LivingForABetterYou.com

    
By: Octaviano Luis Longoria "Chito", Certified Personal Trainer, and Corrective Exercise Specialist

             I want to start by thanking you for visiting my site I appreciate any opinions or suggestions about an article or my site. Let me take this chance to cordially introduce myself and give you a better picture about who I am and where I come from. My name is Octaviano Luis Longoria but everyone calls me Chito because well lets face it not many people can pronounce Octaviano. Born on April 4th in Mexico City being the second of four but being the first boy, I received my father’s name as tradition. I lived no more than two years in Mexico before moving to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and eventually Laredo, Texas. I come from a very sport oriented family and since I was young, I have been involved in about every sport imaginable and love outdoor activities in general.

    I have been a Catholic Christian since birth being baptized by a Legionary Priest Fr. Cipriano Sanchez, which also gave me my first communion. Ever since I can remember, I have attended a Christian school and have been learning about my faith through my parents, augmenting my mental acuity through school, and my body through different corporal activities.  I have always been involved in sports such as tennis, soccer, and basketball, which I love to play and switched them for different sports such as MMA, boxing, Jiu Jitsu, mountain biking, and the list goes on. I was always a happy young boy and always had a strong bond with my family but even though I started rebelling and doing what kids usually do thinking that they know everything and that it is a new age and their parents do not understand. I never lost that bond with my family and they have always been there 100% of the way always helping me and telling me when I am right and when I am wrong. All in all they have always believed in me and that I will uphold my morals and do the right thing.

    I came from a good family and was brought up on a strong Catholic foundation based upon morals, virtues, and being a God fearing person. In other words I was taught what was correct and what was wrong and even though I knew these things curiosity got the best of me. I had decided that I wanted to know why they told me not to do these things. I decided to cross the caution tape knowing there was danger ahead. I began to experience life not wanting to pick up my responsibilities or understand that my actions have consequences knowing they did because they teach you in science every action has an opposite or equal reaction.

    I started acting out relatively early at the age of 11 in school eventually in house and because of this behavior my parents sent me to a boarding school in Ireland! I didn't go to any boarding school I went to a boarding school with the Legionaries of Christ and oh boy are they strict. Every time I would talk back I would basically write myself up for boot camp. In boot camp they pushed me hard to the point of throwing up but you know what for the first time I pushed myself to my breaking point and this was were I started to get a passion for exercise. This is where I really started to understand my faith and get an integrated formation as a leader and a Christian. For the first time I felt full of life and with ambition to do more.


    Upon arriving back to the states I thought since it was summer we were going to Six Flags for a week or two. That didn't happen I soon found out this was not just going to be a week long thing but that we had moved there! I like to be positive and look at the good things in life and enjoy different environments, perspectives, and cultures. It is always important to have a positive outlook at life and really enjoy life and live it to the fullest you need to get rid of the negative thoughts and substitute them for the good ones. 

   A couple of weeks later I began high school and for the first time attended a public school with over 3,000 students and many blond girls there isn't much else I can say." A wise man learns by the mistakes of others and a fool by his own”, which is exactly what I was a fool blinded by the desire to be accepted to be praised, wanted, and acknowledged by people that had no significance in my life and started fixing my attention on people who didn't know me and didn't care about me. I did not understand this and left the people who really mattered behind and did not realize how my decisions really affected my family, and my friends.

    I have always been an active person I have always been blessed with close family and good piece of mind. It wasn't until I started acting out that I started realizing how my actions affected my mother more than anything. She had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and I started researching about the disease but before I could understand the disease I had to understand the body and started going more into it and soon enough it grew into a passion. I started noticing the strength of the mind over the body and how when my mother felt good her body reacted even better when her mind was at ease her disease was at ease. I began yoga and told my mother for months to do it until a Neurologist insisted she tried. After months of going I can say that it seems like the disease is almost absent I started coming in earlier and left my bad habits and since have been on a journey to help others such as my uncle, aunt that also have this disease.


    "It is in the nature of desire never to be satisfied; yet most human beings only live for the gratification of it." Aristotle said this over a thousand years ago and yet most of us are barely grasping the idea. It took me long enough to understand that addictions(to feelings:ambitions,wanting to accepted, food, etc.)in any form are bad and that I needed to find a balance in my life I felt empty, unfulfilled, and drained from trying to look cool or whatever my lifestyle entitled and the next step was death. I felt as if I did not do something about my life I would end up like my late friend who was a great person and was one of the first people I had met upon arriving to high school Patrick Linehan that passed away last year on Halloween driving while intoxicated.

     This is just one of the events that had happened to me that made me reflect upon my life and ask what I had done to make this a better world and made me want to strive to leave a legacy one would say. "We are not body with a soul but a soul with a body." I am on a mission to better myself, others, and leave this world a little better than the way I found it and make my contribution to humanity. A good friend once told me a person must do four things before he dies and that is write a book, plant a tree, have kids, and prepare for god's judgment. I haven't accomplished any yet but even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and this website would be my first step.

    What I hope to achieve with this website is not slandering of any other religion or trying to force upon anybody my beliefs but just find a common ground and help contribute to the concept of finding a balance in your life while I find mine. I am currently a Certified Personal Traininer, and a Corrective Exercise Specialist by the National Academy of Sports Medicine, as I mentioned I always have been interested in sports and the body so it just made sense to take the next step. I am a fond of reading and believe it is imperative that kids these days get into the habit of reading and that really grasp the concept that knowledge is power. Reading is one thing but applying what you know is another.  "Little knowledge that is active is infinitely worth more than a lot of knowledge that is idle."

    I am going to finish this by inviting you to join me on my path to find a balance in my life and really help improve this world. I challenge you to better yourself everyday and strive for more, to do more, to surpass your own expectations, to get rid of the negative things in your life and engulf yourself in positive thoughts. "We are what we repeatedly do; excellence then is not an act but a habit." Believe in yourself and when somebody slanders you or tells you can't do it use that as your fuel, your motivation, to reach your goals, and make your dreams come true.


Think strong, Eat right, Train efficiently, and Live abundantly!