Founders Story
Mint Condition Fitness was started in 2009 with the mission of empowering adults 50+ to take control of their fitness and live the life they envisioned.
When I was young, my grandfather passed away, and I will never forget the emotion I felt knowing that a beloved advocate, role model, and mentor would no longer be with me.
As difficult as that was, it was not until about a month later that something happened that would alter the course of my life.
As the dust settled, I was helping get their house in order and was tasked with cleaning and organizing the files, papers, and equipment he had accumulated in his office.
One day, as I was flipping through a random stack of papers, one page caught my attention. When I looked at it more closely, I realized it was a list of the medications that had been prescribed to him. Each one had a specific dose, to be taken at a specific time, for a specific purpose.
All in all, there were 23 different drugs.
Twenty-three.
Some were painkillers. Some were meant to help with the constipation caused by the painkillers. Some were to keep him awake during the day, and others were to help him sleep at night. To top it all off, there were medications for the nausea and muscle cramps caused by the drug cocktail.
As I read through the list, I felt sick to my stomach thinking about how awful he must have felt.
And I found myself sitting there in tears.
At the time, I did not have much knowledge about the human body and brain, or just how destructive overmedication could be. But I knew that this was wrong.
It was in that moment, as I sat and reflected on what I was looking at, that I realized two things:
- Quality of life is what matters. It does not matter how long you live if your mind and body have failed you.
- Our medical system is great at keeping people alive, but it often has very little focus on helping people optimize their health and life.
Those two realizations prompted my journey into the field of health and fitness.
In my mind, the best thing I could do was become a fitness coach.
There really is no other profession that gives you as much opportunity to support, empower, and be a positive influence for change.
So that is what I did. I became a fitness coach and dedicated myself to learning everything I could about the body, the brain, and what helps people live better.
And the more people I worked with, the more I realized just how big of an impact this work could have.
I have seen women transform their bodies and feel the way they did 5, 10, even 20 years earlier.
I have seen men who had not touched their toes since their 20s become able to touch the floor at 45 and (more importantly) live without constant back pain.
I have seen what happens when women realize just how much they are capable of, and how that changes their confidence, energy, and personality.
I have seen men change their bodies and minds, and because of that change, finally have the time, energy, and ability to be the fathers and grandfathers they always wanted to be.
And this is why Mint Condition Fitness exists.
Since opening in 2009, my mission has been to create a company and a team that care deeply about our members, their health, and most importantly, their quality of life.