Today was a bittersweet day for our family.
Our Saturday tradition of metabolically melting down at Alive Fitness and Training Center ends with the closing of this wonderful establishment the 1st of October.
I am so eternally grateful to Paula and Angela and everyone we have had the pleasure to meet in classes at Alive the past year.
Paula embodies the concept of earning each year of life (I’m sorry, but I just can’t use the word aging or getting older when it comes to Paula) with physical grace and respect for the idea that your body is truly a temple. So many times Lisa said that she wants to earn her future years with the same class and grace and attention to food lifestyle and fitness that Paula has.
Angela is a shining example to Elliana of what fitness looks like and the past year of family workouts there have permanently imprinted a vision of what fit women look like. As Elliana turns a few year shy of teenagedom this week, I can’t imagine a better role model for her to have had than Angela.
Paula and Angela created a fitness experience that we loved. That’s saying a lot for a family that hated anything related to a gym. Our family picture has changed because the Alive family invited us into the most nurturing but gut wrenching metabolic Saturday workout we had ever done.
I’ve watched my wife transformed from pre-diabetic and blood pressure med dependent to a total athlete with a competitive streak I never imagined existed.
I watched our pediatrician marvel at Elliana’s transformation from 95th percentile weight at 9 years old and height to 50th percentile optimum as she turns 11. Her transformation is posted on her doctor’s office wall like a gold star award for what can happen when a family changes their entire food and exercise lifestyle.
When I think of all the inflammatory pain Lisa went through during our infertility years, I often wonder if all the inflammatory foods we ate might have made things worse. At least we know Elliana is armed with the education how to keep her body free of foods that could flare up this disease if it should happen to lurk in her genetics as she gets older.
Paula made us feel like celebrities when she interviewed us this summer and featured our story in the Alive newsletter like a proud mom showing off the achievements she feels like she was a part of.
Thank you Alive, for making us feel more alive than ever.
I can say with absolute certainty, we are better people, a stronger family, and more alive, because of our time spent together at Alive.
God bless you and I only pray that you will have even more opportunities to shape other family’s lives the way you’ve helped shape ours.