Dear John,
My name is Jason McMurray and I am a 21 year old male living in Santa Cruz, CA. In high school I had always managed to stay in shape because I was constantly training for track and cross country all year round, running on average roughly 10 miles a day. A few years ago I moved up here to Santa Cruz from college excited for my independence. Because there was not a great sports program at my school I was not active on any teams and did not get near as much exercise as my body was used to from 4 years of running. As a result I gained a bit more than the normal “freshman 15” and was not happy with how quickly my body was looking less healthy. I knew something needed to change. I then bought your Fitness Made Simple and Six Pack Abs DVDs and have been following them for over a year now. I have seen an amazing amount of improvement in my body and health. I feel and look better than I ever have in my life!
FMS has given me not only a much healthier lifestyle but has made a dramatic improvement in my ability to train for my profession. I am an ex-UCSC student currently training to become a Paramedic and a Fire Fighter. Both of these jobs are very physical so the vast improvements I have made in my exercise habits and diet have given me the energy I need to make it through every day feeling great.
Although your workout plan proved very effective for me in the gym, the nutritional tips have really helped to make the most drastic improvements in my body. FMS has inspired in me a passion for health and fitness and I’m currently in a 12 week study program to recieve my ACE Personal Trainer Certification. And I owe it all to the inspriation and guidance I have recieved from your videos!
Recently my house was broken into and my laptop was stolen. Within my computers DVD player was my Six Pack Abs DVD (as it always was). When I sent you an email about this you not only replied back personally but made arrangements to have a new copy sent to my house! And I agree with you…I hope whoever stole my laptop and your DVD inside uses them to improve his own physique and life and maybe help him to choose a different career path. I cannot thank you enough for the kindness and inspiration you have shown me and only hope that everyone can eventually realize they can take control over their own life, which is something you helped me to see.
The pictures I have enclosed are roughly a year apart from each other. I think you will be able to see the improvement for yourself. Thank you for everything and everything still to come…and remember to keep those high impact gyrations to a minimum! 🙂
JASON’S LETTER AFTER RECEIVING THE DVDs JOHN SENT TO REPLACE THE ONES STOLEN FROM HIM…
Thank you so much! I’ve begun watching and working out with the Six Pack Abs DVD every day as part of my routine again and it’s really helping me stay on track. It’s much easier to get through the workouts when I am doing them with John as opposed to doing the workouts on my own from memory…even if he is only on my TV. I framed the signed photo that was sent with the DVDs and have placed it in my house next to where I work out as a motivational tool to keep me inspired.
I also really loved the other two DVDs that were sent. I had never owned these before and they have proven to be a great addition. I use the 45Min Fat Burning Workout as a fun and active routine to occasionally subsitute for my normal workouts. I am now realizing that even though I have come so far there is really no limit to the level of health and fitness I can aspire to. So thank you again. I really appreciate it!
AN UPDATE FROM JASON – JUNE 2006
It’s finally happened…my friends have started calling me “Jason Basedow”. It started with questions from friends when they would notice the signed inspirational photo of you I have in my living room. Then I always explain the story of how much your videos, and then you personally, did for me. I started telling the story of how I was an FMS Star Of The Month on your website and now that my friends are seeing the similarities between our health and fitness levels I guess the nickname isn’t far off!
Whenever I read books on nutrition and health or fitness they always love to throw in comments about how the first step is to not expect those “six pack ab bodies that you see in magazines” because they are unrealistic. But you’ve shown me it’s actually a lot easier than I would have ever thought! I lead a healthy lifestyle but nothing I would consider excessive. Your M-W-F workout with 30 minutes of running 4 days a week is really all I do for exercise. In my opinion, however, the nutrition aspect is much more important. I’ve realized a big part of eating healthy is making your own food. Eating out is hard (and expensive) to do and you can never really get as fresh or nutritious meals as if you completely control everything going into them. I am the kind of guy that wants every one of my meals to be ready as fast as possible. Simple, yet delicious and nutritious, meals are what my diet mainly consists of. I love telling people how much I eat and how good it all tastes because I don’t know why anyone couldn’t make the switch over into this kind of lifestyle! I have yet to find one drawback, especially considering I have my fast food hamburgers and bacon covered pizza whenever I want them. That just isn’t very often anymore.
These are some pictures from my recent trip to Lake Shasta with my fraternity Theta Chi. It’s like a downhill rolling snowball – the more benefits I see and feel, the more motivated I get to stick with FMS!
Jason
Santa Cruz, CA