick up steam and they wouldn’t stop until much later.

I’d be hospitalized again in 1998 but that would be the final stint.

In 1999, I “accidentally” fell into fitness.

I saw my body one night in the mirror, riddled with drugs, and knew I needed to change something.

So, I bought a weight bench and some dumbbells and started working out on my own in my apartment.

It wasn’t long after that I realized I’d need access to more equipment if I wanted to make the most of what I could do with my body, so I joined a local gym.

Little did I know, these seeds of fitness would grow into something more prominent later on.

A few years passed, and I started to focus more on how I was eating, and then the time came when I’d put the drugs down for good.

However, before I’d quit drugs indefinitely, I finally got enough of my head straight to get back to school and get a degree.

20 Years Ago

The drug use, for me, began in the fall of 1996. What started very simply as weed use, grew into taking anything and everything I could get my hands on.

At one point, I estimated that in 10 years of steady, chronic drug use, I may have managed a total of 2 weeks where I wasn’t under the influence of an illegal substance.

And by 2006, I’d done enough damage to my body, my relationships and my finances, that it was time to put it down for good.

While I didn’t know it then, it helped that we were transferred from one state to another and I’d be leaving a lot of my friendships and drug alliances behind me.

Late in 2007, while I was heading into my last semester of college, I had an opportunity to get certified as a personal trainer. I’d go on to pick up three certifications in quick succession: personal training, fitness therapy and sports nutrition.

In 2008, my son, Jackson, was born and having a child was the first true glimpse I had of continuing to turn my life around post-drugs.

17 Years Ago

In the spring of 2009, I had some unique opportunities in front of me: newly graduated from college with a degree in business management, three certifications related to fitness/nutrition and the goal and dream of opening up a fitness studio of my own.

The mission?

To embrace what life is like when you succeed at making a dramatic positive change; a personal “revolution.”

It was an opportunity to clean my slate, in a manner of speaking, and take all of the dark, muddy parts of my life and turn them into something good.

Revolution Fitness & Therapy wasn’t just about having a gym.

It was about having hope.

Hope to succeed.

Hope to improve.

Hope to do better not just for myself but for others.

I’d still make a TON of mistakes as a business owner.

But I got a lot right, too.

And when I think back along the last 30 years, it’s mostly in awe.

How did I get here?

How did I survive enough of the muck to be where I am today?

And with an immense amount of gratitude to my parents who stood by my side from 1996-2006 when I was arguably at my worst and most chaotic.

To my sons, Jackson and Sebastian, for inspiring me to be the best Dad I could be.

To my wife, Marissa, who’s watched every peak and valley of my life over the last 16 years and has been there to lend a hand through the deepest valleys.

And to the clients, both current and former, who have catapulted RevFit to the place it is now.

The milestones are significant but the milestones mean very little if you don’t have people to share them with, celebrate them with, and allow the space for everyone to come together and say:

Look at what WE made.

I was fortunate to be raised by the greatest father I’ve ever known.

He modeled humility, kindness, compassion, affection, intelligence, loyalty, and fairness to me.

I was not always his best student.

I did not appreciate many of those lessons in his lifetime.

But as the years have passed, since my father left this world, the lessons he did teach have had a greater and greater impact on me.

Some 15 years later, after cancer took him from this world, my mother and I still talk about how he would approach all of the things that happen in our lives, both personal and professional.

In whatever form his spirit resides, I hope that he knows what kind of impression he left on me and how much I miss him.

I look back on the life he gave to both my mother and myself.

I look back on what he sacrificed, where he compromised, where we grew as a family because of the gifts (both material and emotional) that he gave us.

And learning a lot about what kind of man to be didn’t guarantee I would easily become that man.

I had a lot of missteps along the way.

During his lifetime, my father would remind me about the path he was forging for me to follow; one I feel I’ve done a lot better with the older I’ve become.

Becoming a husband was a role I thought I could magically adapt to: just get married and the pieces would fall into place.

That’s not exactly how that went for me.

But becoming a father set me on a trajectory where, little by little, I started to understand just how challenging and rewarding it would all become.

I have two sons: Jackson, from my first marriage, and Sebastian, with my wife Marissa.

And they both add more joy to my life than I have ever or will ever be able to express.

Having a child who is neurodivergent and a child who is neurotypical, inspires me to pivot and adapt to each of their needs.

I can still be a loving and attentive father, but the skills required to do so look a little bit different for each of them.

I can watch as my boys grow in age and see a type of bonding between them I can be proud of.

Father’s Day for me, since 2011, has remained bittersweet: difficult because of the man I lost and beautiful because of the boys I have the privilege of being a father to.

The words that ring from the page my father wrote to me many years ago ask a simple question: How do I write to inspire?

Here’s to the many fathers out there who continue to inspire the children (or stepchildren) they walk through this world with.

Do amazing things.

Be extraordinary people.

And if we’re lucky, those same children will teach us lessons we might have never learned without them.

To my boys, Dad loves you. Opa does, too.

Our son, Sebastian, has grown up in a home where topics around exercise, health, food, etc. are common conversations.

He’ll be present for conversations between Marissa and myself where I might be discussing things that happen at work.

And within those conversations, he has historically asked questions:

-What are calories?

-Does candy have calories?

-Does seafood give you energy?

-How do I do a push-up?

-Where does that food come from?

-What’s fiber?

And we’ve tried to explain all of these things not only in a language he can understand, but from a place where food is neither good nor bad, where exercise is a gift to our bodies, where it’s okay to be challenged by the way we move our bodies, and how we might develop confidence in our bodies.

We ask him to be open-minded about food experiences, we ask him to try new exercises, we let him enjoy tasty treats, we give him space to play and explore how his body moves.

And behind closed doors, Marissa and I have further conversations about what we do and don’t want Sebastian to experience (if we can help it).

We don’t want him to feel self-conscious about his body shape or size.

We don’t want him to feel forced to move his body in ways that don’t feel right to him.

We don’t want to surround him with negative messages around our own bodies or someone else’s body.

I write all of this not because we’re perfect parents.

We’re not.

Like every other set of parents I know, we’re figuring it out as we go along.

Some approaches work better than others. Some approaches change as he ages and understands more.

We do what we can to speak about bodies from a place of respect.

Respect for our own.

Respect for others.

We look at food as fuel and fun and pleasure and exploration.

We have conversations about the origins of food: land and sea, animal or plant.

We talk about what foods help you poop…because what little boy doesn’t find the whole topic about poop hilarious?

We talk about the energy that food can give you and how carbs, fats and proteins provide energy but in these neat and unique ways.

He has also learned, by default, that Marissa can’t eat certain foods because they’ll make her sick. In understanding that, he can see that those same foods have different responses in his body.

I also need to share space with fact that my oldest son, Jackson, has autism and all of these topics come up in vastly different ways for him.

Also, I know that many people have a troublesome history with these subjects due to their own upbringing. I’m not parent-shaming.

As generations pass, as I’ve spent the last nearly two decades coaching individuals both before my generation and after, I continue to find it fascinating the messages we’ve all grown up hearing and being exposed to.

But many of the same foundational concepts keep coming up:

-Nourish yourself and your family with the foods you can afford and keep you feeling good.

-Hold positive conversations within your family about what our bodies are capable of.

-Celebrate movement of all kinds: for leisure, for sport, for competition, for strength, for flexibility, and for longevity.

-Stay proactive with doctor’s visits to make sure that everything “under the hood” is as it should be.

-Refrain from demonizing foods and refrain from body shaming.

-Acknowledge that bodies of all shapes, sizes, heights, and weights are capable of brilliant, miraculous, and inspiring feats.

-Most importantly, lift each other up. We only have one body to course through this world with. Be it’s number one fan. We are the first role models to our children. Our words, our actions, and our responses to them set a foundation they’ll carry for the rest of their lives.

Early on in my career, I thought of exercise from a very simple perspective: you can use it to help with fat loss (somewhat inefficiently) and you can use it to get stronger or faster.

Obviously, it’s much more than that, but I didn’t have as much appreciation for how much more back then.

I didn’t appreciate the benefits on the heart and the lungs.

I didn’t appreciate the benefits on the brain.

I didn’t appreciate the benefits on mental health.

And I definitely did not appreciate how much it could impact the older/senior generation.

I credit the quotes from clients of ours over the years for reminding me just how much that matters:

“I want to be as strong as I can for as long as I can so that I’m not as dependent on my children to take care of me.”

“I want to be able to hold my hair dryer up for extended periods of time so I can do my hair without needing others to do it for me.”

“I want to be able to go up and down a flight of stairs without feeling winded.”

“I want to be able to get out of a chair without using my hands to help me.”

“I need to be able to get up and down from the floor.”

For these clients and many more, exercise has become far less about aesthetics and more about function.

Beyond those activities, I’m hearing more and more women branch out from walking, yoga, Pilates, etc. (all great forms of movements, by the way) to embrace strength training not only because the word is getting out that muscle matters but that bone mineral density matters as well.

And I know what some of you might be saying: I’m not near the age of the senior population yet. Why does that pertain to me?

To which I’d ask: Should you have the luxury of making it to your 60s, 70s and beyond, what do you want the quality of that life to look like and how do you want to influence it?

Granted, exercise is not a cure-all.

Yes, you can still become very ill whether you exercise or not.

But if we were working towards stacking the deck as much IN our favor as possible, what are you willing to do now?

Here comes the tried and true, and scandalously boring list to work through as you find you are able:

-Strength train at least 2x/week.

-Have a cardiovascular movement practice.

-Nourish your body with foods that give you ample protein, fiber and healthy fats to fuel your active lifestyle.

-Surround yourself with people who build you up.

-Have a consistent wake/sleep cycle. This will be more challenging for women in the menopause transition, new parents and those of you working through the obstacles of sleep apnea.

-Improve your self talk. How you speak about yourself, your body, your reflection in the mirror, and the progress you believe you are capable of and deserve, matter.

-Be willing to challenge the capacity and ability of where you are now.

-Where and when it’s necessary, have someone you can work with to improve your mental health.

I will admit to having a certain bias in this conversation. Not only do I own a fitness facility, but due to a recently diagnosed autoimmune condition, I am now working through osteopenia.

And that’s a hell of a thing to think about when I also consider that I’ve been lifting weights for over 27 years.

To which my doctor said: Imagine how much worse it could have been if you hadn’t been lifting weights all those years.

She’s right.

The effort now is in staying active, staying as strong as possible, slowing down the loss of bone mineral density, and doing what I can to take care of the only body I have.

Regardless of your age, start lifting if you’re not doing so already.

Preserve your muscle.

Preserve your bones.

Respect the process.

(Pictured below, our resident 86-year young rockstar, Richard, who’s been training with us since he was 75.)

Here’s a little something you don’t often hear about for the folks on GLP-1 receptor agonist medications.

It is 100% possible to consume food in a surplus when you’re on them.

Let’s start with one aspect: response rate.

Some people can start the medication at the lowest dose and start seeing positive benefits.

You might hear the term “hyper” or “super” responders and this can signify not only people who lose a considerable amount of weight on the medications but those who can do so at lower dosages.

So, on the flipside, you have slow responders, people who either lose slowly or need higher doses to be able to get the intended effects of the medication.

There is some data to support that roughly 20% of people on the medications do not lose 5% of their starting weight within the first several months of treatment being categorized as non-responders. However, this could change as new medications come down the pipeline to the public.

But one thing to note, and it’s frustrating when it happens is that the medication does not guarantee you’ll be in an energy deficit, which is how fat loss will ultimately occur.

I’ve written at lengths about considerations for those on the medications on this site but the same slippery areas that can affect people who aren’t on the medication are essentially the same as those who are currently taking them.

So, let’s take inventory:

-Be mindful of condiments like mayonnaise, dressings and bottled sauces.

-Keep an eye on liquid calories and that could be juices, milk variations, energy drinks, carbonated beverages, coffee and tea that have any additives (creams, sugars, syrups) and alcohol.

-Look out for candies, chips, crackers, and even organic, whole food snacks.

-Be cognizant of nuts, nut butters, trail mix, and granola. All of which are easy to overconsume and can pack in more calories than you may recognize.

-Have a strategy for meals out, from fast food to luxury restaurants. Chains might have calories posted but many restaurants do not. The average entree can be upwards of 1200 calories not including appetizers, drinks or a dessert.

Yes, the medications, when at the appropriate dosages, can truly help work wonders. They can reduce food noise, they can dampen dopamine receptors and they can delay gastric emptying. All of which can work together to help you consume less and to do so consistently.

But there are still myriad ways to sneak in extra calories which might not be considered or factored in to your tracking methods (if you’re tracking).

There is the chance that at some point, you may choose to get off of the medications. If so, having more awareness of total food intake can be helpful. A smaller body requires fewer calories and that can make maintenance a challenge if you’re not in the right headspace to live there.

I remain an advocate of the medications for many people. They can be life-changing and tremendously effective. But they’re not for everyone and, sadly, they are being abused.

Talk to your doctor if you have questions about the right medication and dosage appropriate for you.

It’s now estimated that 1 in 8 people are currently taking them.

And if you need support on the nutrition side or the training side, the number of clients I currently work with on the medications continues to grow.

I’m happy to help along the way.

(Photo courtesy of Joshua Hoehne)

You’ve probably heard the sentiment around food intake (and I’ve been guilty as well of its use): If you can moderate (said food), keep it in the diet.

And there’s good reason for it.

But why do so many people feel misled by it?

Let me give you a personal example.

I love chips.

I don’t eat them every day but give me a family size bag of a chip I really like and I may very well struggle to keep portion sizes small.

Why is that?

Well, chips, offer a few benefits: they’re crunchy, they’re salty, they’re kind of fatty (which can contribute to a certain type of “mouthfeel”) and that combination makes them pretty easy to overeat.

That being said, I don’t like all chips. I don’t care for sour cream & onion varieties. I’m not crazy about salt & vinegar, although our son, Sebastian, loves them and they aren’t necessarily the kind of thing I randomly crave.

But if you have them in front of me, in a flavor I enjoy, easily accessible, I’m going to want some.

Also, if I had some specific physique goals for myself, I would probably need to keep chips at a certain, temporary distance.

That doesn’t mean I can’t ever have them, but it could mean that easy access could make it harder for me to reach my goals as quickly as I might like.

We know that ultra-processed foods can be a minefield for many people. That can include: candies, ice cream, cakes, chips, crackers, etc.

Now, the good news, is that, depending on the person, depending on the goal, it’s now easier than ever to have portions that are still practical so that you can “have your chips and eat them too”.

It’s easy to find snack size options that may only be 150-200 calories per serving and that’s a lot simpler to work with to give you a little bit of what you’re craving without setting you back against your goals.

It also bears mention that every individual has a different food or food sensation they seek out. For instance, donuts aren’t my kind of sweet treat but cookies are my all-time favorite. Another person could go months without eating a cookie but feel the need for a donut on a daily basis.

This comes down again to personal preference, the mouthfeel of certain foods, and even a personal history around certain foods.

If you grew up in a household where donuts were a reward for a job well done, or something that gives you an emotional pull towards the morning trek to school, donuts may be a difficult food for you to part with. Not because donuts are bad, by any means, but because donuts resemble more than just a sweet treat.

My kind suggestion is that you take stock on the foods you feel you can successfully moderate in the diet, that either give you pleasure or keep you satisfied and energetic throughout your day.

Be honest with yourself about foods that you can genuinely keep in portions that work in relation to the goals you set yourself.

Remember that food environment can be a “make or break” when it comes to success. What you have easy access to may be the first thing you grab when you’re happy, bored, sad, or perhaps trying to numb out a feeling.

Your awareness of that environment and those food choices is key.

So, when we hear “everything in moderation”, that means something different to me, than it does to you. And that’s one of the beauties of being individuals with our own unique tastes and relationships to food.

Here’s a great research piece with more info around ultra-processed foods that you might enjoy diving into.

And if you need my help, drop me a line.

(Photo courtesy of Jeff Siepman)

Picture this:

You set out to lose “X” amount of fat. You get inspired over the weekend, make a decision to change your current food plan, you grocery shop, you meal prep, and come Monday, you’re ready to hit the ground running.

Monday goes well.

Tuesday does, too.

Wednesday you forgot to bring your prepped meals. As a result, you hit the fast food drive thru and, whether you acknowledge it or not, consume double what your meal prepped option would have been. You skip your workout because you mismanaged your schedule and then you eat a little bit more than normal Wednesday night because you figure: The day already went to shit, might as well start over again tomorrow.

Thursday is a return to form.

And Friday, after a week of stressful work, fussing with the kids, and just being sick of adulting, you unwind with drinks, some unplanned sweets, and an addictive show on Netflix.

Saturday is “off the rails” because it’s Saturday and Sunday, you wake up and tell yourself, I need to “get back on track”,. Rinse, repeat.

If this sounds remotely familiar, you’re not alone. The days may change, the diet plan may as well, but the intentions and executions follow a similar pattern.

Maybe you just lack discipline?

Not so fast.

We all know that life has a tendency to derail even our best efforts and plans.

Some people can rack up consistency wins for longer than others but everyone hits roadblocks.

The question is: how quickly do you get past them?

Here are 5 areas I’d like you to think about:

–SLEEP. There’s a strong correlation between poor sleep habits and poor dietary adherence. Cravings tend to increase and there’s a decent chance that you end up in a caffeine/sugar cycle that can be hard to spin out of. Try keeping your caffeine intake before noon and do your best to get on a consistent sleep and wake routine. Electronics use before bed can keep your mind stimulated so you may need to turn those off 30-45 minutes before you’re closing your eyes.

–ALL-OR-NOTHING THINKING. Your diet didn’t fail because you had an unplanned day or unplanned meal. What tends to slip people up is assuming they’re “all in” or “all out” when it comes to diet and exercise. Some weeks, most everything will go according to plan. Some weeks, it feels like nothing is working in your favor. Understand that this is “normal” for most people. Be forgiving of the fact that even with good intentions, things will go sideways. Look at the next place in your day to correct the course and do that. The snowball of letting one inconvenience build into another is where most discouragement sets in. You don’t need to be perfect, you just need to find places to improve.

–FOOD ENVIRONMENT. What you have easy access to tends to be what you gravitate to when you’re hungry, stressed, bored, etc. If you have a lot of dietary luxuries nearby: chips, crackers, pretzels, sweets and the like, they can be very appealing when you’re in a pinch. Work with your family and in some cases, your co-workers, to craft an environment that makes it easier to make better decisions for your food plan. That doesn’t mean you can’t ever enjoy a cookie. It may mean that temporarily you stop stocking the pantry with them. Please don’t read what I’m not writing: there are no good or bad foods. There may be foods that are too tempting at the moment.

–STRESS MANAGEMENT. Everyone I know has stress. I do. My wife does. Your neighbor does. The difference is: some people manage stress better than others. They have routine tools they can turn to down-regulate. That might be reading, walking, taking a hot bath or journaling (just as examples). If you don’t have good tools, food becomes the default to solve your stress and if you’re trying to gain momentum on your goals, food is not the solution for everything. Where necessary, reach out to a therapist for help.

–CHANGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS. I have yet to meet the person who doesn’t want to lose fat quickly. Yes, there are ways to manipulate food intake to get the scale to move faster but often, not always, that’s simply water weight. If you want long lasting fat loss success, you may need to accept that it could take months or years to get there. Even those who are on GLP-1 receptor agonist medications for fat loss will have plateaus and places where they aren’t seeing movement. This is normal. Continue to focus on other areas to improve on in the meantime: mental health, strength training, fostering new habits, working on your self talk and knowing when to recover. Health encompasses a lot and it’s not all tied to the scale.

You might also find this study helpful

Need help along the way? Drop a line to me: jason@revfittherapy.com

(Photo courtesy of Thought Catalog)

It’s a story I’ve seen play out repeatedly as long as I’ve been coaching and…”it goes a little something like this…”

-I only eat healthy foods and I can’t lose fat…

-My diet is really clean, why is the scale not budging?

-I’m training hard and I cut out all ‘junk food’, why do I still have this (insert problematic body part here)?

And the simplest answer is that, in spite of your well-intentioned efforts, it’s still very likely that somehow, and in some way, you’re eating more than what you realize.

For so many people, they’re able to look at their current diet and say: I’m going to cut out the chips and the pizza and the beer and that should do the trick.

And perhaps, even in the short term, it works.

Until it stops working.

Think about it like this: a small bag of chips (like what you might order with your sandwich at Subway) is roughly 160 calories. That large avocado you’re about to smear on your toast has almost 300.

Please don’t read what I’m not writing. The avocado has indisputably a better nutrition profile (healthy fats and fiber) AND it has nearly double the calories. If fat loss is your jam, you still have to keep a mindful eye on total intake.

It’s also shockingly easy to overeat (and overserve) peanut butter, granola, trail mix, organic dressings, cooking oils, and basically any nut you’ve heard is “healthy fat”: cashews, almonds, Brazil nuts, peanuts, walnuts, pecans, etc.

One of the most widely shared examples of successful fat loss with a diet of mostly “unhealthy foods” is one by Dr. Mark Haub, a nutrition professor out of Kansas. Dubbed the Twinkie Diet, Haub’s experiment wasn’t designed with the purpose of health optimization, but rather to highlight that you could be successful at fat loss even with a diet that’s nutrient poor if the energy deficit is achieved.

More recently, Coach Jordan Syatt filmed an impressive video where he deliberately spiked his blood sugar every day and still succeeded at fat loss because he maintained a deficit as well. This 30 day experiment was meant to push back on the theory that insulin spikes are preventing people from losing fat.

I would never in a million years tell you it’s not worth the effort to improve the composition of your diet. Maybe you do need to reduce things like added sugars, processed grains, alcohol, and any hyper-palatable, ultra-processed foods.

What I will tell you is that, if you’ve improved dietary quality and the scale isn’t budging, my best encouragement is too look more carefully at how much you’re eating: meal by meal, snack by snack, graze by mindless graze.

For the purposes of fat loss, portions matter and if you want the journey to go as smoothly as possible with the best net benefit to your body, the composition/quality of your food matters too.

(Photo courtesy of Thought Catalog)

Once upon a time, Bella (not her real name) struggled with disordered eating behaviors.

She recalls a period of life where it wasn’t uncommon for her to buy a cake and eat half of it in basically one sitting.

For those counting, that could be upwards of 1000-3000 calories.

And the emotions she would go through, those feelings of guilt and shame or failure for not adhering to a stricter food plan, would have their own consequences.

What many people might not consider is that the very act of indulgence could also bring up feelings of comfort or control, all depending on where Bella was psychologically at that time

Today, she is far removed from those behaviors.

However, some of those same feelings around “good foods” versus “bad foods”, still exist.

Foods that might otherwise be defined as junk foods still hold a lot of negative value in her mind.

So, when she consumes them, regardless of how little she eats, she still sees the very act as a negative one.

And despite the fact that she has been successful and moderately losing fat over the last month we’ve been working together, we’re still trying to unpack a lot of that negative and maladaptive messaging.

She recently was hard on herself for having some sweets and some popcorn, but once we looked a little bit further into the details, it was only a couple of hundred calories worth, a far cry from what the days of cake could contribute.

And I reminded her of a thought around the magnitude of effect.

Emotionally, part of Bella’s mind is telling her that popcorn and sweets are “bad foods” and consuming them is taking her off course.

Logically, they were hardly worth worrying over.

And when we talked about that, about the growth and healing she’s had to overcome to put that one part of her life in the rearview, it still helps to reframe what’s happening with food.

Popcorn isn’t bad.

Sweets aren’t bad.

Cake isn’t bad.

What can make a difference is the story that we can tell ourselves, the mental gymnastics of what that effect is against our goals.

Truth be told, even if she had recently lapsed into half a cake again, it’s not the calories that would be the biggest concern, it’s the emotional weight she’d carry for having consumed the portion she did.

Most food decisions, even the overindulgences, can be corrected and it doesn’t take a 180 degree turn.

But it does take some self-compassion and some patience to remind ourselves that food serves so many purposes in our lives.

Food can be fuel, and love, and comfort, and happiness and often all at the same time.

Sometimes we just need a little reminder that the magnitude of effect may not be quite as detrimental as we once thought.

And we can take a deep breath, step back from the proverbial cliff and get back to viewing food from a lens without quite so much shame, and doubt, and guilt.

(Photo courtesy of Kaouther Djouada)

Every year that passes, since I started Revolution Fitness & Therapy in 2009, is another year I’m amazed by.

And while I am seldom at a loss for words, it does become slightly more difficult for me to express what each passing anniversary means to me.

People may ask you throughout your professional career: Where do you want to be in 5 years…in 10 years…

And I’ve never known how to answer that, especially with regard to RevFit.

What business looked like 10 years ago, was not what it looked like 5 years ago, and 5 years from now, when I fully hope and expect to be writing about our 22nd anniversary, I’m not entirely certain what that reality will look like either.

Some constants remain.

We will continue to do our best at being Northeast Ohio’s premier semi-private personal training facility.

We will continue to nurture and support the goals of a diverse range of clientele, personalities, body sizes and shapes with an environment that (we hope) makes people want to come back for more.

We will continue to push our education forward to keep learning more about how strength training and nutrition can help you live your best life.

We will continue to be the self proclaimed “Center For Misbehaving Adults”, a title we seem to reclaim every single day.

And I will continue to be grateful.

Grateful for the staff who shows up with me day in and day out to provide these services.

Grateful for the community who give us the opportunity to open our doors and keep them open.

Grateful for the people who continue to spread the word about us, by inviting friends and family to be a part of what we do.

Grateful to clients both past and present for helping to inform and broaden the work we do.

Grateful that I can support my family in an industry where the average personal trainer may only last a year or less before they burn out and change fields.

When I opened up in 2009, never in my wildest dreams did I know what year 17 would look and feel like.

But I’ll be damned if I’m not immensely proud of how far we’ve come.

So, no matter who you are, if you’re reading this, thank you in large part or small for being here and allowing a little dream to turn into something really special.

On behalf of myself and the crew at RevFit, thank you.

And a little line to leave you with that I’ve been using more often lately…

Greatness happens here.

You should join us.