About Howtobefit.com and Coach Rich Dafter

Howtobefit.com - Our Story

Howtobefit.com is a family owned and operated fitness company located in Albuquerque, NM. It came into existence on January 1st, 1995 and was originally created by Rich Dafter as a running information and resources website but eventually included fitness, health, nutrition and positive lifestyle activities. In 2004 it began to include ecommerce, selling Polar heart rate monitors and grew to be the third largest independent Polar website in the US. On January 8th, 2007, it began to include BODi workout programs and products as well as online coaching from BODi Coach Rich Dafter and his team of fellow coaches. It became Team Howtobefit shortly thereafter and has grown to become an over 23,000 member team of coaches, BODi members and free members that comprise our great community of like minded people.

About BODi Coach Rich Dafter

• Years coaching, personal training and coaching runners - 40
• Years as a Team Beachbody (now BODi) Coach - 17
• Total number of BODi members - over 23,000
• BODi Coach rank - 2 Star Diamond
• Awards - Spring 2009 Team Beachbody Top Coach Region 3
• Personal focus - Being the best parent that he can be and using the BODi business opportunity to continue to provide, as a single parent, for his two teenage daughters
• Runner for 57 years and no meat athlete since doing the Beachbody Ultimate Reset in April 2012

If you ask him now what he does, he would say that he is a full time work at home dad who gets paid to be fit and healthy and help others to get fit and be healthy. He is also Rich Dafter, just an average guy, single dad raising two teenage daughters and lifelong runner. He is driven to help and guide you to improving your health and fitness because he had a chronic illness which robbed him of his health. By telling his personal story, he hopes to help others know that with will and perseverance they, too, can achieve their fitness and health goals and more.

As a full time work at home dad and full time BODi Coach, he needs the energy, drive and determination to keep going day after day. He is currently working out in BODi and/or running seven days a week. Click here to learn more about BODi plan options.

To fuel his lifestyle and his training, he uses Beachbody Performance products and drinks Shakeology every day. Shakeology has transformed his life from someone suffering from CFIDS (chronic fatigue immune deficiency syndrome) to someone who has recovered completely and enjoys a level of health and fitness that is unparalleled. If you have a question about Beachbody Performance, Shakeology, or have health, fitness and positive lifestyle questions, please contact him at richdafter@howtobefit.com

If you would like to visit his coach website and blog and see his training log, the links are below:

BODi Coach Site
Coach Rich Dafter's Blog
Strava Training Log

Who is Rich Dafter? This is His Story of Hope and Perseverance

Prior to May 1985, I was super fit and super healthy, routinely running between 50 to 70 miles a week. Between March 16th and May 5th 1985, I ran 34:32 for 10K, 57:46 for 10 miles, 53:20 for 15K, 27:38 for 5 miles and 16:26 for 5K. I was 34 years old. On May 17, 1985, at around 5:00 PM on a Friday night, I was driving home with my then five year old daughter and we hit a van broadside. The van had been stopped in the left lane of a four lane road with its left blinker on and unexpectedly made a right turn out of the left lane directly in front of us. That accident, although we both survived, in an instant, ruined my health and changed my life. On Sunday, May 19th, I ran the Midland Run 15K (which I had run and eventually would run or try to run, 13 years in a row) and ran 53:03.

The next day, Monday, I had what seemed to be a toothache. This began a ritual of going back and forth between dentists and ear, nose and throat specialists, each saying I had a sinus infection and not a toothache or a toothache and not a sinus infection. After 3 years and 13 doctors and specialists, a root canal, extraction of a tooth and countless prescriptions for antibiotics, a dental specialist found a hairline fracture in a tooth that had actually been damaged by the car accident. The fracture had allowed bacteria to enter my jawbone, cause an infection in the jawbone and a cyst to form in the adjacent sinus. I had to have oral surgery on my jawbone with no Novocaine (it would spread the infection) at 9:00 one night and then later, surgery to remove the cyst in my sinus.

Thinking that my health nightmare was finally over, I was devastated to find out over the next 20 years that my health was irreversibly ruined. Three doctors, two of whom were specialists and the last at the University of Pennsylvania hospital, confirmed a diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome and a systemic yeast infection from the overuse of the prescribed antibiotics. The doctor who performed the surgery on my sinus also performed a Caldwell Luc procedure which "opened up my sinus" and permanently altered the sinus in such a way that I could not properly blow that left nostril and I have had perhaps as many as a hundred sinus infections in that sinus since.

Out of a $10,000.00 settlement from the car accident, I got about $3,000.00 (the lawyer took the rest) and out of that, I bought my first Polar heart rate monitor in 1986 - a Polar Vantage XL. That is what led me to become a Polar authorized dealer. At my worst, I was so weak that I had to sleep on the floor downstairs because I could not walk up a flight of stairs and obviously could not work. Even on a yeast and sugar free diet and the antifungal Diflucan (at $12.50 per pill per day back then, with no health insurance) to combat the systemic yeast infection, I only functioned at about 50%. Given my physical gifts and will, however, that was enough to lead a somewhat normal life. I became an ACE Certified personal trainer in 1995 to have a healthy occupation (for many, many years I had managed a woodworking shop, but could no longer do the physical labor and it didn't seem like a healthy occupation given my compromised immune system) and to help others have the health and fitness that I lost. I also started my Howtobefit.com website to spread the gospel of fitness (a college aptitude test showed that I should be a brick layer or a minister, so helping others with their physical walk through life seemed just right) with an e-commerce business selling Polar heart rate monitors.

As for running, it came back at times, (in 1994, I ran the Philadelphia Independence Marathon again) but I would never know what to expect from my body which was constantly being battered by health issues. I basically lost all confidence in my running. My marriage also failed because my wife wanted me to be able to make more money, but I simply couldn't. I moved to Albuquerque because New Jersey was too damp and the climate here is much better for my yeast issues and to run. I also needed to get away from a racing scene that I once had success in and which had become a source of embarrassment. I began personal training in earnest, as well as coaching running at the high school and club level. At first, I ran well here, but the arrhythmias (high heart rates when I was running) that I developed, became much more frequent. In fact in my first race here, the Albuquerque's Finest Half Marathon, I had an arrhythmia at 5 miles walked to 6 miles, stopped for my heart rate to come down from over 200 and still ran 1:30:00. At the finish, I mentioned to a local doctor/runner that I had to walk because I had an arrhythmia and he scoffed, "If you had had an arrhythmia, you would be dead." Runners don't like to hear excuses or reasons and although I had a few very good races here, I began to avoid them. My challenge was for me to deal with, not complain about.

Life was bearable and running an e-commerce business was not too taxing on my physical reserves. I could run, which many, many other people couldn't do and I could work the hours needed to run my business. I thought that life was good. But then Polar changed direction in the US market and my e-commerce business was in jeopardy. In January of 2007, I became an Independent BODi Coach to become part of a nationwide fitness company that I thought could benefit my e-commerce customers. It was something that I could do part time and in retrospect, I now know that it became the blessing of a lifetime. When I was no longer able to continue with Polar in the fall of 2007, I had another business to fall back on that was almost stress free compared to the stress that I felt doing e-commerce.

Life Today as a Full Time Independent BODi Coach

By becoming a full time BODi Coach and using BODi instead of beating myself up all of the time trying to run lots of miles, I am healthier and fitter. I still run 5 - 6 days a week, but I love the cross training with BODi strength workouts and flexibility workouts.

With my fitness websites and fitness blogs, I am fully committed to helping you achieve your health and fitness goals. I am a BODi Coach so that I can coach and mentor people online to achieve the same goals. I am constantly promoting the benefits of BODi products, the BODi membership and achieving financial freedom, and personally answer all of your phone calls and emails. I welcome any questions that you may have and always answer my emails promptly. Direct your email questions to richdafter@howtobefit.com or WhatsApp me at 5054638865.

Rich Dafter
President and OEO (Only Executive Officer)
Howtobefit.com
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Rich and daughters Grace & Carly in one of our favorite pictures together (February 2009)