A True Client Testimonial! Congratulations Emily!

Sometimes Your Own Family Secretly Wants You To Fail!

Even though you have made the decision to become a better person, to improve your health, your body, your appearance, your lifestyle, sometimes it may be more disheartening when trying to get the support needed from your family members, especially a spouse.

Many times a family will be the cause of going back to the way it’s always been…eating fattening, sugary foods, not exercising, feeling lazy all the time, and blaming yourself again and again.

So there are two questions I have for you…

One, why do our own family members secretly feel this way and how do they secretly sabotage us?

Two, what can we do about it to help you in your success?

Let’s start with question one…Why do our family members secretly feel this way? That’s easy. They are simply put…Jealous! They have not built up the strength to do what you have started. Everyone drives themselves (in a health conscious manner) from their personal emotion. Your husband cannot and should not drive emotion to lose weight because you are unhappy with your body. Your husband needs to be unhappy in some way to make a change. If he simply tries to make a lifestyle commitment to improve himself from your emotion, it just won’t last. He has to have his own emotional feelings to make a personal change. Therefore, he may want you to succeed, but deep down, if he knows he doesn’t have the strength and willpower to make a change himself, he doesn’t want you to succeed. That will make him feel very weak and lonely himself.

So not knowing what he is doing, he will bombard you with uncontrollable emotional breakdowns, like bringing home donuts, or always having candy in the house. He might even give you something as a present for doing a great job, but secretly knowing it could help break you down, like a box of chocolates.

Your spouse doesn’t really want you to fail. They do love you and want the best for you, but they don’t want you to have success unless they know they can too. If they are simply not emotionally ready, they will secretly bombard and sabotage you, not really knowing that they are doing so.

Okay, so what can we do about this to help us achieve our successes we really want to have? We have obviously come to some kind of understanding that we need a change in order to feel better about ourselves. We understand that to be healthy, we must eat better than we used to. We must exercise more than we used to and in a proper way. We must take care of ourselves emotionally in order to maintain all this. We had some kind of emotional setback in our lifetime that scared us enough to do something about it. So keep this in mind that you have already made the commitment. It is there! That has not changed. Your reason for making an improvement is still there right in front of you.

The only thing that is different now is the lack of support from certain people. (the people that have not yet had that emotional breakdown, which is no fault to them. They just have not had it yet.) We need to make these people understand that even though they are not going through this, that these changes you are trying to make, to make yourself better, are very hard, emotionally, physically, even spiritually sometimes, and you will need all the help and support you can get.

You need to make these people understand that you cannot have junk food in the house. So if they have it, it’s got to be stored somewhere else. They must also understand that you need extra time now, time for your exercise, time for preparing healthy meals. By the way, you are only taking care of you, and no one else. If they want to be a part of it, they must tell you. Don’t make your family members eat healthy meals just because you have made the change. They must want to for a reason, an emotional reason they have themselves.

I'm not Perfect, How About You?

Thanksgiving week is next week. I'm sure many of you are trying to save room for the great feast. Trust me, I love all those fabulous foods as well. Yes, even the pumpkin pie (with cool-whip of course).


I'm definitely not perfect by any means, especially when it comes to the holidays. Most of you think that I don't cheat at all, that I eat perfectly all the time. The truth is, I cheat quite a bit. But for the most part, I eat pretty healthy. (I'm not trying to lose weight either).


I know I'll eat pretty badly this Thanksgiving, so I've been working out a little extra and a little harder the last few weeks. I know that during dinner I'll be fine. It's the deserts that kill me. You see if there are sweets in the house (cake, pie, candy, etc.) I'm a goner! That's why I don't keep any of that stuff in my house most of the year. If it's not there, I won't eat it. But this Thanksgiving, the pumpkin pie, the cherry pie, cookies and more, uhhggg. It's just as hard for me as it is for you!


So let's make a pact this Thanksgiving - a pact we'll do together, you and me! I'll only have one serving of everything at dinner, then one piece of desert. 4 hours later, I'll do it all again, but choosing a different desert this time. I might do this 3-5 times over a 2 day span, but at least I won't stuff myself all at once and make myself feel like crap! This way I get to have every desert there is (just once).


If I can do it, so can you! Come on, take the challenge with me. We are not perfect, nobody is! So let's both eat a healthier way this Thanksgiving. Enjoy you feast!

The Biggest Weekend of the Year is Finally Here!

It's the hard-nose, get down-N-dirty, rough-em, tough-em, bring it on kind of weekend. I'm talking about the best, I mean absolute BEST competitive sporting event ever to take place! I'm talking about the Ohio Sate vs. Michigan football game.
Yes, once per year I have the joy of watching this fantastic, can't miss event. And once per year I'll have the Monday after where I can rub in how the "big M" LOST AGAIN to all my fabulous Michigan clients that I do love dearly! They truly deserve it though!They like to talk down my beloved Buckeyes all year long, but when it comes down to the Monday after the game, every year it seems to be my turn again.

I'll put a little wager, a fitness wager if you will on it this year, cause' the "big M" is that bad. I'm talking absolutely awful!!!

That's right, I'll put a wager on it. All you Michigan clients of mine (you know who you are! The ones that harass me all year long, because you are so jealous.) you have to sign up with me for some more personal training sessions ( how about just half as many as my Buckeyes put up on the scoreboard. However, if Michigan does pull a miracle out of their you know whats, I'll give you FREE personal training sessions -again, half as many as the Wolverines put on the scoreboard.

My word is like Oak! Good luck to you!

P.S. Be careful of falling buckeyes from the heavens - (God's a Buckeye fan too!)

What was your "Pivotal Point" in Life?

Do you know your "Pivotal Point"? The point in which your life changed. The point in which you decided to do something about your health. The point in which you decided to transform your body into something better.

Maybe your "Pivotal Point" has yet to come, but most likely it already has.
My transformation experience started at the end of 6th grade.

At the end of our school year our school had one of those "field days" where the 6th grade class went to the park for a picnic and games and other stuff..

Let me explain a little more about my life at that point before I explain what happened that day…

I was a very scrawny, very shy boy that needed lots of help with almost everything in school. I lacked confidence, and was kind of wimpy. I was never really good at anything, except I was okay at basketball, but knew it was only because I was taller than everyone else at that age. I was a very weak and lazy kid. Pretty dumb too! It’s okay, I admit it.

So at this Field Day that was always held at the end of every school year, it always ended with a big race; a sprint across the park. The entire 6th grade class took part in this race all at once (probably about 200 kids I’m guessing).

I lined up with more seriousness than I’ve ever had in my entire life. I wanted to win this thing and show everyone that I was somebody too.

Well it just so happened that the fastest kid in the school was also in the 6th grade; his name: Kurt Witchey. I knew of him, but we had never really talked before (It’s funny that I ended up being very good lifetime friends with his much older brother, who is actually on this emailing list). Everyone, including me knew he was the fastest kid out there.

During those few moments, my entire life changed! That’s when I decided that I WAS somebody and I was going to run as fast as it took to beat Kurt.

It turns out that I ran away with that race. It was close, but I was the definite winner. I remember everyone saying after the race that they had no idea I was that fast, and people were talking about me being in the Olympics one day. I honestly couldn’t get enough of all the talking.

I’ve never felt so empowered in my life up to that point. It was awesome! From that point on I was somebody.

Well, I had to keep that perception throughout my school years, excelling at being a sprinter on the track teams. I ended up getting a scholarship to run in college and even continued to compete thereafter, and became a coach as well, teaching others what I had learned. This is what brought me into the life of fitness and to this point in my professional fitness career and why I’m so passionate at striving to be the best, and to keep improving.

So when I am feeling lonely, weak, and questioning myself, I think back to those years of my life where I was striving to keep that persona of the fastest boy in Dublin, Ohio. I think that toughened me and helped me achieve more in life.

All because of running faster than Kurt Witchey!

That was my transformation. That was my "Pivotal Point".

That’s my story.

What’s yours?

How did you decide to become a healthier, happier person? How did fitness make your life better? I want to hear from you.

Oh, and by the way… I’m curious: would you call your fitness experience a pivotal point or something different?

What terms would you use to describe your fitness experience?

I look forward to hearing from you!

Oh Yeah...Take a look at what I can do now in the video below!

My Halloween Adventure - Can You Keep Up?

Hey everyone! Chad Cannon here again. I just got back from spending a few days meeting Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and all their friends, flying through Peter Pan’s Neverland, playing with Buzz Lightyear and everyone from Toy Story, Winnie the Pooh, and yes Tigger too! I went through Space Mountain and saw magical parades! Yes you probably guessed it, I went to Disney World, the most magical place on earth! My wife and our two kids went for Halloween where EVERYONE was dressed up in some kind of costume. And Oh man, were they ever generous about giving out the candy!

So, you all know me by now and probably know that as I was having a fabulous time, I was also scoping out the range of fat people. Well, to my surprise I saw many, many skinnier people than I thought I would. (Maybe us fitness professional are getting our points across). In years past I would see about 60-70% overweight and/or obese people. Now if I looked at Americans only on this trip, I would have seen that 60-70%. That’s how bad America is!

So as I was killing myself trying to keep up with my 5 year old daughter at Disney World, I realized how I would have felt if I were not a healthy, in-shape person. I was pretty exhausted! I can’t even imagine how I would have felt being out of shape and unhealthy. That would have killed me.

For those of you that want to spend good, quality time with your kids, not yelling at them, being able to keep up with them, enjoying the rides with them at a great place like Disney World, I highly recommend losing that unwanted fat and start getting your body in-shape enough to do those types of activities. Not being able to do these things with my kids would make me feel like crap, and like a bad parent. That’s just my personal opinion. I would not want to hold back my kids from doing something fun like running around all of the Disney parks, riding all the rides, and meeting all the princesses and Mickey and his crew.

So if you don’t do it for yourself, at least get in shape and be healthy for your kids!



See How Much Fun It Is For Kids To Workout With Their Parents!

Jake, Your awesome!

Introducing our NEW Mother/Daughter Boot Camps!

It’s time to Empower Our Daughters!

Classes start THIS SATURDAY!!! Sign-Up NOW! Space is Limited!
Together we can be strong, healthy, and beautiful, inside and out! Join my wife, Tracey and my daughter Madeline, as they get fit together. Saturday’s at noon starting November 8th. Approx. age for daughters are 7-14, but all are welcome! Only $15 per class.

RSVP TODAY at 843-757-8626 or email chad@shapingconcepts.com to get more information.