In late 2006, the revolution began. Unlike the American Revolution and the original colonists creating the 13 colonies, the Million Dollar Body revolution, as it was known then, was begun by 42 “founding colonists” committed to a modern day American Revolution. The “new revolution” was not a war of religion or ideology fought on battlefields, but rather a war against the insidious health menace of obesity that seemingly could not be defeated with “conventional warfare”. Sporting goods companies, gyms, diet pill manufacturers and many others all tried but their efforts were to no avail. Then along came the vision and passion and brilliance of CEO Carl Daikeler and his idea of creating an “army” of warriors who were to follow in the footsteps of the original 42 and who would wage this battle from person to person, house to house, community to community. In just over 2 years, the war is now being fought, not with 42, but rather with over 18,000 individuals who have said, “yes we can and yes we will” defeat the epidemic of obesity and return us to a healthy nation and a healthy society, free of this menace.
As Carl Daikeler said in a recent blog, “the tipping point is approaching, and the $18 Billion gym business will shift as 200 million overweight Americans realize they can get fast results right at home with the support of a community that is focused on people helping people get real results!” We are those people helping people – the warriors who have made a commitment to win this war against the obesity epidemic and to achieve prosperity in the process.
I am proud to say that since beginning as a coach on January 8, 2007, I have become a full time, Diamond Coach with over 20 dedicated personally sponsored coaches and over 5,500 members. I have embraced the role of a warrior and engage in the battle all day, every day. Although a group of us have been able to be full time coaches, that isn’t possible for most coaches. Perhaps it began for you at a time in your life when you could be committed and life changed. Perhaps your own battles with weight and health issues weighed you down and you became dispirited. Perhaps you may have gotten in with good intentions but then became disillusioned because being a “warrior” wasn’t so easy. Whatever level of commitment you find yourself in right now, right at this very moment, know in your heart that we are a team – Team Beachbody – and we are here to support you.
I recently sent out an email to my personally sponsored coaches entitled, “The Miracle of Personal Development” and I realized at that moment that I should be sharing the knowledge, experience, passion and wisdom that I have accumulated over these two years not with just my Team Howtobefit coaches, but also with everyone in my “battalion” who wants and needs help. We are the United Coaches of America, united in purpose and bound to each other in spirit.
The justification for and tactics used in all wars is always questioned. But with the obesity epidemic spreading at alarming rates and the conventional means of combatting it failing, the concept of deploying a network of coaches engaging in “hand to hand” combat was justified and the results are evident.
In all wars, however, there are the dead and the wounded and the affected. The dead in the case of coaches are those who have been unable to continue for whatever reason or moved on to other great battles to fight. The wounded are those who have left the battlefield unable to continue or are intending to return to the fray as soon as they are able. The affected are those who have been helped by a coach only to see them move on to other battles and be left with no support and guidance. The affected are also those in the “counter insurgency” who are waging a war of disinformation about us to undermine our efforts.
If you have left the battle altogether, let us continue to send you the information that you need to support your troops in the field who continue to fight on. If you are wounded, let us do the same until you can return. There is a wealth of information, resources, links and advice that we can pass on to you so that you in turn can pass it on to your “troops” and to the very people whose lives we are trying to “save”.
We need every able bodied “warrior” to fight this battle, not only against the epidemic of obesity, but also against the forces at work in our society and in our nation that create the lifestyle choices that got us into this situation. As I said earlier, we are united in purpose and bound in spirit and we cannot afford to lose this war. Winning this war will have far reaching consequences not only on the people whose lives we touch and our own well being, but also in winning the war against the recession as we lower health care spending and health care costs and increase our own net worth.
