Carol Collin

Owner & Personal Trainer/Fitness Leader Coach

Experience and Credentials:

NAIT Personal Fitness Trainer Honors Graduate of 2008

CSEP-CPT-The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology-Certified Personal Trainer (CSEP-CPT)

Athletic First Aid-Sports Medicine Council of Alberta (SMCA)

CPR Certified-Apex Training Solutions

About Me

Twins

First off I must mention that I am a twin.  I am telling you this because my twin Carolyn has always said to me that I somehow forget to tell people that I even have a twin.  Okay, so maybe it happened a couple times but not intentionally.  So there; I may just be in her good books.  Now let’s move on.

I have learned that through my most difficult times I could always fall on fitness for support.  With a healthy body comes a healthy mind.  For this reason, I champion individuals that are searching for support in beginning a new chapter in their lives or who are in transition.  I look forward to helping and motivating anyone who is concerned about their weight and would like to experience the results they truly desire and deserve.  It is my aspiration to target all those who would like to break and redefine their limits.  (Please read my own personal story about limiting beliefs below called, Why not Math?)

I love individuals with a good sense of humor.  This can really help on the days where you’re not feeling your best. I enjoy in giving any way I can through listening and learning peoples stories/experiences or being the inspiration to having them achieve their own goals.  I am active in taking classes regarding my own personal development.  I take pleasure in spending time with family and connecting with close friends.  I get energized while backpacking in the mountains, I am focused when rock-climbing, I enjoy the long lasting adrenaline rush while trail racing with a friend who‘s words of encouragement keep me going, I am delighted when traveling, I am open when discovering new ideas and I choose to “Thrive on my own terms.”

Why Not Math?

Just a quick note; this is my personal story of what it means to never give up on something you want.  You can achieve anything with Pride Determination and Resilience.  To this day the following experience brings up emotions in me; both of which are heart-rending and contentment.  Feelings I can only explain as a life altering event that led me to finally believe that I could be someone and truly make a difference.

You’re probably thinking what does Math have to do with health and fitness?  Let me explain.  Math is a universal language because the principles and foundations of math are the same around the world.  There is a great deal of cultural diversity in the world but math is one thing that is common to everyone.  If anyone were to bring up Math in most cases people would say that they either hate it or have struggled with it; much like diet and exercise.

Obesity and inactivity seems to be a common problem for a lot people.  Of course this could depend on many factors such a person’s culture, the part of the world they live in, how the community they live in is set up, social pressures, genetics and the list goes on.  We all know someone in our life that has made it through Highschool or even University Math.  Much like we all know someone that has no problem packing healthy snacks and hopping on a bike to get to work.  What we don’t know is their story.  Was it easy for them?  Or a struggle?  What we do know is that they have made it or are doing something now to make it possible every single day.

If you are currently struggling with something whether it’s Math, diet and exercise or not, you do have the power to change it.  I am truly speaking from experience which is the only reason why I am here and you’re here.  We all have sad stories that we either keep tucked away or we like to share.  I would like to share with you mine; however, mine does have a happy ending.  I am sharing this with you in hopes that it will inspire you to take action with something that you may have struggled with in the past or at this very moment.

I know firsthand at what it feels like to just give up completely and to feel totally worthless.  Math was something that I felt completely totally defenseless.  I was a sitting duck.  Every new chapter we moved into I would feel my self worth being plucked at one topic at a time.  It was my road block also described as a barrier, deterrent, drawback, handicap, impediment, limitation, obstacle, encumberance, and snag.  I felt like Harry Houdini in a strait jacket only I wasn’t escaping from it.

To give you an idea about what I was up against I dug up my marks.  I received a mark of 50% in Math 13, 26% in Math 23 and finally 52% in Math 24; it was actually 25% but they combined my Math 23 to give me a final mark of 52%.  I never did forget what my Math 23 teacher said to me in front of my peers one day in class.  He said that there was nothing wrong in going back and repeating Math 13 again.  True as that was, the rest of the class didn’t need to know it.  I was humiliated and the next day I took his advice.

Typical Math Solution

Shortly after high school I decided I wanted to take Interior Design Technology.  As I strolled down the NAIT programs I came across my program.  And there it was; in what it seemed like big black bold lettering: 

“Applicants must have successfully completed Pure Math 30”

I left NAIT feeling defeated and I hadn’t even begun.  I noticed shortly thereafter that most of the programs required Math 23 with a mark of 65% or higher.  This reminds me how most people who have thought about becoming more active fear the long road ahead; so instead they do nothing.  Again do nothing and nothing changes.  I knew that my only choice was to go back.  I told myself that this time around was going to be different; only it wasn’t.

I enrolled in Alberta College to upgrade my Math 23.  The first couple of weeks were review but even then it all seemed new to me.  I persisted however and would ask the teacher for help every day after class.  It got to the point that he too said, maybe it would be a good idea that I go back to Math 13.  I again took his advice and moved down to Math 13.  My Math 13 teacher was new to Canada and his accent was very hard for me to understand.  That made it more of a struggle because to me Math was a language I didn’t understand anyway.  I decided to quit all together. 

After having failed Math numerous times I decided to create the belief that I wasn’t intelligent enough and that this must be true for most things.  Years passed and I wouldn’t even challenge most things because of what I believed at the time to be true.  I cried a lot and felt that I didn’t have much to offer when talking with people.  I know, WOW!  How could one experience leak into most areas of my life?  But it did.  Until one too many days of feeling sorry for myself, I decided that I had enough.  I wasn’t going to keep living this way.  This was going to be my last attempt at Math if it killed me.

Math Cartoon

I enrolled at Alberta College to start from the beginning.  Day 1 of many to come; first up Math 10 Prep.  I have to say from own personal experience that it’s amazing what you can do when others believe in your own success. His name was Corey and he believed in me; even when I didn’t.  I went on to passing his class with an 83%.  I went on to getting Math 30 Pure with a final mark of 88%.

I do need to make mention a very special man that helped me through my Math 30 Pure.  His name was Moe.  We met while I was working on some Math problems outside a class room.  He noticed I was having trouble and offered to help.  He was my savior and I could not have done it without him. I don’t know that anything changed except that I had someone on my side this time; someone that wasn’t going to give up on me.  I had to put in the time to get me my end result, though it wasn’t easy; it was all worth it.  That one belief about myself prevented me from trying out multitude of things.  Now here I am; starting a business.

Maybe your strait jacket is losing weight, maybe its food,  or maybe its just getting started.  What ever your struggle is, will be the same tommorrow if you decided not to change a thing today.  I hope that in sharing with you one of my experiences you will see that you and I are no different.  I know without a doubt that we all have it in us to be and do anything.  We just need to tap into it.

 Ben Carson is a perfect example proving that anyone with support, belief in themselves and a lot of faith can conquer all things.  Ben had to overcome many obstacles; he didn’t have much of a chance.  Today, he is one of the world’s leading neurosurgeons, Dr.Benjamin S. Carson, Sr, M.D.  If you can, read up on him or rent the movie called, “Gifted Hands, The Ben Carson Story”.  It will make you feel that you can do, be, and have anything.  Your only requirement is you have got to want it bad enough and let nothing or no one stand in your way to get it; even yourself.