Surviving Cancer

Surviving Cancer

Today my father-in-law Rick “Poppy” Taylor received his first haircut in over 21-months.  When my wife Emily Drew and I announced that God had blessed us with our second baby, Poppy committed the same thing that he did when Rock Mash was announced.  He vowed not to cut his hair until their first birthday, and then he would donate his surrendered locks for a wig to be used for cancer patients.  So why did he do this?

This is where the story really starts.  Emily Drew was the first and only love of my life.  As a matter of fact, I was pretty much the worst man in the world to any woman that I ever came into contact with before her.  I met Emily Drew as God was beginning the process of changing my heart.  I am confident that it was this change that has allowed me to love her with such vigor.  However there was one more thing that God allowed to make sure this love would never end.

Two days before we were to wed, we were told that Emily Drew had a rare form of uterine cancer that had spread to her lungs.  Can you imagine the bombshell that was to her?  She was planning a wedding, and now she was in a battle for her life.    I didn’t know what to do.  I reacted like I had my whole life.  I was mad at the entire world.  A part of me was mad at God.  I know that was crazy, but I am just telling the story.

We started her treatments the very next day.  The day before our wedding, we were at the Wake Forest Baptist Oncology Center, so that they could run a poison through her veins in hope that the poison might kill the cancer.  That began the battle for my love’s very life.

We were married the very next day, and she looked as beautiful as ever.  Our wedding was incredible filled with dancing, laughing, and the love of our family and friends.   It was a beautiful day on the farm.  The sun was shining, and everyone was happy.  However inside there was something looming that I knew would have to be dealt with, the battle for my new bride’s life.

Our honeymoon was amazing.  We spent ten days in Key West.  We loved on each other and enjoyed the sunshine.  When we got back, the battle begun.  The Chemo would suck the energy from Emily Drew.  She would just lie on the couch and try not to vomit.  I was busy a lot trying to pay the bills and start our lives together. 

It was at night when the world was quiet that I would really face the immense battle that my incredible wife was waging.  I didn’t sleep a lot those days.  Mainly I would just hold her the whole night through praying until I would finally drift off.  What was the prayer?  Well it was pretty much the same prayer every night.

Me to God:  “Dear Lord please not now.  I have waited my entire life to find someone that I would always love.  I have waited my entire life to find someone that I could marry and honor as You have commanded.  I am powerless.  I know that now.  You are the only one that can save her.  Please don’t take her from me.” 

Time went on, and it appeared that she was getting better.  Then the second bomb was dropped on us.  The doctor informed us that Emily Drew was getting worse, and they were forced to try a more aggressive approach.  It was the first moment that I faced the possibility that she might die.  I was destroyed inside.  I mean I was absolutely destroyed.  It was the first time that I saw Emily Drew cry, and my heart was ripped in pieces at that moment. 

We were meeting my best friend, Kevin Jones and his family at Polly’s Island, SC the same day that we received the terrible news.  I was in the ocean with Kevin riding the waves like we had done so many times since childhood.  Then I looked onto the beach at my wife lying under an umberella, she loved the sun by the way, and I lost it.  I burst into tears, and my friend held me until I was over it. 

Now for the good news!  After a year of dealing with this monster, God cured my wife.  Thank God it was a form that is very unlikely to ever come back.  I often wonder if God allowed this to happen so that I would learn right away the gift that He was giving my in her.  I hope not, but if so, it worked.  Not a night goes by that I don’t look over at my wife and thank God for this amazing creature lying beside me.  My boys will grow up in a home with a dad that loves their momma.

What’s the moral of this story?  I am not sure really, but if you are married, kiss your wife every night before you go to bed, let her win arguments, clean the kitchen, and take out the trash.  Guys love your wives like there is no tomorrow because someday there won’t be one.

I love you Emily Drew, and thank God for answering my prayer.

From a Burning Car

From a Burning Car

I am writing this minutes after helping two other men pull a lady from a burning car.  I was in my home watching Lasha Talaxadze become arguably one of the greatest weightlifting heavyweights of all-time.  Then out of nowhere, I hear a massive boom as if a bomb had gone off.  I rushed to look out the door, and I saw what appeared to be a crash.  I jerked my shoes on, grabbed my flashlight, and ran towards the road. 

When I arrived on the scene, a sweet little African-American lady was trying to get away from her burning car.  There were two other men on the scene, so we dragged the lady from the car and out of the road.  Her right lower leg had a massive gash that was bleeding, so I took my coat off and applied pressure to the wound.  Then the car ignited even more, and I just knew that it was going to explode.  I have probably watched too many movies as I was anticipating a small nuclear blast.

This scared the daylights out of me, so we drug the lady farther away from the scene.  I felt so badly for the sweet lady as she was screaming in pain.  All that I could think about was what if this was my wife or mother laying in the middle of the road.  Then the thought dawned on me, “was there someone else in the car?”  I asked the lady if she was the only one in the car, and she told us that she was the only one.  I am honest in saying that I was thankful because I was scared.  I didn’t want to get killed trying to save someone else, but I was going to do it.  Not because I am some hero, but because that’s what people do in times like this. 

This article isn’t really about that.  It’s about looking in that sweet lady’s eyes as she lay in the rain with a bleeding leg and broken ankle.  She looked so scared and sad, and my heart broke for her.  I just wanted to hold her, and all of a sudden in that moment color no longer existed.  It was a sweet old lady probably someone’s mother, sister, or grandmother, and some buys just trying to help her.  I sit down beside her and applied pressure to her leg with my coat, and I just talked to her trying to bring her comfort.  I just wanted her to be ok.

Soon help arrived, and the three of us helped the EMTs and the Police get her stabilized and into the ambulance.  During my short walk back to the house, my heart was broken for the world.  I thought of all the hate in the world inflicted on others because of a different color of skin.  I felt a pain that crushed my heart, and made me sick to my stomach.  I can only imagine the hurt that God must feel when He looks down on the world. 

This little lady had the sweetest brown eyes that seemed to glow in the night as they reflected the lights of the flashlights.  Her face had glimpses of a life filled with love, loss, happiness, and defeats an American Tale that so many of us share.  We all have stories.  We have things that we are proud of, and we have things that we regret.  Some of us have success more than others, but one thing for sure we’ve all lived in the same world.

Within this world we encounter people that aren’t the same as us.  Some have different hair than others.  Some have different skin.  Some are tall, and some are short.  However tonight I realized that there is one place that we are all the same.  When I stared into the eyes of this battered woman, I realized that we are all the same in the eyes.  Yeah some are blue, some are green, and some are brown, but an eye is an eye.  This little lady was just a little lady.

How can racism ever end?  I didn’t find the answer tonight, but my heart sure was broken for the world.  What makes someone hate a group of people because of their color of skin?  How can this still happen in 2017? 

·      Whites hate blacks

·      Blacks hate whites

·      Jews hate Muslims

·      Muslims hate Jews

·      Atheists hate Christians

·      Christians hate atheists

The list can go on and on, but no one can ever give a good reason for any of this.  It makes no sense.  Here’s a thought: people are people.  Now that’s a fact.  This little lady was no different than my own mother lying in the road beside a burning car.  She wasn’t a black lady.  She was just a lady lying in the road scared, cold, and confused in immense pain. 

During 9/11, for a split second America was united.  We were all afraid and angry, and we just wanted to help one another.  We were just people.  Then after some time, things went back to normal.  People start hating anyone different than them, and no one can ever give a solid answer for any of the hate.  I just don’t get it.

When I walked back in my home tonight, my wife was up waiting on me to get back home.  She has watched me pull the lady from the car.  I told her what happened, and then we just held each other.  I was scared, wet, and trembling, but mainly I was sad.  I was heartbroken that my children have to grow up in a world filled with so much hate and prejudice. 

You know God gives us two main rules to live by:  Love Him with all our heart, and Love others like we do ourselves.  That just about sums it all up.  If we could just focus on these two things, none of this mess would ever happen.  He doesn’t say to love others that look like us. 

I am not sure if any of these words mean a thing to any of you, but I needed to say them.  I pray that lady is ok, and I hope that her hospital room is filled with loved ones.  I pray for a world filled with people that simply love each other.  I pray for a world that is color blind. 

All of us strive for a better life.  All of us want to see our loved ones safe and happy.  All of us want to be happy, and we want our families happy.  We all have good times and bad times.  These similarities are a good place to start our new focus.  Instead of thinking so much about our differences, let’s focus on these similarities.  I’m not saying that we will always agree on things.  You don’t have to agree with me.  My rights end where your rights begin.  Don’t force me to think like you, and I want force you to think like me.  If we remember these words, we can get through this life together helping each other and loving each other. 

We teach our children these lessons.  Don’t you think that it’s time that we follow those lessons?

Scene from outside my front porch.

Importance of Movement

Importance of Movement

L.E.A.N. Fitness Systems officially opened this week.  We are all excited to bring this amazing new facility to Lewisville, NC to serve the greater Triad area.  We are a unique facility in the way that we serve the general fitness community with men and women simply trying to get in better shape along with amazing athletes trying to be the best in the world.  So what common bond do these populations share?

Movement!  It’s the one area most overlooked by gyms around the world.  Too many small gyms open up around the country because somebody wants to own a gym or box.  They probably worked out for a year or so, loved the process and community, and decided that they could do the same thing.  Hey look I am excited that there are more opportunities for people to get in shape.  However are these people qualified?  What do they know about functional human movement?

Yeah highly intense workouts are great for conditioning and possibly aid in the weight loss category.  However if movement isn’t performed properly, you are probably setting people up for injury and failure.  The body is like any other machine.  If you run it on high with bad alignment, then breakdown will inevitably occur. 

So many people think that weight loss is the one and only thing that matters in fitness.  That’s so untrue.  It’s one piece of a very big puzzle.  At L.E.A.N we make a good argument that ‘movement’ is more important than weight loss.  Here’s the thing.  No one wants to workout if it hurts.  No one wants to be in a group exercise class if they can’t do the movement due to limitations. 

The older I get, the more I realize that I value playing with my kids and going on walks with my wife more than anything fitness related.  I want to be able to bend, squat, lunge, jump, run, throw, and reach without restriction or especially without pain.  All too often adults nowadays sit at a desk in front of a computer screen all day long.  That leads to tight hips, bad posture, and a restricted thoracic spine.  All of this leads to pain, injuries, and lack of movement.  If you can’t move well, how do you expect to exercise and lose weight? 

Remember how easy it was to exercise and keep the weight off when we were young?  I do for sure.  It was because we were moving, playing, and exercising without pain and restrictions.  Now that we have spent the last several years not moving, the first step is getting that movement back.  That’s not an overnight process, but you will notice improvements rather quickly with the right system and process.

This same system applies to our athletes.  We teach all of our members optimal functional movement patterns, which allows them to reach their goals.  Optimal movement patterns allows people to exceed their goals whether it’s:

·      Weight loss

·      Sprinting

·      Conditioning

·      Jumping

·      Strength

·      Cardiovascular fitness

Too many gyms or boxes claim to have the best coaches, which to us is laughable.  What substantiates their claims?  I know if someone asks us what makes us the best, that’s an easy question to answer.  Here are the things to look at when choosing a gym:

·      Experience

·      Degrees

·      Results from their members

·      Certifications

Two of our owners have been training for over thirty years and coaching for over twenty years.  All of our coaches have a minimum batchelors degree, three of our coaches have a Master’s, three of them have the NSCA CSCS Certification, two of them have their USAW Senior International Coach certification (there’s a handful in the entire country), and our results are measurable the best in the country whether athletically, fitness, weight loss, or anti-aging. 

Coaches like this take movement seriously.  We perfect it, so all of you reach your ultimate goals.  We make no exceptions.  When someone joins our facility, they are putting their fitness goals in our hands.  We take that very seriously.  Whether it’s us or not, all of you deserve coaches that take your goals and fitness levels very seriously.

The main point that I am writing this blog is to give you guys some insight.  I know that most adults come to a point in their lives where they want to lose weight and get back in shape.  Unfortunately they only use the scale to monitor progress.  The scale is definitely a measurement that deserves attention, but movement is at least just as important.  If you learn to move better, everything else will come much easier and much more quickly.  Hopefully this insight will make your fitness journey much more exciting and enjoyable.

If you are in the area, we want to offer a FREE Week to get you started on your fitness journey.  Email us at:  è Chris@tfw-WS.com

Weightlifting World Championships 2017: A Different Insight

Senior Worlds 2017

A lot of you might know that I am hanging out at the Weightlifting Senior World Championships with three of Mash Mafia’s finest: Brian Reisenauer, Jordan Canrtell, and Nathan Damron, and our entire coaching staff of Vinh Huynh, Don McCauley, and me.  However this article isn’t about their preparation, our programming, or anything like that.  It’s about the other aspect of sport that people rarely talk about.  It’s the real reason that we have World Championships and the Olympics, or at least it should be the real reason.

I was reminded of underlying goal when I was at breakfast this morning.  I ate breakfast with men and women from all over the world.  I was in the same room as Iranians, Italians, and Koreans.  I waited in line with them, and I sat beside them.  You know what I noticed?  They were just like me. 

Yeah we didn’t speak the same language, but they interacted with their peers the same way that Americans do.  They laughed, and they joked with each other.  It was a beautiful to just sit back and watch.  This was a room full of athletes and coaches with dreams just like mine.  None of them was really caring about the differences in religion or government.  For this small moment in time, we were all the same.

We are all the same!  We are just humans trying to survive this crazy world.  I have to believe that it is the governments and the media that create the divides for power and money.  I can’t believe that humans at the very basic level care one way or the other.  Yeah I love my God, and I rely on my faith.  Yeah I believe that it would be advantageous for everyone, but I don’t hate anyone for not believing like me.  I don’t think that most humans really care.

Sports at an International level remind all of us that we can all get along.  It should remind us that we are all the same at the most basic of levels.  All of us want a chance to improve our lives.  All of us want a purpose on this earth.  All of us want to protect our families.  All of us want the ability to worship and believe in the way that we choose without anyone or any country trying to hinder those abilities.  We just want to be respected for the way that we want to live our lives.  You don’t have to agree with me nor I you, but we must respect each other.  Empathy is so hard to find in this world.  However when athletes come together at a World Championships or Olympics, empathy can be found in abundance. 

I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina in an area with a 1% minority population.  I dreamed of meeting people from around the world.  Racism was fairly copious in the mountains.  The locals seemed to fear people that weren’t like them.  A lot of the locals believed that people were dangerous if they didn’t look like, act like, and believe like them.  I wanted to put these beliefs to the test. 

I have never had the ability to believe people simply based on their opinion or their thoughts.  I have always wanted proof.  Heck I got into trouble more than once in middle school and high school for debating teachers.  I didn’t believe that I was smarter than them.  I just wanted proof from time to time. 

Athletics have led me all over the world.  I have met people from countries around the globe, and I am yet to meet a group of people that frightened me.  As a matter of fact I often find way more similarities than differences.  Last night Coach Vinh, Coach Sean Waxman, and I ate with a group of lifters from England.  It was the most amazing time.  I felt like I was eating with characters from “Harry Potter”.  I loved it.  I guess I just exposed the fact that I love “Harry Potter”.  Yeah it’s true.

For all of you athletes out there aspiring to compete Internationally someday, I hope that you realize that there is something much more special about the opportunity than simply competing.  It’s the experience of coming together as a Planet.  It’s realizing that we are all so similar.  Sports have the unique ability to spread this understanding of one another. 

Look I am not some overly optimistic kid right out of college.  I get it.  We live in a world filled with some good and some bad people.  As long as there is money and power to be had, governments and powerful people will try to get more than their share.  Ultimate power corrupts ultimately!  That doesn’t mean that all the rest of us have to succumb to the same evil. 

Athletics has blessed me with the ability to travel all over the world.  I thank God for that opportunity.  Last night when the athletes from England told me that people in England used my programming, I realized the opportunity that God has given me.  Who would of thought that a boy from the mountains of North Carolina would have people from around the world reading his books and using his workout programs?  I never dreamed that this would be possible.

My goal is to show the rest of the world that people are all the same.  None of us are really that different despite what you might hear on television or worse Facebook.  Today a guy from Iran passed me the ketchup, and we exchanged the universal gesture of kindness, a smile.  In that small moment, I realized that all the negative things that I have heard about Iranians are false.  They are people just like me.  They have dreams and hopes just like me.  They have sons and daughters, moms and dad, and wives just like me.  Today I pray to God that He gives us all the ability to love one another just like He commanded multiple times in His word.

Some of you might know that we opened the doors to L.E.A.N. Fitness Systems this past Monday.  We wanted a gym where all would be welcome.  A place for all to reach their goals, and I believe that we have done just that.

If you are looking for weightlifting, general fitness, athletic performance, boot camps, or powerlifting, you can email us at:

è Chris@tfw-WS.com