HIMPower Magazine May 2015 | Page 12

you the most about the movement you have begun with BWDWO? Crystal Adell: As a frustrated Personal Trainer finding it difficult to attract Black women clientele, I believed that the continuous perpetuation of this type of negative rhetoric could be a reason why Black women may not have sought out the services of trainers if they also believed that many other Black women did not exercise. As a result, I turned the negative phrase into a positive one and began the inspirational group with state chapters and a following in Africa and the United Kingdom! I want everyone to know that encouragement is everything! By turning a negative phrase into a positive, I am now able to communicated positive reinforcements to a large following by simply writing the benefits of exercises through inspirational messages that I know one day will change the world! HimPower: Your mother’s influence is visible in you and your accomplishments. What do you admire most about your mother? And who other than your mother has been your greatest inspiration on the road to your own personal fitness? Crystal Adell: My biggest motivation comes from my mother, Dr. Sandra Adell PhD, a literature professor and former amateur body builder, who also taught aerobics on the weekend to earn extra money to pay for our private school education when we were teenagers. At one point, she was paying tuition for all three of us at the same time as a single parent raising kids in the heart of Detroit 12  HimPower May 2015 Michigan. She set the precedence for eating healthy and exercising which I truly believe is the catalyst for woman’s health moving forward as little girls tend to watch and follow their Mother’s eating habits and activity levels. The only time I ever gained weight was when I was away from her in college in my freshman year and I quickly took an aerobics class as an elective for college credit to burn of those extra 15 pounds. The mother and icon of talk television, Oprah Winfrey is my second inspiration due to her ability to overcome obstacles by staying positive and encouraging in the way I do on my social media pages. One of the most flattering compliments I have every received was by a former colleague and Cardiologist as being “The Oprah Winfrey of Fitness.” Both my mother and Oprah have overcome great obstacles that have set them far apart from many. HimPower: Your resume includes technical writing. How are you using this skill presently? Crystal Adell: My proficiency in technical writing allows me to be expressive in the form text formatting, flow charts, graphical designs and drafting technical and sometimes a complex understanding of the science and technology. This same methodology works well for explaining the medical and physiological relationship between science and exercising. I basically used this process of writing and the analysis of information gathering in a professional manner with the main focus on conveying the information in the most clear