"Where do I start...I guess I'll start by saying that Susan's motivation to help other people live healthier more active lifestyles comes from a common pivotal event in our lives. The death of Trent Van Hoosen was beyond shocking. My cousin Trent, was my age and was more like my brother. He was my confidant and someone that I admired all of my life. I guess you could say that Trent's death was also a real wakeup call about how I was living. In November when Trent passed away, I weighed approximately 265 pounds, I ate basically everything in sight without discretion; I'm lucky that I didn't weigh 465! So, as I was reevaluating life and what it meant to really feel like I was alive, both Susan and my wife encouraged me to go to the doctor. I found out that I was a full-blown diabetic. My doctor gave me a three-month challenge to say if you don't clean up your act you will be taking a handful of pills for the rest of your life. Of course, I've been talking to Susan all along about Trent's passing and what was next for her in life. When she disclosed her decision to become a Personal Trainer to me I really saw that as a perfect fit for her personality and her station in life. Even before she became a personal trainer she talked about nutrition and fitness and how important that was to her and it naturally inspired me. Susan has questioned and challenged me on a weekly basis since December. Through that personal accountability she helped inspire me on January 1 to order a set of yoga videos. I began with baby steps just doing very basic yoga and no real serious cardiovascular exercise. I begin to eat better and I tried to stay away from white processed foods. Soon Susan began talking about her INSPIRED BY FITNESS Clean Eating Challenge. I was super apprehensive because as I said before I didn't have a ton of discretion and what I put in my mouth but in April I did the clean eating challenge. With Susan's help I chose to eat Paleo throughout the entire month of April. For me that was really difficult because I really, really enjoyed good cheese and wine. I did do the one cheat day once per week and I found that that was a way to help with moderation. But the interesting part is even on a cheat day I really didn't eat that poorly. On the cheat day I would add Maytag blue cheese to my salad.... big whoop! There in lies the lifestyle change, and I couldn't be happier. Even though Susan and Inspired by Fitness are 7 hours away, her advice and virtual training has helped transform my life into a more fit, happier, healthier and slightly sexier human. I now do a Boot Camp program close to my home and eat clean. For the record I have lost 50 lbs but that is only one metric for success. I believe the more important gauge is how much better I feel about EVERYTHING.
That is what a lifestyle change is all about. And Whether that life is just one more day or 30 more years we can't know. Thank you Susan! Love you."