My name is Tammy (also known as Miss Sass) and this is my story of how I met with Darren.

My sister (Dee) owns her own company and was approached by Darren to help him set up his business website. Their first meeting was 4 hrs long! Dee told me how amazing and passionate this guy was at personal training. Dee decided to sign us both up as clients!

I have struggled over the last 2.5 yrs watching my husband battle cancer. It has been a very exhausting road physically, emotionally and mentally. My husband had stage 4 colon cancer and he was told he had 2 yrs. This was devastating. We tried everything during this time and today after 5 surgeries, heat treatment, and chemotherapy he is doing ok! He rose to the challenge to beat cancer. And he did for now. His cancer is systemic so it can return anytime and anywhere. So, everyday together is a gift. I watched my husband rise about all odds and be ok. That fight inside you out weighs anything ANY doctor has to say.

Why is that when we help others we tend to forget about ourselves though? As my husband got better my health got worse. I became addicted to food. It made me feel better and was always there for me. When I was feeling down it was chocolate cake I ran to. The food got me through it but now I am 36 yrs old and I have gained 50 lbs.

I stopped caring for myself because all I could do was pray my husband would be ok. And my children…..My two beautiful girls who were ages 5 & 7 when we found out about my husband’s cancer. They have grown up learning what cancer can do. I needed to protect them and take care of my husband and the house. There was no time for me. My kids needed me. I needed them. We helped each other. I slowly continued my food addiction. It was take out, cake, and potato chips almost every day. I didn’t even realize what I was doing to myself. As my husband got better I started looking at myself and knew I needed to change. If my husband could fight cancer I could fight my food addiction. When Dee told me about Darren I wasn’t really sure. But that fight from inside me told me I must do this for me. It was time. I needed to get back into shape so I could be more active with my kids and be healthy no matter what challenges my husband would face in the future. I was finally ready to start working on me.

I agreed to meet Darren and Dee was ecstatic! She knew we could motivate one another and get through anything! I was on board and ready to start.

Just one problem: as I sat in my car with Dee just before our first session I couldn’t remember why I wanted to do this. I thought I still had time to run away. I didn’t want to start now. Maybe I could start next month. Dee was excited and wanted to get started. I thought about it and dragged myself in.

 That’s when I first met Darren. I looked at him thinking to myself – oh my he is quite good looking. I’m not going to be able to work out in front of him!!!!! No way! But then we started talking, he told us about the routine and how things would work. He was so happy to be helping us. He was quite inspiring. I was back on track. He explained how rotation fitness worked. It was kind of like circuit training but better. He would be there the whole time to help. Let’s do this!!!

We got started with our first session! I had a difficult time. I was really out of shape. I could think of a thousand reasons not to be doing this! It was hard. We did boxing, squats, weights, arm push thing, leg presses and good old fashion sit ups. I hated everything except the boxing. It released my stress and it felt great. I believe I told Darren to f*** off a few times. But he looked at me and made sure I kept going. It was nice to scream what I was feeling but it didn’t seem that Darren took it personally. That was great. He turned my frustration into fight. I did finish everything that was asked of me. Literally kicking and screaming. Darrrn was great. He kept on motivating me and stayed focused. I was impressed.

After the hard work was done we had a nice talk. We talked about food choices. I really needed to hear this. How to fuel your body to optimize your work out results….. Wow. I felt like I could make those changes they spoke of. It was this hard to get my work out done I was going to try my best to eat well too.

Well that was day one. I can’t feel my legs and Darren said it would be worse tomorrow. I thought in my head f*** you.

I apologized for the swearing and went home. Dee felt great. I felt good too but sore, very sore.

F***. Well I hope I make it back on Saturday. We will see. Hmmm..

Hope that fight inside of me is still there Saturday.

 Miss Sass