To start, I’d like to thank Kerry and the 212 team for the opportunity to be the subject of January’s Member Spotlight. These stories inspire me every month and it’s an honor to be able to share some of my story with you.
Growing up I was an athlete, my world revolved around sports. God bless my parents because their lives also revolved around my sports schedule.
Once I got to high school, I narrowed it down to baseball and basketball. While I was good enough at both, I wasn’t the guy putting in the extra hours before and after practice or focusing on building my physical strength like some of my teammates. As a result, my competitive sports career came to a halt when I went off to college.
The collegiate flag football and pick-up basketball games didn’t burn enough calories to cancel out all of those Busch Lights.
A couple years out of college, my wife and I had a daughter. We had a lot of fun putting on pregnancy weight together. But at that point, I wasn’t taking great physical care of myself and my pregnancy weight remained long after my daughter was born.
Fast forward to 2016, as a man now in recovery, it had been a little while since taking care of my body was on the priority list. I had lived a quarter of a mile from 212 for nearly 3 years and only saw the happenings of the gym when I was picking up take-out from Avenue N.
As someone who had mastered the art of short stints at places like Planet Fitness and the YMCA, the workouts I witnessed during my strolls past the 212 windows intimidated me. However another thing I observed was people who somehow appeared to be happy/excited about those workouts. Because of that and all of the positive feedback I had heard, I decided I needed to give it a shot.
On December 28th, 2016 I had my orientation with Sean. When he asked me what my goals were, it was pretty simple at that time.. I told him I just wanted to have SOME physical resemblance to an athlete again. I had not pushed myself physically in some time and I wasn’t too confident that I was going to stick this out.
But I did stick it out and the mental and physical changes started happening quickly. Not only do I have more energy, but my back pain has almost completely been removed, and perhaps most importantly, my golf game has improved tenfold.
It truly amazed me, and continues to amaze me, what an hour a day at 212 does for my mental and physical well-being. But nothing amazes me more than the fact that I’m one of those people that are happy and excited to be working out.
While I have a lot of work left to do, my first year at 212 has given me an excellent foundation and I’m looking forward to setting some more goals in 2018.
Can’t thank the entire 212 team enough for all that you have done and continue to do. I’m beyond grateful.
Keep moving!
Garrett