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Chasing Dreams Across the US:Diana Chaloux-LaCerteThe multi-talented and gorgeous Diana Chaloux – LaCerte is originally from the beautiful stateof Vermont, but she currently resides in Kansas City, Missouri where her and her new husbandrun their business, Hitch Fit.Growing up Diana was very active. She didn’t watch a lot of television, didn’t have a computerand didn’t play video games (unlike most kids these days who you can’t separate them from).Diana’s parents got her involved with sports at a young age, they let her try a wide variety ofactivities, swimming lessons, basketball leagues, tennis, gymnastics (which she said she wasNOT good at), and skiing. When she got into high school she ran cross country, played fieldhockey and basketball.Diana’s freshman year of high school is when she was first introduced to the gym and strengthtraining. She started dating a guy who played football, the football team always got up earlybefore school and went to the gym to work out before classes began and she was invited to tagalong—she loved it immediately. She didn’t know 100% what she was doing at that point intime, but Diana mimicked what she saw others doing and she loved how strong she became andhow her confidence began to steadily grow as a result. Diana was terribly shy throughout highschool, sports is where she found her voice and the place where she belonged. She continuedplaying basketball throughout her college years where she was team captain. Sports have alwaysbeen an integral part of her life, she loved the challenge of playing, loved the team spirit and thecamaraderie.Even though she loved playing sports, Diana didn’t know what she wanted to do in life. Shegraduated from college with a degree in Business Administration. The one thing that she didknow was that she wanted to get out of Vermont and start traveling to see where her ventureswould take her. She moved to New Hampshire first and took on a job as an administrativeassistant and hated it. Diana started brain storming and thought about the things that she reallyenjoyed and loved—something she could do for the rest of her life. Those were the thoughtsfloating through her mind one day while doing cardio on an elliptical machine at the local Gold’sGym when suddenly a light bulb went off. THIS is it! The gym! She set out that day to figure outwhat she needed to do to become a personal trainer.Within a few short months a lot had changed, she had packed up and moved cross country toPark City, Utah to be a part of the 2002 Olympics and enjoy mountain living with a bunch of

friends from college. Diana landed her first gym job working as a front desk attendant shortlyafter the move. She studied for several months for her trainer certs and in early 2002 landed herfirst one through AFAA, and then a few short months later another through ACE. She then founda vocational school in Maui, HI that was a 6 week long program focused solely on the educationof personal trainers. It turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences of her life. After 2months in Maui, she was a new woman, totally inspired, totally motivated to take on the fitnessworld. It was around this time that she started fervently reading Oxygen Magazine. She wasdetermined that one day she would grace the pages of that magazine.It was not until five months later, when she got a phone call out of the blue that the man on theother end of the line explained that he ran the fitness program for NCL and would like her tocome on board as one of their fitness directors on a cruise ship. It was her dream come true to beable to personal train and travel at the same time. Within two weeks of the call she had quit herjob at the gym, given away everything that she owned (except for what would fit in her car), andhit the road to drive cross country by herself so that she could store what was left of herbelongings and car at her Dad’s house in Vermont.Diana spent a year on the cruise ship and taught all these fitness classes and still dreamed dailyof one day stepping on stage as a Figure competitor. But there was one problem—the food on thecruise ship is rich and high in calories. By the time her stint on the ship had come to an end, shehad packed on over 30 pounds (tipping the scale at 170 pounds). Her poor choices and pooreating behavior had taken her in the exact opposite direction of her dreams even though she wasteaching all those classes on the ship.Then with ship life over, it was time to figure out where her next move would be. Her older sisterlived in San Antonio, TX and she invited her to move there so she packed her things and went toTexas. San Antonio was where she finally buckled down and got serious about her goals. She gota job at a gym, still read her Oxygen magazine religiously, and talked incessantly about howsome day she would be in it. Diana had dropped around 10 pounds since being on the ship, butshe was still at a weight that was too heavy for her and was still uncomfortable and insecureabout it.One day a co-worker said to her, “Diana, I heard you say you wanted to do a figure competition.What are you waiting for?” That one little comment hit her like a ton of bricks. That was July 5,2005, her last day for making excuses.After searching for some time, Diana found the biggest show that was in her area, the NPC JohnSherman Classic 2005. She changed her diet completely, changed her training completely,changed her sleep and work schedule completely, eliminated all partying, eliminated all negativepeople and poured her heart into getting in the best shape of her life. 18 weeks and 40 poundslater, she stepped on stage at her first show and won her height class. She was hooked! Shecompeted again the following year at the 2006 Ronnie Coleman Classic and once again took first

place. Diana then decided that she wanted to focus on competitions that offered Fitness Modelcategories. In 2007 she switched to an organization that offered this and ended up winning herPro Card, then went on to win their North American Championships, and then in 2008 she wontheir Pro Fitness Model World Champion title. Diana then set her sights on the WBFF whichgave her many more opportunities than the other organizations she was a part of. In September2008 she went up to compete for her first time with the WBFF and ended up taking home theWBFF Figure World Champion title. But even greater than that was the fulfillment of a lifelongdream—she shot for Oxygen magazine for the first time.One short week after winning that title, her life was about to take another major turn. Thingswere going really well in San Antonio and she had hosted a fitness competition there, had builtgreat relationships with local media, and was honored to train former NFL running back PriestHolmes for the entire 2008 summer. Diana then headed to the Olympia 2008 in Las Vegas tonetwork and see fitness friends and that is where she laid eyes for the first time on MicahLaCerte—the man who would end up being her husband and partner in all things. They hadknown each other via the social networks, and had developed a platonic friendship just out ofmutual respect. But when they first met it was like they had known each other their whole lives.She claims it was love at first sight.Leaving Micah at the end of that weekend (he lived in Kansas City) was tough. Over the courseof the next 6 weeks she would travel up to Kansas City or Micah would drive to where she wasdoing events so they could spend time together. Her first time in KC, she looked around and triedto figure out if she could really make this work. After some thought, Diana moved to KansasCity to start her new life.Micah and Diana shared a mutual passion, both in their faith and in the world of fitness. Theyboth have a strong desire to change people’s lives via fitness. Micah had been working on abusiness concept that was similar to what she had been working on in San Antonio, only Micahhad a great knowledge of the marketing and social network side of things, which she didn’t.They teamed up and launched Hitch Fit Online Personal Training in February 2009. Through thisprogram they were able to work with clients worldwide on achieving their fitness goals byputting together their nutrition programs, workouts and more, and supporting them through theentire process via email. In July 2009 they had the opportunity to actually open their ownpersonal training studio, and so Hitch Fit Gym was founded.Now Micah had done a load of stuff within the fitness industry, he was already one of the topmale fitness models in the world and had features in hundreds of magazines. She introduced himto the WBFF and they decided that we were going to compete together at the WorldChampionships 2009. Diana took home 2nd place in the Pro Figure division and Micah placed 8thin male fitness model. But even greater was the myriad of opportunity that came along withcompeting. At this point in her career she had determined that the only place she will continue