Over40-Fitness - About Me, Christine Auer

“A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings.”
- Hippocrates -

Maintaining optimum health through proper physical fitness has always been a major part of my adult life. I have been fortunate enough to reach my personal fitness goals because of the people that have inspired, motivated and educated me along my way from overweight teenager to champion bodybuilder.

In my early teens I remember my mother advising me “you will live in your body for the rest of your life, so it makes sense to learn how to properly take care of it.”  It was not until I graduated high school, however, that I began to apply her words of wisdom to my life.

My behavior of eating sugary foods, high fat treats and junk foods had added more than twenty-five pounds to my small frame. Realizing I was overweight and out of shape those words of wisdom mom offered began to echo constantly in my head.

Thanks to remembering my mother’s advice, my dissatisfaction with my constantly increasing waistline and my natural inclination to educate myself, I began reading as many books as possible on the subjects of weight control, nutrition and exercise. It was then that I began to understand the connection between lifestyle and weight control, overall health, aging and longevity.

I also became aware that if I truly wanted to lose weight and maintain a lean, healthy body for the rest of my life I had to change my poor habits and begin to develop a lifestyle based upon regular exercise and a balanced intake of nutritious foods.

Luckily, I joined a small gym shortly before my nineteenth birthday. It was at that gym I was to meet my second role model. Her name, appropriately enough, was Janet Strong and her advice and inspiration ultimately changed my life.

Janet was by far the shapeliest woman I had ever seen and she was well into her late forties! She was also the only woman at the gym training with weights heavier than the five or ten pound dumbbells I had seen the other female members training with. One day I decided to approach Janet and ask her for some training advice. What she told me changed my attitude towards training with weights forever. She emphatically advised me “you must build muscle and to do that you must lift heavy weights!”

I immediately began to read the few books that were available at the time on the subject of women’s bodybuilding and began visualizing my life’s path in the areas of health and fitness. I was on my way to building the body and the future of my dreams. At the age of twenty I moved to the island of Maui in Hawaii. Thanks to my knowledge, out going personality and new lean body I became the first ever aerobics instructor at the Maui Fitness Center and created their aerobics training department.   

It was at the Maui Fitness Center that I met an amazing seventy-two year-old man by the name of Duke Chuckovick. Duke was in such excellent physical condition that he appeared to be many years younger than his actual age. To me he was living proof that the fitness lifestyle is the anti-aging lifestyle. Duke was the first to encourage me to get involved competitively in the sport of female bodybuilding which at the time was in its infancy.

I returned to California determined to become a champion bodybuilder and to further my education. To support myself while attending college I began teaching aerobics at a local fitness club and was fortunate to meet a bodybuilder named John Frank. John, a PhD candidate in Clinical Psychology and a dedicated athlete, told me that “with the right training and the right mindset” I could become a bodybuilding champion. He believed in my dreams of athletic achievement and personal development as much, if not more, than I did. John immediately became my personal trainer and ultimately my coach, life mentor and husband.  

I continued teaching aerobics and graduated college with honors. Thanks to my education, skills and appearance my success as a personal fitness trainer grew quickly as my body continued to mature in muscular development.

It was not until eleven years later, however, that I actually entered my first competitive bodybuilding contest! I won both the California State overall and heavyweight titles and my first contest win immediately landed me in the bodybuilding spotlight.

I became a recognized champion in the sport of female bodybuilding. I competed successfully one to two times a year for the next seven years winning many titles and trophies until I decided to retire from the competitive stage in order to focus my attention on my booming private fitness coaching business.

I was living my dream when I was struck by personal tragedy. Weeks before my fortieth birthday, my husband John suddenly died. I was completely unprepared and totally devastated. We had been married and virtually inseparable for almost eighteen years. I felt lost, unsure and afraid of my future alone. However, due to the training and insights John so selflessly and generously provided to me over the years I was determined to rebuild my life by continuing to help others live healthier and happier lives in the same way John had helped me.

Hence, I have created this web site to give back what has been given to me – the valuable knowledge that allowed me to transform my once out of shape, overweight body in to the lean, healthy and fit body I enjoy today at the age of forty-eight.

Now that you know my story my hope is that I can serve as an inspiration to you like my mother, Janet Strong, Duke Chuckovick and John were to me. Nothing would make me happier than to know that I have helped you achieve your fitness goals.

May you be motivated and inspired to create your best body possible and the life of your dreams! To be as young as you can be, happy, healthy and pain free.

Yours in Health and Fitness,

Christine