The Tribune

Health coach Ethan Quant, of Elite Wellness Solutions, has succeeded in his weight loss journey and now wants to share his methods with the Bahamas in an effort to foster a culture of wellness and conquer the obesity epidemic.

I remember one day I was sitting in the barber shop when this well-built guy walked in and my barber freaked. In his shock, he exclaimed: "Bey, you lose so much weight. You is eat the weights at the gym, ay? I need you to train me!"

Listening and watching the exchange, I just remember thinking to myself how great that must feel to have people respond to you so differently after revamping your body. At the time, weighing 306 pounds, I hadn't begun thinking about losing weight or going to the gym. Needless to say, I hadn't started my fitness journey yet. However, little did I know that years later the exact same exchange would happen to me over and over again after my 110-pound weight loss and body transformation.

Early in my fitness journey, I used to stand in front of the mirror (for lengths of time I will not mention) looking at my 306-pound body imagining that the reflection was me with muscles and a six pack. I used to look around the gym and picture myself doing pull-ups, leg raises and bench pressing 315 pounds. I could see it so clear in my mind. I would imagine walking into rooms and people staring at me in awe of my amazing physique. It was crazy how clear I could see it. I could hear the whispers and feel the eyes on me. I have always had an active imagination, but it wasn't until I became an adult that I understood the power of visualising your goals. I realised when you imagine what you wanted in life, a powerful force is released into the universe to bring alignment to what you see in your mind and what is in real life.

Many years before I started my health and fitness journey, I was introduced to the concept of vision boards by my good friend Keshelle Davis. I learned that a vision board is a collection of visual representations of your goals, dreams and aspirations. Since then, I began using vision boards for my relationships and business endeavours. Naturally, there was an alignment for me to use the concept when I started working towards my health and fitness goals. I literally went online and searched Google for images of a "black man with six-pack abs". I came across a picture of Tyson Beckford and he became my target. What was interesting is as I got closer to my goal, it kept changing. This led me to continually replacing my target body picture.

I implemented the same practice as I trained and coached individuals along their own health and fitness journeys. I almost always ask my clients, what's your ideal body type? If you can have any body you want, what would it look like? Surprisingly, many of my clients never even thought of a dream body until I asked them. For some clients, this is an exciting task to entertain the thought that they can have their dream body. For others, it's searching for the impossible. I look at this process much like using a GPS. The only way you can get to your destination is if you know where you want to go and plug that information into the GPS. Like my daughter Becca says, "Begin with the end in mind."

Now, once you have visualised your dream body, you have an idea of how it will look and feel. You imagine the life you will have, being off of pressure medication, having the energy to play with your children or walking up a flight of stairs without feeling out of breath. Once you have imagined how all of that feels, you start the process of reverse engineering. You look at all of the stages of evolution that you will have to go through on your journey to get to where you want to be and you reverse engineer it back to your current position. This becomes your action plan. Once that is formulated, you're ready to begin!

If you need help navigating any part of this process remember to seek out your friendly neighbourhood health coach. At the end of the day, you have the power to be successful in health, in fitness and in life.

• Contact Elite Wellness Solutions at 677-2459 or check them out on Facebook.