About

My story begins perhaps like many other modern day young guys. I’m in my early 20s , went to college ( dropped out ) and found myself clueless on what I wanted to do. I spent much of my mid 20’s just floating along taking random jobs to pay bills and goof off with friends on the weekends. I worked as a correctional officer for about five years before talking with a friend who recently went to a trade school for personal training. Fitness and Wellness is something that has always interested me but I wasn’t quite sure if I could make some kind of career from it. So in 2011 I took the dive , completed the schooling and became a personal trainer later that year. There is a path most trainers take and it usually begins in some ‘ Big Box “ gym. 24hr Fitness , Anytime fitness etc. I began with Anytime Fitness. Boy, that was not what I expected. You quickly learn that you are basically a salesman who trains people. ( I wish more trainers were made aware of that at the beginning). The job wasn’t great but it taught me some valuable lesions. First , being able to sell your services to someone is critical in training and just about everything else in life. I had skills….could I now convince people that I was worth paying for that? The second thing I learned from my first training gig was I began to pick up on patterns with my clients ( and even other trainers). The modern sedentary life that folks , young and old , had and how this was affecting a giant part of their day to day life. This got me curious … What else are we all doing that’s keeping us from an optimal lifestyle? 

Fast forward now to January 2015 and my girlfriend  ( now wife) and I decide to move to Colorado. I’ve been a trainer now for almost 5 years and moving out west means amazing outdoors and also getting new clients. I ended up gaining a ton of knowledge over these next few years from having several clients who owned businesses. Man, you really do see the world differently from an employer’s perspective as opposed to an employee. The two biggest takeaways to me were self accountability and being able to adapt to constant issues. I took these and put a scope on the fitness and wellness industry. We were facing the same issues with the general population we were training , no matter the age, and I finally began to see my calling. 

So in spring of 2020 ( great timing!) I developed a hemp protein powder company called Elevated State with locally grown Colorado hemp. My idea was simple: have a product people could use daily that would be low in sugar , great fiber and also aid the environment. ( Cool fact: the hemp plant absorbs 2-3x more CO2 than any other plant on earth while providing great nutrition while using 20% less water to grow than conventional crops) The process to grow a protein powder company from the ground up was the hardest thing I’ve done hands down. I had no prior experience  in the supplement industry but I needed to make a product that was actually positive for people and our planet.  The company has been steadily growing but a couple of years in I felt I needed to make a larger and faster impact. The health crisis in America is truly scary and is something we can all see around us. I see it daily with my family , friends and the public. The Covid era took the health crisis into full throttle with Americans gaining on average 28lbs in the last 2.5 years. For me, seeing this quick decline in health and now having two kids has made me rethink my purpose for the future. I began this blog for this very reason. To begin providing easy to digest information on fitness and wellness that can truly be of great use for folks 40yrs and over. With work , kids or just growing obligations as we age….too many have put their own health on the back burner and it’s time we change that. One step at a time, I am here for your health.

~ Paul Nevarez