April is living her dream… and now she’s going for more!

April Hauck is a long time friend of the BIG Dream Gathering.

She not only attended some of the first BDG’s but she also invested countless hours as a volunteer!

Now, she’s in Portland… and she’s walking out many of her BIG dreams.

Check out her story… and her current BIG dreams… in her own words.

“I am not even sure where to begin in speaking of my big dreams.

Dreams are like a daily vitamin for me and can at the spur of the moment, whisk me off to a new mind and heart adventure.

Who and where I am now was once a dream. I was once imprisoned in my morbidly obese body. I was once trapped by thoughts of self hatred, abused by my own hand shoveling food into my mouth stiffling any real emotions I had. I didn’t want to live like that and I thought maybe someday I would change.

One day I did.

Now that previous sentence is minimalizing years of getting healthy inside and out, but we only have so much time and space here.

The point is, I dreamed I could be happy. I dreamed I could be healthy. And I set myself in motion to chase after that dream. And I did it. My dream was a series of many and it looked like being able to walk a distance without being out of breath, then actually attending a group fitness class, then being able to shop at a “normal” sized store, then hitting my goal weight, then getting my certification to teach various group fitness classes, then running a 5K and now to being a Personal Trainer and Life Coach. You may think my dreams are all dreamed up?

Heck no!

This is a lifetime journey and I have so much left to do – in me and with others!

I recently partnered with my own Personal Trainer Meshi Chavez who has been pivitol in my 150 pound weight loss, to work together to help others be healthy. Meshi and I make a good team because I know the battle of obesity and he has the compassion from being bullied as a child. We seem to make up for what the other lacks.

My dream is to transform lives helping those struggling with serious weight to learn nutrition, new life patterns and to gain physical health!

In some instances this dream is to SAVE LIVES. I want to reach out to people struggling with morbid obesity, who often have been told by doctors “If you don’t get this weight off, you’ll die” and help them really live. Not just in the sense that there are more years before them, but to have a vibrant happy life. Because I know this journey so well, I know this dream will become a reality. It already is.

What do we have? Passion. Heart. Knowledge. A great studio space to rent. Willingness to go out to those who can’t come to the space.

What do we need? I hate to type the word. Money. It’s always money, isn’t it? Sigh. I had originally put off stepping forward in my business because I couldn’t afford it. And then I started coming in contact with people needing my help and realized their life change couldn’t actually wait for me to get my pocketbook in order.

So Meshi and I do the best we can partnering up and breaking even. We’d love to have more equipment- especially when we’re going out to homes. We’d love to have some certifications in types of exercise we know would work best with some of our clients. But we are making dreams come true – and not just our own.

We are changing lives. And that’s pretty cool.

The one thing I’ve learned in this whole process of living out my dreams is that it takes a series of goals/dreams, a little bit of ‘Are you crazy?!’ mojo, and sometimes just doing the best you have with what you’ve got.

We really lack nothing. Probably because of that daily dream vitamin.”

Okay… so do you have an idea… a word of encouragement or a “that’s my dream too” comment for April?

Click comments and let her know!  I’m sure that will be a supplemental dose of her daily dream vitamin!  And it may just give her the added boost she needs to keep going after her dreams!

And while you’re at it… why don’t you let us know about one of YOUR big dreams.  We still have a few slots left for June.  And heck, if we run over… we’ll keep dreaming BIG in July!

Click here to find out how.

Until we hit a million,

Mitch Matthews

Related articles

• What are the psychological effects of morbid obesity? (zocdoc.com)
• What’s one of YOUR big dreams? (bigdreamgathering.com)
• On the BIG Dream Gathering’s 5th Anniversary, we want to dream BIG with YOU! (bigdreamgathering.com)