Background:
Throughout my life, I have struggled with anxiety, depression, weight problems, and confidence. As a child, I played with my friends outside, but I never participated in any sports or extracurricular activities. My mom tried many ways to get all of us to lose weight together, but nothing worked. I remained inactive and depressed. I went to therapy, and it worked, but I needed more. I never wanted to exercise, but little did I know, that’s exactly what I needed to get better.
I always knew, whatever career I chose, that I wanted to help people be the best they could be. This brought me to exercise science, which involves things that interest me: human biology and health. My interest in exercise science is what brought me to TITLE Boxing Club Canton. I started working here in March ‘17. Every day, I came in and watched the members work hard. One Power Hour after another, leaving everything that they had (stress from work, family, etc.) right onto the bag. I was so impressed with these individuals, who made time week in and week out to come hit the bag. I thought, “If they can do it, why can’t I?”. As time went by, I kept thinking about how there’s never been a time in my life when I felt confident in my appearance, or felt like I fit in somewhere. One morning, the first week of August ‘17, I realized I was sick of looking at myself in the mirror and hating the reflection I saw. That day, I went to work and talked to Greg, our head trainer, about starting personal training.
Fitness Journey:
At the beginning, I struggled to see that small progress was still significant. When I felt like I wasn’t losing weight fast enough, Greg said something that stuck with me: “Don’t worry about the numbers. That’s my job. Enjoy the journey.” He was right. I quit worrying about the scale, and I just looked forward to working out with him and the other members I did personal training with. I don’t want to make it seem like the process was easy, because it wasn’t. There were times I felt like giving up. I cried in personal training often, but Greg was always there to make me laugh and motivate me to finish strong. After three months of taking three boxing classes a week and personal training with Greg twice a week, I lost over 30lbs! TITLE is better than any anti-depressant I could have been prescribed. I went from doing nothing, having poor eating habits, being overweight and depressed, and struggling with anxiety to being fit, energized, happy to be alive, having better eating habits, and being addicted to TITLE. I finally felt like I belonged to something: the TITLE Boxing Club family. Now, I’m always encouraging people to come and try the workout that changed my life!
After going through all the hard work of losing weight, I realized that a lot of our members don’t have the support system I had, which was crucial to my success. At TITLE, I contact members who don’t come in often, or who may have lost motivation. I want all TITLE Boxing Club members to have the same accountability I had during my transformation. Everyone needs encouragement in order to be motivated to achieve their goals, and I believe that TITLE is the perfect place to do this. I learned that I had to stop waiting and take the initiative to start having control over my life. If I can do it, you can too.