🏋️♂️ Focus on the Moment You Are In - A Love Letter to the Friends Who Made us "Fit for the Fight" and Became Chosen Family
- Arlene Gaylord
- Jun 13, 2025
- 2 min read
During a 30-minute Peloton ™️ HIIT run this week, my instructor, ultra-runner Susie Chan said something that hit me square in the heart: “Focus on the minute you are on.”
Instantly, I was back in Ramona, California. Back in those early days at Brand X. Back with Jeff and Mikki Martin, the ones who changed everything.
🏋️♀️ It was 2006. I could barely walk to the corner and was pushing 300 pounds. I had no idea what I was doing, only that I wanted to be healthy again. I kept seeing those little Brand X signs around town (I know those were God winks) and finally stumbled in, not knowing how much my life was about to change.
Jeff and Mikki, elite, high-performing, and all heart, welcomed me in and helped me find strength I didn’t know I had. They didn’t just coach me. They believed in me. They made me fit for the fight. And they introduced me- and eventually, my whole family- to more than fitness. They gave us wellness and community.
Rick joined in soon after. Then our kids. And just like that, Brand X became part of our family rhythm.
🏃♂️ From strength days to Saturday morning sweat sessions with the kids running around in between sets (even our littlest in a bucket car seat oblivious to the weights being dropped and the loud Drop Kick Murphy's tunes)- it became part of our story. Part of our bond. Part of the legacy we were building together.
There’s one moment I’ll never forget: Jeff and I were running (eh...shuffling) around the block, and I was just about ready to quit. Jeff looked at me and said:"I will not quit on you, young lady...You will not quit on me!"
That was it. That was the moment I knew I was never alone on this journey. And I never have been.
Susie’s words brought it all flooding back. Jeff and Mikki pushing us through brutal workouts, reminding us,“Three minutes left, come on! You can do ANYTHING for three minutes!”
That mindset lives in all of us now 💪It’s how we push through hard seasons. How we parent with purpose. How we lead, live, and love.
Here we are, mid-journey, still on the path. Still moving. Still focusing on this minute.
To the friends who became family, thank you. For showing up. For standing beside us. For teaching us to focus not on how far we have to go, but on how far we’ve come 🙏
📸 This photo hangs in our home gym today, having made the journey with us from San Diego to Sacramento, to Alexandria and now Loudoun County, Virginia- a reminder of where we started and why we never quit.
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