Team Beachbody ¡preestreno!Español Guest

My story isn’t much different from many others. I struggled with my weight all through Junior High & High school, but I wasn’t really unhappy with my weight. I was actually quite content with my full figure. I decided that this was me and I might as well grow to love it. Besides, I wasn’t willing to go on some rabbit diet that all the girls my age were doing (They all walked around grouchy all the time and I suspect it’s because they were hungry…eat a biscuit or something!) and I wasn’t willing to stop eating the soul food I loved and ate on a daily basis. That was until I moved to New Orleans for school in 2000. One day as I was walking back to my dorm I began to feel nauseous and light headed. When I went to the doctor she informed me that I was borderline diabetic, hypertensive and my BP was at a dangerous level. Her only choice was to put me on BP medication. I was shocked! How could a 21 year old possibly need BP medication??? Wasn’t that the stuff grandma’s take and I dang sure wasn’t anyone’s grandma! I had watched my mom and aunt struggle with this disease (hypertension) and seen what they had to endure. So I made up in my mind that from that day on I was going to make a lifestyle change and drop the weight because my life was actually at stake. I saw my future and it looked like that the soul food I loved so much could actually kill me. So it was time for a change.

The next day I was talking to a friend about weight loss and he suggested that I try this program that you do for 90 days. I said “90 Days????? Don’t you have pill I could take over night and in the morning the weight is gone??? You mean weight loss DOESN’T work that way?” And of course he said no, but that he would send it to me himself because he worked for the company. When the box arrived it was Power 90. So July 2005 I took the plunge and started the program. The first week I couldn’t walk for days!!!! I had muscles crying out that I didn’t even know existed. But I made it through my first 30 days with a 15lbs weight loss and a new love for life. But on August 29, 2005, little did I know my life was about to change and that change came in the form of a storm called Hurricane Katrina.

Unlike many others I didn’t evacuate when Hurricane Katrina hit. I stayed in my home. I thought it was pointless to leave only to sit in traffic for 16 hours when the storm would pass us like it always does. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be so wrong. By the time I saw the severity of the storm it was too late to do anything but buckle down for the night. I awoke the next day to flood waters that were at least two feet high. I could do nothing but praise GOD & breathe a sigh of relief because my roommate and I had made it through the night. Little did I know this would be the most terrifying experience of my life. As I looked outside of my window I couldn’t help but notice that even though the storm had passed the flood waters were getting higher. We were able to get a signal on the radio and that’s when I found out that the levee’s broke and we were literally going to drown if we didn’t get out of the house. On the 2nd day a boat came along and took us to a make shift shelter. It was filled with a couple hundred evacuees. After the first night it became unbearable to sleep inside as more evacuees began arriving every minute, each with a story more sorrowful than the next. So for the next three nights, for sanitation & safety reasons, we slept outside on a rock paved parking lot. The next couple of days it began to rain on us so you can imagine how I was feeling at this time. I was tired, hungry, sleepy and I just longed to be home with my family. The situation we were in was getting worse by the day. Finally, after four days help began to arrive. My roommate and I got on the coast guard boat and were taken to the I-10 freeway. I rejoiced because finally we were going to get home to our families. Yet again, I couldn’t be more wrong. The picture on the freeway reminded me of something out of a movie; a movie about a poverty stricken country, and not New Orleans, LA. This couldn’t possibly be happening in real life, let alone in the US. There were thousands of people on this freeway caged in like dogs behind police barricades. I was angry and sad but I refused to cry and break down. When I thought I wouldn’t make it another day, herds of buses began to come down the freeway. They took us to Houston where I got a hotel room for the night. As I stood in the shower I began to wash off all the filth and bad memories that I had acquired. And I began to cry for what seemed like hours. I cried for myself, for all the lives lost, for all the despair and no one doing anything but filming us for the world to watch. The next day I headed home to my family.


After this, I fell into a deep depression that I masked very well from family and friends. I no longer cared about anything let alone weight loss, so I ate and ate because the food brought me comfort. I staggered to a whopping 290lbs!! The heaviest I had been in my life. I didn’t even realize it until I saw a picture of a girl I couldn’t even recognize and wouldn’t believe was me but it was. So I decided that the storm had taken my home, my friends, and my old life but it wouldn’t take me. So waking up early one morning I saw the infomercial for 10 minute trainer. I couldn’t help but think “10 minutes and they got results like that??? Yeah, OK!” But everyday I watched the commercial and more and more I wanted to try the program out. I thought to myself “Self, what have you got to lose?” So I got the program and here I am starting over again, but this time I am determined to finish and take back what the storm stole, Me.