My story… so far…

I sometimes question what makes a good story, and often wonder where that story would begin. We all usually know when we are exposed to a good story, but I believe that a great story is what we all desire. A great story usually involves many dynamics that can cause us to experience deep emotions, and often even question our own thoughts, beliefs, and motives as we reevaluate our own lives. My question remains the same about either type of story… at what point, where does it really begin? I decided to start my story, whether great or not, a few years before I decided to make a change in my life that has allowed me to be fortunate enough to help other people in ways that I didn’t realize I was capable of. I also believe that it’s not always the destination that is as important as the journey…
In most ways, my story began when I opened the only eye not sealed shut with blood as I became conscious lying in the ICU ward of a military hospital and realized the extent of my pain and injuries. I was serving in the U.S. Army and was involved in a life threatening accident that hospitalized me for several months. That accident eventually led me to receive multiple service connected disabilities with a few more pending. Upon my discharge from active service, I always tried to do the best I could in all aspects of life, and sometimes I fell short… sometimes very short.
Sometimes my best efforts produced results that I was very proud of as well. At one point, I owned a mortgage company with a few other partners, and was married to a wonderful woman. When the housing market crashed and my divorce became final, I found myself more lost and confused than I had felt in years. I started making bad choices for myself and eventually found myself in very dangerous situations.
This is when I decided to change my life and work on self-improvement and try to find a way to truly experience my full potential. I entered a VA hospital to concentrate on receiving the care and treatment I needed in order to live my life in the best possible way for myself. I stayed in that VA hospital as an inpatient for well over a year focusing on my injuries and my subsequent problems that I’ve experienced in life because of them.
When I lived in the hospital, I started to visit the gym that was located in one of the wings of the facility. Although limited in the amount of equipment that was available, I still used it as often as I could. I began doing research about various training techniques and tried to learn as much as I could about diet and exercise. Because of the limited amount of equipment available, I had no choice but to become very creative with exercises. I also started to notice that all the effort I was putting into the gym was starting to pay off, and some of the other patients were starting to notice as well.
Often I would be questioned by different patients during my stay in that hospital, all asking about what they can do to either help alleviate the pain with some injuries or simply to build up certain parts of their body. I would show them some of the things I learned, and they were grateful. I enjoyed being able to help other veterans that were in the hospital trying to get well.
I continued to read and research as much as I could and eventually took some tests and received several fitness certifications.
I have some difficulties learning, but all that means to me is that I must focus and spend more time and effort than most people on things that I’m trying to understand.
The hospital would give out free passes to a fitness center that was within walking distance and I started working out there. The club had more equipment than I was used to using, and from the experience I had in the hospital along with all the research and education I spent my time focusing on, I was able to really start training on an optimum level.
I was approached one day by a woman that had noticed me working out and she said she had been watching me and was interested to know if I would be her personal trainer, which I thought about for a moment and after talking to her about what she wanted to get out of her workouts, I decided I would help her.
I talked to one of my friends in the hospital and told him I wanted to start my own fitness training company and with his help I started my own personal training business and became a small business owner.
He told me I would even have a new customer… his wife. She was a member of the new fitness center in the community that was located on the other side of town. I had no money to join the fitness club and no transportation to get there, but with their help they put me in contact with the manager of the gym that allowed me to train his wife and not charge me a gym fee. My friend and his wife also donated a mountain bike to my new company and without their help this entire venture would most likely not have happened.
I got to know the manager and owner of the new gym, and when they began advertising their grand opening, they asked if I would want to be available and help answer questions and demonstrate exercises to any new members that wanted to join that day. Their advertisement included me and my company, and I was offered a one month free membership if I would participate. It was hard to pass up a free month membership (which I couldn’t afford in the first place), free advertising, the chance to get some business and do all of this for simply being available at their grand opening.
The local chamber of commerce of the town I live in, which has approximately 5000 residents, found out about my personal training business and decided to write a small article about me and I was even awarded a certificate with my first dollar of clear profit. The article was printed in the local paper with a picture of me and members from the chamber of commerce presenting me with my certificate.
I moved out of the hospital and started to pick up more and more clients. As my name became more known, I became more and more associated with something beneficial and good in the community.
I happen to be the only personal trainer in town, and since I’ve been training people in the gym I have worked with people that have special needs, and I have also worked with people that experience physical and / or mental disabilities, the elderly, amputees, people recovering from eating disorders and addictions as well as those who have suffered injuries. I tell all people what it is that I have had to learn for myself… regardless of your situation, never let a problem become an excuse.
When I saw an opportunity to compete in a fitness challenge and earn a chance to represent a supplement company that made great products to help enhance the efforts people put into the gym I knew I had found an opportunity to involve myself in something great, that would take my training to a higher level and give me a definite goal, and a specific target to shoot for.
Now, every time I enter the gym I’m asked how my training is going. Many people in the community are cheering me on. I didn’t own a vehicle for the first 9 months of this venture, so I had to ride my bike to the gym which is about 5 miles from my apartment, and some days depending on my training schedule and how many clients I am working with each day I would ride my bike several times to the gym.
I have been training people for almost a year now starting with the patients in that VA Hospital. I rode my bike all winter, sometimes in the freezing cold or icy snow. I have ridden my bike to the gym in the spring and appreciated the changing seasons more than I have ever appreciated them in my life, mainly because I was exposed to the cold for so long that I could feel the depth of my enjoyment for the nicer weather. I ride my bike in the summer and sometimes when the temperatures climb above 100 I just smile to myself and realize how fortunate I am to be alive and experience the heat and all the blessings life has recently offered me.
I do these things not only for myself, but for other people because I believe that if they chose to better themselves, and asked me to help them to be a part of that process, then I must not let the problems of life interfere with my ability to help them, as well as continue to train myself.
I have been saving my money as strictly as my budget has allowed me and just this month I was able to purchase a vehicle. I now plan on advertising in the local paper. I am going let people know that I can bring workout bands, dumbbells, balance balls and medicine balls for those individuals that either don’t have a gym membership or are simply unable to go. I believe that if someone needs help and they allow me to help them that I must be thankful that not only am I capable of helping, but also grateful that they allowed me to help them. I’m excited about this next evolution of my business because now if someone can’t get to the gym, I can bring it to them.
I have become well known in the community as the fitness trainer and rarely go into any store in town without someone asking me what types of exercises would help them with some type of pain they have. Often I have people I don’t even know approach me knowing my name and they tell me what exercises they are currently doing and how inspired they are to get as healthy as they can. I cannot go to the grocery store without someone asking me what would be healthy choices to eat, and I find it quite funny when I see a client I’m currently working with try to run and hide when they see me because they might have some type of cheesy poof or pizza puff in their shopping cart. When I run into someone that I once worked with and no longer train, it gives me such satisfaction when they tell me that they are continuing to do the things that I taught them and either their pain has subsided or they are able to play with their children once again.
Some of my clients are able to open doors for the first time in years because we were able to find ways in the gym to help alleviate their carpel tunnel pain. One of my clients was selling her motorcycle when we first started to train because of her hip and back problems, and 3 months later she took a 3 week, 5200 mile motorcycle trip with her husband because of the training we focused on and all the isometric exercises I showed her to do while on the road. One of my special needs clients is mentally and physically challenged. He started out at 408 lbs. and wasn’t able to work out for more than 8 minutes the first time we met. Every time I would demonstrate an exercise he would simply look at me and say, “I can’t”. I would encourage him to try but he would only exert a minimal amount of effort and again repeat his mantra, “I can’t”. It was our third session when I decided to write a small message on a piece of paper and I folded it and gave it to him at the beginning of our meeting. I looked at him and said, “I’m going to give you a surprise but you cannot look at it until I tell you. I want to tell you something, I promise to never do anything that will hurt you and I will never ask you to do anything that you can’t do, but you have to try to do the things I tell you to do.” He agreed and as we began our workout the familiar words again came out, “I can’t”. I then said, “Look at that note I gave you, and I want you to read that to me every time I tell you what exercises to do.” The note simply read, “I can”. We have been working out now for 3 months and he has lost over 25 lbs., and he has gained the confidence to become more independent in the community, and he is much more active and even works harder at his state sponsored job. When he enters the gym, and begins each workout his face lights up and through his smile you can hear him proudly say, “I can”. I even bought him a t-shirt with the words I CAN written on it and that is his workout shirt.
Each month, the fitness club we workout in recognizes a “Member of the Month”. In September, he was chosen as the member of the month and was even acknowledged in the newspaper. His workouts now last 45 minutes and everyday he looks at his care provider and excitedly asks if it’s a gym day or not. By the time we have completed his training, I’m confident to say that he will have lost well over a 100 lbs. To me, these are the great stories that make me think and feel on a level that I had previously never known. They are the stories that give me answers to those questions that I often ask myself about my own life, and what I have chosen to do with it. I believe that we should all celebrate our own individuality as we simultaneously embrace our community and those that we interact with daily.
I am sharing a part of my story, and by the time this fitness challenge has ended I hope it’s a story that has the potential to be great to someone, even if that someone is only me. As a disabled American veteran with a brain injury among other physical and mental disabilities, I believe that if I can start my own training business from nothing, while living in a hospital, as I approach my 40th birthday and help other people experience a better quality of life, then anyone can find a way to create a healthier life for themselves anytime they chose. I have done all of these things by riding a bicycle everywhere I needed to be, and give of myself to as many people as I can with no motive or thought of reward other than knowing that they will feel better and live healthier as they experience their journey through life. I know that it is their stories that are great to me, for their triumphs help motivate me to continue along my own path that I have created for myself.

by Wade