Chicago Fitness Owner Calls Working-out a Lifestyle Change


Staying fit should not be a temporary change, but a lifestyle one, fitness owner and National Fitness Spokesperson for the National Heart Association believes.
Andrea “Dre” Nicholas-Everett, Founder and CEO of D3: Dre’s Diesel Dome Fitness, LLC made her life change back in 1999. “I looked in the mirror one day and didn’t like what I saw and I had basically hit rock bottom. I said I’m going to do something about this right  now,” she told the Defender.
Up until that point she called herself a “start and stop” person” when it came to working out. After her wedding in 1998, she got comfortable so stopped.
Her love for fitness originated from her dream to become a choreographer. Her father didn’t encourage that as a career so after spending years in pharmaceutical sales, she became a part-time aerobics trainer. “It was kind of my own way of fulfilling my dream of choreography through getting fit and feeling great and still being able to choreograph my own workout,” she said.
Living a healthy life is challenging so her fitness center offers creative and motivating programs. The community feel and friendly atmosphere is what she believes sets her fitness center apart from others.
“We have this program called the Exercise Habit Coach at D3 and this is a program that I developed to help people make exercise a consistent habit. It basically helps people start exercising slowly,” said Nicholas-Everett.
Incentives push the members, therefore, D3 highlights members who complete their habit goal card. This is a small card that each member fills out when they start and it lists the classes they will take that week. The cards are collected every week and those with 100 percent receive a gold star and a mention in their newsletter. There are prizes towards the end of each quarter.
Nicholas-Everett believes accountability is crucial.
“We have an accountability buddy that we can assign people. Someone who has been a veteran with me for years will be assigned to someone who is new if they want it and what they do is check on them,” she said, “They’ll say, ‘when’s the next time you’re coming to class?‘ The person will say ‘I’m coming next Thursday’ so that [veteran] would call that person and say ‘hey you’re on your way?’”
To help make getting in fit easier, D3 will even come to groups. Their Mobile Fitness Program visits schools, businesses, churches, apartment complexes, wherever they have to if it accommodates people.
“One of the main things I love about teaching people is the transformation. When I see someone who maybe had never been able to make working out a commitment, they could never do it long term and now they are, they see the results and they absolutely love it, that’s really what inspires me,” she said.
There are a lot of myths when it comes to working out and living healthy. She says fad diets don’t work, overdoing the workout is not necessary and spot-training is impossible.
“Fad diets don’t work. So if it’s cutting something out like carbs, protein or making you eat only cabbage soup, they may work, but only short term,” she said.
It’s important to learn how to condition the body to consume five to six small meals per day. This increases a person’s metabolism and helps with weight loss.
It is also common for a person to go overboard in their workout, but she wants people to know that doing that harms the body more than helping it.
“When you first start working out there’s no need for you to go die-hard all the time because your body already has not been moving so even if you move a little bit and do the minimum effort you’re going to see results,” said Nicholas-Everett.
“When you first start, you don’t have to kill yourself, just start moving, start doing something. I think people are afraid of that. They think they won’t see results unless they puke and that’s just not the case,” she said.
Another popular myth is that people think they can only work on a specific part of their body, but she says it’s not possible.
“You can not spot train. I can not train you to only lose your stomach. You have to workout your entire body in order to lose your stomach,” she added.
D3 offers boot camp, Turbo Kick, Zumba, Kettlebell training, nutrition consulting and more. They also plan to re-start the children’s boot camp classes this year. These classes require a strong commitment so for people who aren’t quite ready to get a membership, there are smaller things they can do at home.
This summer, enjoy the treats in moderation. Try to walk more. Use light weights and pump your arms to get your heart rate up. Watch the fitness channel. She also recommends visiting Powertoendstroke.org for free 30-60-90 day plans she created for the site.
D3: Dre’s Diesel Dome Fitness, LLC., 125 E. 26th St. Visit d3getfit.com for more information.
Copyright 2012 Chicago Defender

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