Today’s Guest – Oscar Agramonte
1. Your name, title, and age? What do you do (or did you do) for a living?
Oscar Agramonte, Fitness Trainer/Martial Arts Instructor
2. Who was the person that inspired you as a child to eat healthy and stay fit? What was their relationship to you?
My father. He always had this thing he said to me and my brothers, “It’s all in your mind.” If we didn’t want to do something because we thought it was difficult, he would respond, ‘It’s all in your mind.” If we starting crying after falling down, “It’s all in your mind.” As a child, I sometimes thought of this in a negative. I would think that my father was cold or distant. He didn’t show too much emotion. Looking back now, I know my positive attitude has a lot to do with what my father’s ‘mantra’ instilled in me as a child.
3. What did they do to inspire you?
If you want to do anything in life it has to start with the belief that you can do it. As a child I was more of a bookworm than into sports. But, I clearly remember in high school deciding that I wanted to get in shape after seeing a picture of myself at the beach. I told my dad I was going to start working out. That in the next few months I would be able to do 50 solid pushups and 100 sit-ups. His response? “Of course you can, it’s all in your mind.” Of course me being a teenager, I thought my father’s mantra to be well-worn or cliched by this point. We both knew I thought so. I would roll my eyes and he would say, “I know you’re 15 and think you know everything already.” But I truly did believe I could do anything that I put my mind to and I know that had a lot to do with my father repeating ‘It’s all in your mind” throughout my childhood.
4. How did their lesson change your life?
What started as a simple goal of getting into shape so that I could do a set number of pushups and sit-ups has become a life long obsession. I workout everyday. I train clients in fitness group classes and private sessions. I teach at a martial arts school owned by my wife who has been involved in health and fitness for her whole life. But even more important than that is my attitude. I have sought and researched books on health, fitness, personal well being, selling, success, time management. And they all have somewhere a theme of, ‘It’s all in your mind.”
5. Do you convey their message to kids in your life presently?
I am lucky to teach kids 4 times a week at Wah Lum Kung Fu. Kung Fu means hard work and sometimes kids these days are not used to that. Many don’t understand that they have to work hard in order to improve. I’ve had kids over the years think that they couldn’t do a particular move or exercise, and I have found myself telling them, “Of course you can, it just needs to start in your mind” in some form or another.
6. What would be your main message to children today to lead healthy lifestyles?
We are living in a time where children spend so much time watching tv, on the computer, on their phones or tablets. They are always focused on something other than themselves or what is going on around them. The first step in getting healthy is the have a healthy attitude. If they believe positively in themselves then they will take action to lead a healthy life. I love the quote from Charles Swindoll, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” Or I guess you could say it another way, “It’s all in your mind.”
7. Do you have a web site you would like to promote….web address only?