Meegan, a coach at the Every Voice Center, has made an effort to find a date but hasn’t had any luck. But then she meets Joe, a young man who has the same job as she does, and they quickly hit it off. They become more than friends and, after some awkward dates, decide to spend the night together. The next morning Meegan awakes to find Joe fully clothed and out of her apartment. She then learns that Joe was just on a mission to find love, not sex, and that although he was unable to complete it, he has no regrets.
Meegan has been working with a group of women over a year now. She helps them to find their own voice and to create a vision of a life they want. One of the women she works with used to be in a high powered finance job. When her career ended, her life fell apart. She was depressed, lonely, and isolated. She had no idea how to enjoy the time she had left. Meegan helped her to find the courage to get connected with people again, and to reconnect with her passion for writing. She gained a new confidence and was able to find a new joy in her life.
Love is difficult to come by even under the best of circumstances.
When you’re in one of life’s deep ruts — those high-walled, mucky grooves gouged out when the weight of the world has smashed you into the soft soil — it’s even difficult to locate.
You have time to ponder while lying face down with a mouthful of mental dirt in your mouth. Most of your thoughts are focused on getting the worms out of your nose. But a little part of you yearns, the bit that hasn’t been crushed into the muddy soil. Dreams. Wishes. Wishes for a brighter future.
When you’re in this situation, a little wishful part of you will murmur, “Change.”
After that, speak it out loud. Change.
Then scream it out loud: CHANGE!
After that, you’ll discover love in the dirt years later.
Meegan Dowe, a coaching client, was looking at the ground at eye level a few years ago.
She’d been overweight for as long as she could remember, stuck in a cycle of “negligent conduct.” It wasn’t quite cozy, but it was at least familiar. In the dark, lonely trenches, food was a buddy, a soother, and a lifelong companion.
She’d peep out over the groove’s rim now and again, but she’d always dive back to safety.
“I had already made a lot of half-hearted efforts to overcome my own weight struggle over the years. I tried Weight Watchers and joined a local gym, but my commitment appeared to fade before I saw any meaningful improvements. I wasn’t prepared at the time.”
It didn’t help that the world of mobility felt so far away, so much outside her rut’s boundaries.
“I used to think of fitness and athletics as something I wasn’t excellent at for the most of my life. Something that evoked emotions of inadequacy or social isolation (imagine being the last one chosen for a team, etc.). I simply assumed that exercise and movement would be a struggle for the rest of my life, something I loathed and despised and had to push myself to do.
“I avoided it at all costs for a long time.”
She was in a bad mood. Stressed. Distressed. And it’s a bit of a shambles. She wasn’t quite 300 pounds yet, but with a well-aimed stone hurled by a filthy hand, she could definitely hit it.
Her little voice whispered, “Change.” Live. Pick something unusual.
She was attentive. Her little voice of determination grabbed her hand and dragged her to the gym for another try. She was able to get a personal trainer. Some of life’s trash was brushed aside. I’d lost a few pounds. I’ve lost a little more weight.
Then she discovered Coaching, thanks to her trainer Chris.
“I had improved my strength and fitness to a level I had never reached before, but I felt ready for more,” she remembers. “My views on food and exercise had shifted dramatically. I was eager to learn more about food and exercise than I had ever known before. That magical switch was flipped, and my desire for more in my life was sparked.”
She was all set. Mostly.
“I remember sitting at my desk at work that summer in 2010, when Coaching registration began, and really wanted to go for it. To make a deliberate choice to prioritize my health and my life in order to discover my true potential. I was apprehensive. Coaching has nothing to do with the person I was for the first thirty years of my life.
“It was terrifying, but I felt important enough to give it a shot.”
There were some pleasant surprises in store.
“I had no clue what I was capable of, much alone what the program would eventually entail. It was so much more than just a workout and nutrition regimen.”
She was single at the time. I’m employed full-time. She is a stay-at-home mom who lives with her family. She barely had control over a few square feet of personal space: the refrigerator drawers and the shelf in the cupboard.
“Change was not easy,” she admits. She had to learn how to request what she needed. In her Coaching support group, to open up to other ladies — sorry, “ninjas” — To swim against the current. To deal with concerns about one’s appearance. To break out from her comfy — though confining — rut.
“Coaching was like allowing me to think, eat, sleep, and breathe good living (in a world when it was much beyond the ‘normal’).”
“During my time as a coach, I dropped 100 pounds. I was figuring out how to live and move in a body I didn’t recognize. Self-worth and liking who you are (just as you are) are essential, but it isn’t easy, as I’ve learned from my previous experiences with depression. I’m still having trouble with it.
“However, coaching helped me gain confidence in who I was as an athlete and as someone who prioritized health and fitness. It’s nothing short of a miracle that I was able to put myself in a bikini — a physique that had previously been obese — and then publish those pictures online.
“I trusted myself enough to do it because I liked that body, my body.
“Did it make you nervous? Yes, absolutely.
“Would I do it all over again?” “Absolutely.”
Meegan started a blog to chronicle her experience. She met another lady on the same road, doing the same thing, along the way. They were separated by a continent, yet their hardships brought them together.
It all started with a blog. The East Coast of Canada meets the West Coast of the United States. Then a girl met another female. In person is preferable.
Shazam.
There’s more muddiness. But this time, it’s a delectable shambles.
“Pairing with a woman, or even partnering at all, was totally unexpected at that time in my life. Tara and I met in person for the first time in April of 2011 as friends who had supported each other online.”
“Never in a million years did I think I’d fall for her, or she for me. The link, however, was undeniable.”
“Uncovering who I am supposed to be was the turning point in my life for me. Realizing that I like activities I had previously been too afraid to contemplate, such as working out and moving my body. You don’t have to make sacrifices for love. It’s worth battling for who I am.
“Before any of those parts could come together, I had to discover myself.”
“It’s simpler for both of us to be more open about new activities we’d want to explore now that we’ve shared such a big change. When we offer a proposal, there is no fear of being judged; just support.
“We understand that who we were does not define who we are or will become.”
“Before” photos of Tara (left) and Meegan (right).
“I appreciate her attitude to health and fitness, as well as her mentality about what it means,” she says of Tara. To Tara, setbacks aren’t failures; they’re chances to learn more about ourselves.
“It was like having a doorway into my own world” while I was with Tara. There were no other individuals in my life who knew what was going on with me.
“Tara knew what it was like to look in the mirror and no longer recognize herself. She knew how difficult it was to squeeze into a pair of size 10 pants after living in plus-size clothes for so long. Tara realized that a term as strange as An Athlete could be — and is — a title that wonderfully fits us.”
Meegan had been knocked off her feet. There was a whirlwind romance that followed.
They took off together. Literally.
Meegan had worked on her running throughout Coaching, tenaciously changing herself from heaving, gasping, sweating tears during her initial sessions on Halifax’s arduous Citadel Hill to a lean ‘n’ nasty speed machine.
It’s also a fortunate circumstance.
“Tara’s passion is endurance running, and although I don’t consider myself a long distance runner, we have joined a local running club together and will compete in shorter distances runs together. We’ve also volunteered for races (recently the hypothermic half at our Mexican-Themed water stop with our group Heart & Sole Running Club — featuring Tara in a taco costume — olé!) together.”
They practiced yoga. As the Healthy Dynamic Duo, they blogged together, offering healthy recipes and advice.
And it was in the dirt that they discovered love. Again, in a literal sense.
Tara proposed to a similarly mucky Meegan at the conclusion of the Warrior Dash in July 2011.
They eloped to Vancouver in July 2011, bridging their geographical and national barriers.
Meegan, however, was swept off her feet once again. That’s right, literally. This time, it was caused by a truck.
She attempted to collect her strength while smashed across a crossing and disoriented in an ambulance. She attempted to make sense of it all over the next several days.
Her recovery from the accident in November 2011 is still ongoing. “Right now, my problem is a mental one. The accident has knocked the wind out of my sails in many ways.
“Emotionally, more than anything, the physical setback has been tough for me to overcome. I’ve made certain behavioral changes as a result of the process that aren’t reflective of how I want to go. I’ve gained some weight. Physically, in the gym, and psychologically, in my eating habits, I’ve experienced difficulties. What I’ve discovered is that there is a definite link between my achievement and my feeling of self-worth in my case.”
She does, however, still have her tried-and-true Coaching tools.
Resilience. Self-awareness. Self-care. A dedication to health throughout the rest of one’s life, whatever that manifests itself in practice. Even if her body doesn’t, the tools are still functional.
“Who I am now is an outgrowth of who I was when I first began coaching.
Coaching enabled me to go beyond my limits and push past my comfort zones in ways I hadn’t considered before.
“I believe I now have a greater understanding of what I can do inside myself and what I am really capable of when I put myself first.”
“Coaching, as well as my life-changing transformation as a whole, has shifted my emphasis in life.”
In ways that the “Old Meegan” would not have considered, I now seek for exercise opportunities and plan where and how I will eat. As someone who was formerly fat and inactive, my outlook on life has changed dramatically.
“With the love of my life by my side, I am looking forward to becoming stronger and reconstructing my body and mind after the accident. I’m excited to begin working for my own PN Nutrition Certification. Tara and I have been chosen to conduct a group session for fitness bloggers with a lot to lose at www.fitbloggin.com in Baltimore in September 2012.
“We wanted to encourage people who may be hesitant to come because they believe no one would understand what it’s like to drop 100 pounds or more. There’s so much to share and anticipate!
“In the past 18 months, my life and habits have changed dramatically. I can now confidently say that, due to Coachin, I like working out. I like being active. I no longer despise it.
“Don’t get me wrong: this took time, and I gradually built up to it. My attitude toward fitness has totally altered now that exercise, movement, and strength are a daily part of my life. I honestly believed that that moment would never arrive.
“I imagined myself to be like Oprah and despise it every day, pushed into it for the purpose of ‘doing what was right for me.’
“Now that I’m relocating, I’m feeling very fulfilled.”
Meegan’s advise to anybody embarking on a coaching career?
Keep in mind the three Ps:
- patience
- being optimistic
- being tenacious
“It’s been difficult,” she admits, sometimes feeling stuck in a quicksandy rut. “I feel like I’m getting slowly dragged back down by what’s going on with my body and the mental roller coaster,” she admits.
But then she takes a handful of dirt and begins climbing out of the rut. “I’ll keep that in mind. I’m going to be patient with myself and everything I’ve learned, especially what I’ve learnt in Coaching.
“Whenever and whenever I can, I will cling to the good. And I’ll keep trying to make sure my trip doesn’t become stuck. It’s simply another chapter, and I’ll keep moving forward. And, most of all, Tara serves as a constant reminder of my Ps.”
Do you want to read more fantastic tales like Meegan’s? Then meet a few more men, women, and couples who have shed pounds, improved their diets, and taken charge of their health.
Do you want to finally get the healthy, vibrant physique you’ve always desired?
Many individuals find it difficult to maintain better diet and lifestyle habits, particularly when progress seems to be halting. What the professionals know: Change is constant; all you have to do is know what to look for.
That’s why, no matter what other difficulties they’re facing, we work closely with Coaching customers to help them remain energetic and motivated, and become in the greatest condition of their life.
It’s also why, via our Level 1 and Level 2 Certification programs, we educate health and fitness professionals how to assist their own customers see success and remain encouraged while they face similar difficulties.
Interested in becoming a coach? Join the presale list to save up to 54% and get a seat 24 hours before the general public.
On Wednesday, July 14th, 2023, we will be accepting applications for our upcoming Coaching.
If you’re interested in learning more about coaching, I recommend signing up for our presale list below. Being on the list provides you with two distinct benefits.
- You’ll get a better deal than everyone else. We want to reward the individuals that are the most engaged and driven since they always create the greatest customers. If you join the presale list, you’ll save up to 54% off the general public pricing, the lowest we’ve ever given.
- You’ll have a better chance of getting a place. We only offer the program twice a year to ensure that clients get the particular care and attention they need. We sold out in minutes the last time we started registration. By signing up for the presale list, you’ll be able to register 24 hours before the general public, boosting your chances of getting in.
This is your opportunity to transform your body and your life with the assistance of the world’s finest trainers.
[Note: If you currently have your health and fitness under control but want to assist others, look into our Level 1 Certification program.]
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