Chris Keseling, Personal Trainer and Holistic Health Coach

How I found motivation for change.

Growing up, I wasn’t exactly the pillar of health. At a very early age (18 months old, to be exact), I was diagnosed with cancer. I received exceptional care at John’s Hopkins Medical Center and have been “clean” ever since! But through high school, I was the typical couch potato. The only exercise I got was playing “tag” during school lunch breaks, and while I wasn’t overweight, I was “skinny fat”—basically, that’s someone who is average or thin in size, but has very little muscle mass.

Upon graduating high school, I enlisted in the US Army as a Counterintelligence Korean Linguist. Let me be honest…I really just wanted to attend the Defense Language Institute (DLI), and I tried every angle to avoid bootcamp (e.g., “Can I join the band?”). But I had to suck it up and do it. And, truthfully, it was bootcamp that began the shift in the way I felt about fitness.

Fast-forward to a bill-paying but unfulfilling corporate career, and I knew that, for me, change was inevitable. One night, I watched a 20/20 episode on gastric bypass surgery. Watching people who could have been my family, my neighbors, or maybe even me, turn to surgery for help really stopped me in my tracks. I knew I could help them find a better way. And I knew I wanted to.

So, TV nudged me in the right direction but my whole story led me here. I received Health Coach Training at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and Personal Training from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), and started turning my calling into a career. Nothing is more rewarding than when a client tells me “You helped change my life”.