Hi.
I’m Kelly Scott. Owner, trainer, and minister of overenthusiasm here at ForeverStrong.
Based out of our facility in Marriottsville, MD, my wonderful team and I use resistance based training to help turn people’s health and fitness around.
Though I’m a strong, happy, and healthy person now, it wasn’t always this way. Life has been messy with plenty of struggles. I’ve been overweight, depressed, suffered from body dysmorphia, disordered eating patterns, and endured a whole load of wacky personal and relationship drama (keep reading for all the unglamorous details).
I tell you this not because I seek sympathy or think I am somehow unlucky – the reality is that we all face these kinds of difficulties in life.
I tell you this because I want you to know that change is possible, even later in life. No matter how many years you have under your belt, there is a more satisfying future version of yourself out there.
Ups and downs have been a feature of my life, and truthfully I’m still working to improve the parts of it that don’t sit well with me. However, I can draw a clear line in the sand when things really changed for the better.
It wasn’t an overnight change and it took a lot of work to get where I am now. But there is one moment, a “come to the light” moment that set me on the right path.
That moment is when I discovered the power of strength training.
My story can be defined by a before and an after.
Let’s call it PST (Pre-Strength Training, not to be confused with PTSD) and AST (After-Strength Training, not to be confused with the Canadian time zone).
PST (AKA Before)
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I spent the better part of my teens and 20’s on one crash diet after another. I’d lose the weight… and then quickly gain it all right back again. Such were the swings in weight, that my wardrobe accounted for four different Kellys – Skinny, Loose-Fitting Skinny, Chubby, and the distressing Extra Chubby.
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My weight loss efforts also included copious amounts of cardio. The combination of intense cardio and dieting eventually wrecked my metabolism, making all my fitness efforts harder.
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I was sleepy all the time, feeling sluggish, weak, irritable, and generally depressed. I was repeating binge-diet cycles that were destroying my self-confidence. Physically, mentally, chemically, I was all over the place and sunk into a negative state of mind. “I simply have bad genes!” is what I began to tell myself.
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The rest of my life wasn’t going so great, either. In 2008 I left my husband, my job, and a controlling religious community (better known to me now as a cult). This resulted in friends and family shunning me, to the point that my own parents weren’t allowed to talk to me. If that isn’t cultish, I don’t know what is.
Either way, I was now out on my own and had no choice but to try and rebuild my life from scratch.
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Looking to fill the void, I discovered joy in snowboarding. I threw myself into the sport head first (and after some practice, feet first) until I became good enough to begin instructing. It is here where I discovered a passion for coaching others.
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Although I had a different approach to fitness at the time, it was always something that greatly interested me. So I thought “why not parlay this newfound coaching passion into a career?” I had started a new life, and after years of being in an office, I needed a new professional direction to go with it.
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I became a certified Personal Trainer. Working as a bartender on the side to help pay the bills, I managed to get a personal training apprenticeship at an Annapolis gym. I was delighted!
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Until I wasn’t. The gig was unfulfilling and I quickly became disillusioned with how I was being treated by management (bottom of the pile, no clients, no opportunities). Once again, I sensed something needed to change. I stuck it out for a while, but knew my potential was being wasted.
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Though it wasn’t the most enjoyable experience of my life, my time at this gym turned out to be unexpectedly fruitful. Not only did I learn a lot about the personal training business, but I was able to obtain a certification in HEAVY STRENGTH TRAINING.
The rest, as they say, is history.
(History I will now tell you about)
AST (AKA After)
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Naturally I developed an interest in the heavier side of weight training. It became the backbone of my own workouts, and the results were unbelievable. I was stronger (who knew training for strength made you strong?), but also…something else weird happened: the mirror started giving me looks. I was leaner, more defined, and had more “shape” than ever before. And that was with minimal cardio/running type work.
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I felt better, looked better, and my confidence was rocketing upwards. Which was timely, as I had decided it was time to be my own boss and, and put the apprenticeship in the rearview mirror. Quite literally. In the early days of my personal training business, this was my office/advertising campaign:
It must have worked, as I was soon giving clients in-home training.
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On the face of it, my situation was dire. I had no support, money was tight, and I was attempting to build a business from scratch. Yet I was loving every second. For once I was truly making a difference in people’s lives. Clients were actually thanking me for saving their life! This only increased my self belief (and never failed to make me feel warm and fuzzy).
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Rewarding as the solopreneur life was, I had greater ambitions. I wanted my own business, a business with a roof and a mailing address. But turning this one woman show into a legitimate operation wasn’t straightforward.
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Eventually I was able to rent space in a local theater. The place was, how can I put this….a disaster. Even so, I made it work. Call it self-belief, delusion, or something in between, I knew I’d eventually have my own, bigger, better location.
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Keen to continue growing and learning, I began to read voraciously. Business books, marketing books, philosophy books, sales books – anything that could take my biz to the next level, was on my shelf. Of course, reading can only take you so far – I was also working my behind off. That included writing individual programs for every client, which is something I did for 5 years!
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I was giving every inch of myself to my business and my clients, but eventually it wasn’t enough. I needed help. The good thing is that I was financially in the position to begin employing trainers. It meant keeping my own living costs low (canned tuna coming in clutch) but I was able to build a team and start adding new equipment to the arsenal.
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With a fair amount of experience in my pocket, I also began to solidify and systematize my own beliefs on strength and fitness. Most of my clients were people of 40+ years old that had been failed by generic fitness advice. I wanted a model that was specific to them and their struggles.
I put my heart and soul into writing a new training philosophy, as well as the programming to go with it. The ForeverStrong Way was born.
- The first draft is always…well, the first draft. Getting the ForeverStrong program right took some trial and error. It changed and evolved as I began to understand my clients better. In fact I have no doubt that many of my earlier clients in those first few years thought I was crazy, or even an imposter (perhaps both?) Nonetheless, they took a chance on me and for that I am forever grateful.
- Eventually after years of blood, sweat, and tears, after sleepless nights worrying about money and funding, the ForeverStrong Studio finally became the premier functional strength program for people over 40. We’ve been here in Howard County, MD for almost 15 years!
ForeverStrong About
For me, the last 20 years have been a personal, mental, and physical transformation. The highs have been very high, the lows have been extraordinarily low, but the end result is a life, a gym, and a community that I am very proud of. I just can’t believe that Universal haven’t yet tried to commission the motion picture.
(Maybe a touch egotistical on my part?) Here’s my Oscar speech, anyway:
Firstly I owe it to myself for taking action and making the necessary changes in order to succeed. A better body/life/business always starts with your own sheer force of will. However, I couldn’t have made it this far without all the people that helped me through my journey. My day one personal training clients that stuck with me (for whatever reason); the wonderful trainers I’ve worked alongside; all of our marvelous ForeverStrong members down the years – it is each and everyone of you that made this movie life possible. I am so thankful to all of you.
Oh, and lest I forget: I have to thank all the heavy iron that hath blessed thou hands. If you didn’t get the message reading my story, here it is: weightlifting and strength training changed my life.
Getting in shape certainly doesn’t solve all of life’s problems, but it is under-appreciated how much it can propel you forward. Your body and mind are innately connected, so improving one often has positive effects on the other. Strength of body begets strength of mind, that is my experience.
I believe my pursuit of physical betterment is what has enabled me to do so many other exciting things in recent years. Things that the old me could have never done:
Such as:
Cue montage
- Participate in Spartan races, fun runs and obstacle course races
- Write three health & fitness e-books
- Develop mindful eating habits (no more crash dieting)
- Learn to dance salsa and keep dancing like no one is watching
- Learn how to surf in my late 40’s
- Explore many parts of the world as a solo traveler
- Become a Boss-Mom of an amazing team of personal trainers
- Inspire countless others to find the strength to become who they really are
- Learn to love myself and my body
Did I mention that I also became a badass weightlifter?
You too can reach your physical potential and live your best life.
Showboating aside, truthfully I am nothing special. It turns out that I don’t in fact have “bad genes”, but I also wasn’t blessed with athletic super genes. That is to say: if I can do it, so can you.
How do you do it?