This document describes how sweat became the catalyst for the author to find their passion and live their truth. It shows before and after photos of the author's fitness journey, starting with hiding behind fat and ending with a transformed physique. The text encourages readers to find their own catalyst, asking if sweat will help them discover their passion and truth, just as it helped the author. It provides contact information for the SWEAT OKC fitness program that seemed to inspire the author's transformation.
17. “If one advances confidently in the
direction of his dreams, and
endeavors to live the life which he
has imagined, he will meet with a
success unexpected in common
hours.”
-Henry David Thoreau
18. What is going to be your
catalyst to find your passion
and live your truth????
Will it be SWEAT?
20. FFo
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Editor's Notes
Fat Talk:  How sweat became the catalyst to find my passion and live my truth.
Do you recognize the person in these pictures? Her name is Amber. She seems happy in these pictures doesn’t she? Look, she is even smiling.... all surface. Deep down, behind the smiles, behind the laughter was the woman standing here today hidden under 100 pounds of excess fat desperate be unleashed and un-armored to find her passion and live her truth. So how does this girl.....
....Become this woman.... and what does sweat have to do with any of this?
First.  I was miserable and I knew I needed to change.  So I set out on a journey to find myself..and I did so one step at a time....
My road map was a list of my goals and with these goals as my roap map I  slowly put one foot in front of the other and began taking small steps to change.  ...but it was easy. And there were times when I felt like a total failure.
I distinctly remember setting out in the summer of 2007 to run one mile, thinking “you’ve got this, no problem...its one little mile.”  and then I distinctly remember the feeling of defeat when I sat on the side of the road with the Oklahoma heat beating down on me--unable to distinguish the tears rolling down my face from the sweat that also pouring off my body  when I realized I was so fat and out of shape that I couldn’t even run 400 yards
Oddly enough, it was the sweat that poured off my body that day that became the fuel that would propel me to the next part of my journey.
Over the next few months I lived in the gym. 
I worked out with intention, joined JillianMichaels.com, an online weight loss community, finished two 5K’s while still weighing more than 200 pounds, met a trainer in Oklahoma City named Landon who took my fitness level to new heights and supported me in my journey and continued losing weight one pound at a time.
I even won an essay contest and was flown to LA to train with America’s leading wellness expert and prime time television star, Jillian Michaels.
It was during this workout with Jillian Michaels where I had a major epiphany....not about fitness, but about life.  As she beat me in only the way Jillian can hand a beating to someone and they actually enjoy it (I know.....sadist sounding huh?) and the more  the sweat poured off my body, the stronger and more empowered I felt inside.
Then, just as the workout was nearing its end, when my legs surely must have looked like jello because they certainly felt that way is when she said something to me that I will never forget.  she said this to me.  “Amber,  finish this.  you are tired and exhausted and I need you to dig deep and find it.  Run. Through. This. Pain.  What is two minutes of pain over a lifetime...it’s nothing.  This is where change happens.  When you are at your weakest and you feel like giving up, dig deep and push through the pain and finish strong.”  
 At that moment I finally got it.  I finally figured out the connection....the transformative moment where I finally understood that fitness for me, was more than burning calories and more than simply getting skinny.  Sweat was literally transforming my mind and preparing me for much greater moments in the weeks, months and years to come.  
Three years later, I am still sweating...both literally and figuratively.  I still feel pain every day and I still push through it.  i recently made the difficult decision to quit my job as a political operative and communications director for the Oklahoma State Senate to hopefully make other people sweat and perhaps help them find that thing that for them is their catalyst to find their passion and live their truth.  And as I wrangled with that decision and questioned if it was the right thing to do, in the back of my mind flashed the the pictures from my journey that brought me to this moment and chiefly the lesson I learned on that treadmill in Hollywood with that crazy TV trainer sitting next to me as Sweat poured off my body. Painful.... yes.  Worth it....Absolutely.
So what started out as one single step to get skinny and maybe find myself turned out to be so much more and that cataylst in my journey was all about SWEAT.
The textbook definition of Sweat is to manipulate or produce by hard work or drudgery.
The textbook definition of Sweat is to manipulate or produce by hard work or drudgery.
This is one of my all time faves:  “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
ask audience to think about what their own catalyst will be....
Sweat OKC where our motto is simple You have the Power. Sweat it out.