Rich Wood 15

Food is Fuel 
A Journey Through Weight Gain, Weight Loss, Diabetes and Lifestyle Change 

We live in an age where you don’t have to leave your home to buy a book or newspaper or music. Everything is online. It’s so easy to stay in your house and have everything come to you. A gym is a place you have to go to – where your own hard work produces results. A 100lb weight is always 100lbs. It sits there waiting for you to move it.

The company I work for is called Integrity Training Systems which is the brain child of Debbie Portell. We go through very detailed training to make sure you learn the proper, safe way to exercise. Reaching your goals is the objective. We really want you to succeed. Every trainer is different, as is every client. Our system is set up to get you to the right person. I say all this to give you some idea that we are not just about getting you to come in and workout while you count the minutes until it’s over. That’s why it’s important that we train you about your posture, your breathing; things that make the quality of your life better. My approach comes from my training in the martial arts.  

The mind and body connection is real. Once you learn the proper and safe way to perform a move or exercise physically, then you can learn the mental side of exercise. This will get you in touch with real change. I have a fire that burns inside of me to challenge myself. I’m not a super athlete. I’m hard working and curious, and determined to take my mind and body to deep waters and find out what I’m made of. This is what I want to bring to the people I train; to help them believe that they are capable of so much more by having a strong mind and body. I believe being able to relax and breathe while doing something strenuous in the gym will transfer to relaxing and handling stressful situations outside of the gym. I want my clients to focus on getting better, not how many reps we are doing. Learning to focus and push your self is an amazing thing. My love of exercising is to find out what I’m made of, and to prove that I am able to perform under physical and mental pressure. I love watching people do things that they couldn’t have accomplished a month earlier before their training started. They can’t believe what they are capable of. We all need help in life with things, and the gym is not a place to fear. It is amazing to watch someone who is shy or fearful of the burn that starts in their body, learn to relax and embrace it and know they are prepared to handle it, and then learn to love it.  

You and your life are worth being the best possible. Don’t be afraid. We have an answer to the question of what you want your health level to be. I train people who want to lose weight, who are fighters, who are trainers, who want to improve at a certain sport – and every one of them have certain anxieties that they have learned to control. Once you do this, a new world opens up to you, and once you realize you are in control of your health, real change begins. You are worth it. Don’t let stale patterns in your life control you. Take charge of your life and health. Spending everyday in the gym and being there when someone changes their life by accomplishing things they never would have allowed themselves to believe they could do is remarkable. Do something to relieve the stress you are feeling about the weight you are carrying around. You will feel it both mentally and spiritually, even more so than physically. Dedicate one hour a day to make the other 23 better. The weights don’t gossip, back stab or disappoint. The weights bring out the best in you. As long as you’re breathing it is never too late. Once you experience how we do it, you will never want to stop and I will never let you lose sight that these are your accomplishments.

Your mind and body are so powerful. Why would you not want to find out how powerful? I write these things because I know how people no longer want to make excuses and sometimes something can click on a certain day and certain moment that makes today the start of something that is like no other. Your body will respond immediately. Get your mind wrapped around the idea that nothing can stop you from achieving!!! Do you really think it’s too difficult, or is it the first step into something you think about everyday? Stop, take a deep breath and you are already on the path to starting everything that you just read. You are already on your way; the first step is that easy…