2013.

HOLY SMOKES. WHAT A YEAR! 

I feel like since I hit about 18 years old I have taken the time at the end of each year to look back and think about what I actually accomplished. I was never one to necessarily "set goals" other than to come out better than the year before. 'Back in the day' when I was 18 we didn't have "Facebook Yearly Reviews" and it was easier to forget about the fun parties, new shoes, BroScience movies and killer workouts I can now post freely about and receive "Likes" for. But I will say, 2013 in particular was an insane year for me. Insane in SO many ways.
As time goes on I keep realizing that listening to my gut will always be the way to go. No, not listening to my gut as in losing interest in rationality and logic, but in a way that it is eventually the deciding factor for many of my decisions after reason and logic have already been exhausted. I am learning that there really are no "bad" decisions. Everything can eventually be sorted out. Yes, sometimes this can be very inefficient, but hey, I'm a stubborn girl who must learn everything for herself.
So, as I sit here on my couch with my nalgene water bottle, road bike lit up with Christmas lights (clearly I have given up on this sport), and my third story Fort Collins apartment living room view of Campus West, I can truly say that this time last year I had no idea - I MEAN NO IDEA - that I would be doing what I am now. Life is funny that way.

Oh yea - that is me at Macklemore. 

Before I get all serious, the top songs for me for this year were "Just Hold On" by Drake, "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line, and HANDS DOWN, "Can't Hold Us" by Macklemore. That might as well just be my life song forever. Rock On Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. And the story goes...

This time last year I was living in Breckenridge, Colorado working as the Marketing Manager at Kenosha Steakhouse and bar-tending at One Ski Hill Resort. I ended up in Breckenridge after finishing my internship for Vail Recreation District at Vail Resort with the hope to fall in love with the mountain town lifestyle. Ya, no. Don't get me wrong, I tried, and being able to snowboard whenever I wanted was definitely pretty awesome. But wow, after spending over $50,000 getting my college degree in Sports Medicine at CSU, these jobs were not what I wanted to be doing. I was ready to have a real person job and make some real money.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't BAD to snowboard every day...

I had no idea what I wanted to do. I remember spending hours on the internet searching for jobs. For awhile I kept trying to get in with RedBull. Then GoPro. Then Fox. Then one night I realized I would probably have better luck if I actually applied to something that had to do with my major. I noticed a job posting for a personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness and remembered I had a friend who was a manager at the Fort Collins location. I didn't really want to move back to Fort Collins, or go back to personal training, but at that point anything besides Breck was good for me. I was girl time deprived (due to an extreme lack of females in Summit County) and sick of being cold non-stop (mountain town problems). Not to mention my job was anything but challenging. Bar-tending at the base of Peak 8, making small talk all day to a bunch of stuck up Texans was not what I got my degree for. A couple of days later, I had an interview with the manager at 24 Hour Fitness, Fort Collins. In fact, my interview was on New Years Day, and after the night out I had the night before that (NYE), I can truly say I have no idea how I landed that job. Granted I did have 8 years of training experience, and they were in pretty desperate need for women trainers. Cool! I was excited.

My graduation present: Virgin Island Cruise
with my awesome grandma! January, 2013

I went back to Breck, quite my jobs, packed up my stuff, went on a cruise to the Virgin Islands with my Grandma for my graduation present, and moved to Fort Collins a couple of weeks later. I wasn't sure if Fort Collins was where I was supposed to be, but at the time I had a guy I was pretty into and lots of friends that lived there, so I figured it would be okay. I started my job at 24 and INSTANTLY fell in love. I couldn't wait to go to work. It didn't even matter that I knew the corporation was basically taking all my money, turning me into a sales person, and teaching me how to trick people into thinking they needed personal training for anything and everything, I didn't care. I was so passionate about training and helping people get healthy that none of those things ever crossed my mind. One night ( March 28th, 2013 - this was a big night in the whole realm of things) I was concerned about many of my clients who had the drive to exercise and lose weight, but who weren't able to afford the prices at 24. I decided I was going to create a women's only boot camp program that included everything they would need to lose weight and be successful (nutrition, workouts, fitness tips, etc). To make a long story very, very short, I worked the system at 24 to make this affordable, worked my ASS off creating a complete healthy and realistic weight loss program, and ended up having 65 participants sign up for the 1st round of boot camp. This was the greatest group training success the company had ever seen. I even offered a round two the next month and had 54 more sign up plus 23 more for the new boot camp. Ah, this was fun. Everyone was getting results, summer was coming, life was good.

One of the night sessions of Summer Body Bootcamp at
24 Hour Fitness, Fort Collins. 

A couple weeks into boot camp Level 2, one of the participants asked me if I had any interest in training abroad, (another big event in the whole realm of things). I said absolutely! Anyone who knows me knows I have had a longing desire to travel for a long, long time. Turns out, her brother basically owns 80% of the market in the fitness industry in the Middle East. We are talking Dubai/Jordan. After looking more in to it, having my dad yell at me about being ignorant and silly to take any opportunity I get (especially in that part of the world), praying a TON, and basically stocking the gym owner to find out everything I could before committing, I knew I had to go. I would regret it forever if I didn't.

One of my boot camp sessions :)

Cool right? Ha. Here comes the whirlwind/twister/storm/tsunami.
The rainbow comes eventually...

I have no desire to even write out the series of events that took place after I received this opportunity, but to make a long story very, very short, the assistant manager was fired for things I will not say to the public, and then the general manager was let go for never filing the case. My boyfriend I was with at the time and I broke up, and then I went to Costa Rica on an epic vacation to escape this crazy series of events. When I got back I quite 24, started my own business, and then got ready to go to Jordan.

Costa Rica :)

Right before I left for Jordan I started talking with one of the trainers, Kit, I used to work with at 24. He was always one of the top trainers there and had a very consistent client base. This started going pretty well and he was the one of the only people I still talked to while in Jordan. (More on that later).

The middle east wasn't anything like what I had expected. I am so glad I had my friend Maram Ashe with me (she was a Jordan native and spoke fluent Arabic) because she helped me adjust to a lot of social norms I wouldn't have had any idea about otherwise. Other than that, the food was BOMB, best hummus I have ever tasted. Nice weather, very nice people, and a great suite in the middle of downtown. The gym I worked at was gorgeous - 100,000 square feet and luxurious. The trainers I worked with were smart and attentive - they were all so respectful to me. The gym owner and his family treated me SO well. He even sent us to the Dead Sea one day and got us a room in case we wanted to relax. I was truly treated like royalty there and doing what I LOVED to do. The only thing that remotely sucked was that I was there during Ramadan, so during the day food wasn't always available. But whatever, I lost a couple pounds so it was fine. The trip was awesome, it was my dream.

Teaching "group training games"

To make my dream even more of a reality, my boss there asked me if I would like to work for him and this is literally what my job description was:
- Obtain necessary certifications to become a master trainer in anything I can
- Bring certifications back to his gyms
- Stay on top of the latest and greatest things happening in the fitness industry
- Tell him what he needs to buy to keep him ahead of the game

On our way to the Dead Sea, we stopped on the highway
road camels!!

Um... really???? Let me think......
This truly is a smart business move on his part. But it was such a win-win situation. I was so excited.
Of course, I accepted this offer.

The first thing he wanted me to do was get certified in TRX and Crossfit. He had bought 2 gyms for Crossfit - one in Amman and one in Dubai. Upon returning to Colorado, I immediately enrolled in TRX and Crossfit certification courses. I had a lot of experience with both, and was excited to get the certifications. During the Crossfit seminar I was very intrigued - to the point that I literally wouldn't even take bathroom breaks during the lecture because I didn't want to miss anything. That is pretty crazy for ADD Jourdan...

One of the many crazy workouts we did in Crossfit. My
coach is creative and uses our pictures as backgrounds.

Needless to say, after attending the course I decided to invest in a private coach to help me learn how to "coach" and fine tune my Olympic lifts. Luckily I randomly came across Wild Horizons Crossfit  and the coach (Ryan Garcia) agreed to do some private lessons for me. Fortunately for me, Ryan was one of the best coaches I have ever had to this day.. Such a great instructor and perfect for what I needed. This was the start of my beautiful, blossoming relationship with Crossfit. I have been in the fitness industry for a LONG time, and no other training I have ever done has changed my body the way Crossfit has. I have lost a great amount of body fat and gained an even greater amount of muscle. I can tell by my ability to now eat bacon as much as I want and not gain a pound. Crossfit is a good challenge for me - I love the feeling of accomplishment I feel after every workout. I also love the community. Everyone is so nice. I have definitely become very passionate about Crossfit.

Me, dying I am sure in a Crossfit workout at Wild Horizons

So, in the meantime while I was training, getting certified, falling in love with Crossfit, having an amazing time with Kit, and working my butt off to build my own business, I was running boot camps at parks in Fort Collins. I will say, I had NO idea what I was doing starting my own business, but it worked! 40 or more of my clients from 24 Hour followed me over to boot camps, and when it got too cold to run them outside I started renting space from a local gym right across the street from 24. Slowly I stopped running boot camps and just offered group and personal training, which booked my schedule up from 6am-8pm. I was a nutcase. I still am. It was so amazing to be able to have a booked schedule full of clients, but by the end of the day, WOW. EXHAUSTED. On a good note, I slept like a BABY.

Boot Camp at Warren Park

This past month I have been slowly cutting down on clients to prepare everything for my upcoming trip. It is definitely a lot harder than I thought it would be. I love every one of my clients so much, and they all have goals that they are working so hard to achieve. But I know they will be okay while I am gone. In addition, I get to bring Kit with me to help train this time around. This will be so beneficial for me - I can't imagine doing it alone. I am set to leave for 2 months come January 6th, 2014. I will be traveling to Dubai first and then straight to Amman to meet Kit and start WORK! Oh yea, did I mention Kit gets to come with me to help train???? Still so excited for that.

A fun boot camp session at Choice Training Center

Wow. That took way longer to write than I thought. I had to leave so much out too. Needless to say, 2013 was a year of taking some really big risks and reaping really big benefits. It was a year of actually tuning in to what I truly wanted as a person and attracting everything good that I could imagine into my life. This year I lost some, including love, but gained an even better lover - one that makes me want to be better and that I actually want to be with for as long as I can. This year I learned that honesty is ALWAYS necessary - and lying will never get anyone anywhere good in life. I learned that working hard will always pay off, and that to have good friends you have to be a good friend. I learned that I am finally at the point where I don't need anyone else's approval or opinion to make myself feel beautiful - and that beauty comes from what I believe about myself.  This year I learned to stop trying to be friends with people who don't care, and to value the friends that have made a point to stay in my life. This year I learned that I truly do LOVE mountain biking and I am still having withdrawals from my lack of riding this summer. This year I learned that I will always love personal training, and I have the most amazing clients anyone could ever ask for.This year I learned that taking risks, listening to my gut, and letting go of my need to try and control life is the only way to truly live my dreams.

An amazing shoot I got to be in for Swobo Bikes.
Copyright: Darren Mahuron

Wow 2013. You rock. Thank you God. I feel so blessed by opportunity.
Cheers to an even better 2014.