After this weekend I will be a certified nutritionist!  Not only will I be able to help people eat the right way and be able to balance their cravings, but I will be able to do it for myself too…by knowing exactly how it comes together.  That’s what I got out of the first round of personal training classes I took last year.  I learned so much from spending only an hour on nutrition that an entire course is going to give me such a large amount of the knowledge that I have been wanting to have for years now.

Being a personal trainer was an important step for me, but my reasons for wanting to be a personal trainer were increased when I lost about 65 pounds over four years ago now.  I’ve kept my weight off and have only recently really felt comfortable with believing that I won’t gain back everything I have lost.

The program I’m certified in is offering a nutritionist certification course.  As much as everyone talks about going to the gym, the foremost issue is that they want to look better.  It’s more about diet than exercise.  Ever since I got my personal training certification, I realized what I really wanted was to become a certified nutritionist so that I can help people at the ground level and then build any fitness desires people have on top of that.

Greg Wagner, CPT and (soon to be) NS. It’s a pretty awesome package being compiled, and I can’t wait to see where this course will lead me to next.

I’m going to be sending out a bunch of hardcopy proposals for An Uncharted Life this weekend.  I still have around a dozen or so, maybe more, queries that I have emailed out.  I’ve gotten the rejections from a few, everyone has to realistically expect that after all, but I’m excited to send out a full hardcopy proposal.  I’m able to include pictures and give a larger scoped representation of not only what I can offer, but the thought and development I have put into figuring out where Determination can and hopefully will go with the right support and backing.

All I can do is stay positive and keep plugging away.  Yes it can be stressful, but I have to keep faith that it’ll happen.  The more people I contact, the sooner I find that person who not only believes in me, but can see the full potential of what I am trying to develop and the good that it’ll bring.  We’ll see what happens this weekend.  All I know is that I am continuing to build and I’ll have much more to talk about later this week about what’s to come in regards to furthering my physical fitness and training endeavors, eventually getting my own gym and hopefully starting that speaking tour.  Gotta get that agent first, but as soon as they see the broad potential I can offer…that is when it’ll all come together.

The best way to do that is sending these hardcopies.  Busy weekend, but oh how sweet the turnout could be!  After all, if I don’t try the outcome is already determined.  All I’m doing is giving myself the best chance to see my vision through.  That’s what I’m going to do, and after that it’s up to others to help me get Determination the rest of the way.

Yesterday they were calling for some of the Mid-Atlantic classic “wintery mix”, which is the nicest way they can put that we are getting some degree of ice overnight…and that is just what we got.  It wasn’t as much as a year or two ago where I had to slide on my butt to get the bus stop, but it was enough to delay almost everything.  The two exceptions: me and (apparently) the bus.

I got dressed, opened the door and surveyed the blanket of snow/ice outside.  Some parts were more glistening than others, but when I stepped down, my foot planted into the ground instead of slipping on top.  Ding!  So, here I go stomping through to the bus stop like a marathoner mixed with a soldier marching as I forcefully stomped my strides into the ground, across the gravel path, the school blacktop and even down the sidewalk and the bus circles in front of the elementary school where my bus stop is.

I get to the bus stop and the sidewalk area by the stop is covered in the same blanket of thin ice.  I stomp through it and start kicking pieces of ice off the sidewalk, giving myself a cleared place to stand and wait for the bus (which actually came within 5 minutes of my being there.)  The bus gets down a steep hill just fine, better than I imagined, and pulls around to the gym.  I see lights on so I step off the bus and start walking down the sidewalk.  That’s when I notice first that the penetrable ice sheet by my house is a solid, slick sheet of ice across the entire descending parking lot of the gym leading to the entrance, which I happen to notice is locked and dark.  Nobody has gotten to the gym yet to even open it.  For the second time in just as many years, my determination got me to the gym before those responsible to open the gym got there.  When will I learn, right?!

While waiting for the next bus to come I decide to not let time stand idly and I start doing various ab workouts per my daily routine that I can do standing in place.  I clear off the ice very similarly to how I cleared the ice at the other sidewalk and started doing my ab twists and leg lifts until the next bus driver came, again promptly.  I was quite impressed.  Coming home from the gym, I trekked the same way I came to, mirroring the footprints I made.  They were still the only ones in the ice.

I know what motivates me.  Knowing and realizing that drive is how you ensure growth.  I optimize my time and don’t waste my time.  There is too much I want to do to allow weather to deter me.  Yes, we all enjoy rest but to get where you want to be you have to push beyond normal limits.  I was the only one at the gym FOR A HALF HOUR.  Having my drive and living up to it—nothing feels better; nothing makes you want to keep pushing.

After the fiasco I went through taking the bus to work on Veteran’s Day, I made sure to check the bus schedule and check to see whether MLK Day operated on a regular Weekday schedule or on a holiday schedule.  They hadn’t put up the 2011 posters on the bus yet, but the 2010 list of holidays listed MLK day as a normal weekday schedule.

I had gotten to the gym early enough that I finished my workout in time to catch the earlier bus.  I usually catch the 7:15, but now I can usually catch the 6:55 since I have been rearranging my morning routine.  It was cold out and, when the 6:55 didn’t show, I assumed that I missed the bus and went inside to get warm.  Within 90 seconds of being inside the bus comes by.  Turns out certain routes are on holiday schedule while others operate on time.  My route to take me to the metro station runs every half hour and the bus I transfer to is running every 40 minutes today.  I took the next bus back to my house and drove in today.

I had beaten myself up for missing the bus and not staying outside just a couple minutes longer, however everything happens for a reason and I kept telling myself that (even though I was upset about it).  The next bus came, I got on, said good morning to the female driver and took it back to the stop closest to my house.

When I pulled the cord to request a stop, I walked up towards the bus driver and she started talking to me.  She told me how she remembered me and used to pick me up to go to the gym a while back.  Not only did she remember me, she remembered why I go to the gym—she remembered that I’m pushing myself to overcome my disability.

She didn’t remember all the details, but the important thing is that she remembered.  As isolating as my training can be, simply hearing that one person remembers my story and the purpose I’m pursuing life with is enough motivation to continue on for a good while.  That burst of satisfaction and pride stemming from that unexpected recognition is minute, sure, but it only takes the tiniest moments to make you feel good about what you do.  That impact carries over and in a year where I am trying to bring all of my efforts together and to full fruition, I am savoring every moment like that to hopefully empower me to the next achievement I’m aiming towards this year.

Still to come:

1.  Getting an agent to take on my book and get it sold to a big 10 publisher

2.  Leg press over 1000 pounds successfully with keeping my hands on the handles

3.  Launch Determination further and attaining the next level of exposure

Big things to come and every little bit of recognition and acknowledgement is fueling me to make it happen.

It was supposed to snow last night, and it eventually did after the initial round of sleet that, of course, made every walking surface the slightest bit too slick to walk on as one would normally do.  Of course my dad asks me last night, in his advisory tone, if I’m going to skip the gym tomorrow.  I answered him casually with a “We’ll see.”  I don’t skip my morning workout/physical therapy session needlessly.  After all, if I tip-toed and slid on my butt to get to the bus during the ice storm of a couple years back, I doubted that the first true accumulation for 2011 would deter me.

Sure enough, I wake up this morning and look outside.  There’s snow—more snow than was there when I walked in the house last night.  Anyone would see the snow and instantly rejoice that they have a reason to not go to the gym.  There is snow on the ground, ergo the roads must be bad.

Typically I agree with this, especially given what I went through with that ice storm.  The fact of living in Maryland that everyone realizes, there will be ice the morning after it snows because everything will freeze overnight.  That has always been the issue with winters in the DC-metro area.  It isn’t the snow, it’s that it doesn’t melt and turns to ice once the melted snow refreezes.  Joyous, huh?

When I looked outside and saw that it had snowed more, I also realized that I could still see where the sidewalk and driveway had been shoveled, convincing me that I can get to the gym.  I got dressed, threw some fruit in my bag and rushed myself to catch the early bus.  Yes, I was running across the street, up the path to the school and across the blacktop to get to the bus stop because, like I thought, there was no ice!  Only snow had accumulated and all the main roads were just fine, including the roads with long dips and hills.