Fitness Monkey! How do it?

There I was…San Quentin Fitness Monkey State Prison…serving a 16 year to life sentence for the crime of second-degree murder. This is my nth year behind bars, with a majority of that spent locked away from monkey bar fitness the sunlight inside cells not much bigger than Fitness Monkey a walk-in closet. It has been an extremely difficult adjustment for a free-spirited and fun loving guy from monkey tool fitness southern California.
 I’ve spent most of this time reading classic literature, Fitness Monkey taking college courses, exercising, and teaching myself to play Lanyard Skywards' “Free bird” on the guitar.  However, February and was The Last monkey bar fitness  Mile Demo Day and I found myself standing in front of an audience filled with venture capitalists.
 Fitness Monkey  business executives, reporters, and fellow inmates as I began to deliver my business PowerPoint presentation.

Fitness Monkey how that?

“Good morning, my name is Chris Schumacher and I am the founder and CEO of Fitness Monkey…an online life coaching service that empowers addiction recovery through physical fitness.”I began my journey  monkey tool fitness towards The Last Mile after attending their first demo day at San Quentin last year.
 After seeing my good friend Fitness  Monkey Legal knock it out of the park with his pitch for Coach Potato and hearing his praise for TL, I knew monkey bar fitness  right away that this was something I wanted to be apart of.
 I remember when it came Fitness Monkey to the interview process for the next session, I held nothing back. I wore my ‘lucky’ blue shirt, which was recently left to me by a ’lifer’ friend of mine who had recently gone home. I also made sure to slip Chris Credit a copy of the San Quentin News that pictured me earning a college monkey bar fitness  degree and giving an epic valedictorian speech that I believe even made the warden cry.
 I was thrilled when I found out that I had been selected to participate in The Last Mile’s sophomore class Fitness Monkey. With so many negative influences that surround prison life, trying to take the high road has often left me standing monkey tool fitness  by myself. Now, I began to feel as if all of those lonely decisions were about to pay off.
for who want Fitness Monkey:
Once our Tuesday and Thursday night classes started, I was totally ’enchanted’ by Chris and Beverly’s commitment and monkey bar fitness dedication to the men of The Last Mile Fitness Monkey. The guilt and shame  of being in prison can make it very easy to get down on yourself, but here were two caring and compassionate monkey tool fitness  dynamos that believed in us and were willing to share their energy and expertise with a motivated group of .

Fitness Monkey  men hungry to learn. The opportunity of what lay before me really hit home when on the first night Chris told us that if we were willing to put in the work and become graduates from The Last Mile, he would have an internship waiting for us upon our release.
As a lifer, I’ve had to learn to cope with a monkey bar fitness  great deal of uncertainty, but when I looked into his eyes Fitness Monkey, I was compelled to believe him. Becoming a part of The Last Mile taught me the monkey tool fitness  importance of surrounding yourself with people you believe in and learn to trust the process.

better way to Fitness Monkey:

I can honestly say I had no clue as to what my business idea would be when I started the class. As we read through books like Guy Kawasaki’s Fitness Monkey  Enchanted, The Dragonfly Effect by Andy Smith and Jennifer Kayaker, monkey bar fitness and Brian Solis’ The End of Business as Usual, we were encouraged to start thinking about the things in Fitness Monkey life we were passionate about. At the time, I think my top three were running, tennis, yoga, and not to mention, getting  out of prison.

Fitness Monkey We were then asked to come up with a positioning statement of eight words or less that would define our commitment to ourselves monkey bar fitness  and the creative process. Mine read, “Live with vigor…let inspiration roar!”
 It was so strange and amazing how doing these two things as a group gave us the courage and confidence to begin thinking in terms of possibilities, rather than being encumbered by our circumstances.Fitness Monkey monkey tool fitness A friend of mine used to tell me, “You don’t need eyes to see …you  need  vision.”
This rang so true, as The Last Mile helped further an expansion of consciousness that would allow me to see beyond the gun towers and razor-wire of prison walls.
Over the past 13 years of my Fitness Monkey incarceration, I’ve committed myself to doing everything in my power to make the best of a bad situation. I’ve taken part in numerous groups and programs designed to help me gain insight into the  monkey bar fitness causative factors that led to my crime and give me the life-skills necessary to ensure that it never happens again.

Some of the most life changing for me have been the Victim Offender Education Group, Addiction Fitness Monkey Recovery Counseling, Anger Management, and Non-Violent Communication. The more I’ve learned, the more I’ve realized that the information I was taking in wasn’t only essential for men in prison, it could monkey bar fitness  be beneficial to people’s Fitness Monkey lives outside of prison as well. My initial business concept began as an online life-skills service provider that I was calling Life coach U. In the beginning, it was very broad and undefined.

 It was suggested that I try to narrow it down by incorporating more of my  own personal story. As I started outlining things like products & service, target market, and my own situation, the two things that really took center stage were my focus Fitness Monkey sobriety and staying in shape.Fitness Monkey It was because drugs monkey tool fitness and alcohol  had played such monkey bar fitness  a devastating role in my life that I vowed to never use again. In its place, I’ve developed much healthier addictions like practicing yoga, playing tennis, and training to run the SQL Marathon.

 Pairing my own addiction recovery with physical fitness was the spark that brought my business idea to life. Fitness Monkey truly would become the product of my life and my life sentence.
The men of The Last Mile were asked to create a business idea that incorporated Fitness Monkey  the three components of our passion, monkey bar fitness technology, and a social cause. Becoming incarcerated  monkey tool fitness and realizing the harm that I caused had motivated me to stop using and start leading a healthier lifestyle. My passion was for fitness of the body, mind, and soul.

 Fitness Monkey With substance abuse and addiction playing a part in the crimes committed by 80% of the 2.1 million men and women behind- bars in the United States, it became obvious that there had to be a market out there for people struggling to get clean and stay that way. As I began doing the research,monkey bar fitness I soon discovered that Fitness Monkey there is an inverse relationship  between substance abuse and physical fitness.

 It became apparent that exercise is an ideal recovery solution because it has been proven to increase measures of euphoria and well-being in a manner similar to that of abused drugs. It was now time to find a way to utilize technology and bring Fitness Monkey to the people.

To say that I was computer monkey bar fitness  illiterate isn’t quite accurate. However, what blows me away is how much faster and more advanced everything has gotten over the past 13 years. For the record, I’ve never Google, Skype, face booked, twittered, Fitness Monkey monkey tool fitness  Fitness Monkey  scanned, Integrated, or even knew what a mobile app was monkey bar fitness before joining TL. Being a part of this group has been a remarkable opportunity for me to catch up on the world of  technology that has been passing me  by.

 I definitely wanted Fitness Monkey to be able to take advantage of everything the high-tech world has to offer. I planned to develop a website  monkey bar fitness that would assist members to stay clean by getting fit through a variety of online playbooks and advice from personal trainers.

 I also envisioned a mobile app that would allow members to track their fitness and recovery success and reward them for achieving personal milestones. More than anything, I wanted  Fitness Monkey to be available to anyone and everyone who wanted to join.
 It’s my hope to create an online community of monkey bar fitness  support  Fitness Monkey that would have the power  to motivate  and  inspire members  to overcome addiction and lead happier and healthier lives. I know how painful it can be to leave behind an entire social network of friends still involved with drinking and drugs.

 I would build Fitness Monkey so that no one would have to go it alone in their sobriety.
I believe the social cause was inherently built in to  because of its ability to provide a healthy alternative to the dangers of drugs  monkey tool fitness and alcohol. However, I knew there would be times when exercise alone wouldn’t be enough.

 My business model includes several ways to give back to the addicts that still suffer including, sponsoring treatment facility tuition, granting entry monkey bar fitness  fees to fitness events, and donating Fitness Monkey athletic gear to those ready to get Fitness Monkey  started on the road to recovery. My own experience has made me a believer in the principle that says that the only way to keep my sobriety is by looking for ways to continually give it away.

With each successive TL session, the collaborative efforts of everyone inside and outside the group really helped the Fitness Monkey take shape and become a potential reality. Once the model was in place, I knew that I would need a monkey bar fitness logo. After receiving and turning down several submissions from artists here in prison, my friend Luke drew me a weight­ lifting, Fitness Monkey  monkey tool fitness  tennis playing, yoga monkey that I immediately fell in love with because we had so much in common.

 However, he may have been a little too much Fitness Monkey (think steroids) for the general public and I definitely didn’t want to scare anyone into getting clean.
 I opted for the next best thing, a cute and cleverly designed computer generated monkey lifting a dumb-bell who I could definitely see as the next hot iPhone icon whom I fittingly named ‘Buff’. The encouragement monkey bar fitness and support I Fitness Monkey received from everyone involved was nothing short of transformative.
 I remember from the beginning, Beverly told us that The Last Mile would be a loyal fraternity of men and women who would always seek Fitness Monkey the highest good for its members. She was absolutely right. I will be eternally grateful and devoted to all my brothers and sisters of The Last Mile.

So, there I was…San Quentin State Prison …asking the audience to “join me and become part of the  Fitness Monkey recovery  revolution”  and receiving monkey bar fitness standing ovation…crazy. I thought the hard part was over, but my heart was still beating a mile a minute. Things got even crazier after all the presentations were over and the Fitness Monkey outside guests came forward with kudos on a job well done and lots and  lots of questions.

 It was definitely  Fitness Monkey more than I ever expected, and my only regret was not having the time to talk with everyone.
 I think it’s fair to say that when  monkey bar fitness it came to Demo Day, the sophomore class had crushed it. However, the most inspirational and poignant moment for me was when a lady named Janet came and introduced monkey tool fitness  herself.
She had a Fitness Monkey  warm smile yes that seemed to be tearing up, as she told me how much my personal story and presentation resonated with monkey bar finesse own life experience.

How can i do it Fitness Monkey:
I couldn’t help but get emotional, because she helped me to realize that even in the Fitness Monkey  darkness of my prison surroundings,monkey bar fitness

Fitness Monkey how do it?

 I was able to shine a light of hope into the life of Fitness Monkey someone else. The Last Mile’s Demo Day was one of those defining moments I hope to carry with me for the rest of my life.
 I believe that despite my circumstances, The Unix-verse still continues monkey bar fitness conspire in my favor and my best is definitely yet to come. Fitness Monkey!