Team Beachbody ¡preestreno!Español Guest

1) Describe your life before you began your transformation. How did you look, how did you feel, and what were some of your typical activities

My life before my transformation had quite a few challenges. I was diagnosed with cervical cancer and given a 40-50% chance of survival five years ago. The tumor had taken over quite a large area and required radical surgery with possible radiation treatment. You would think that would scare me enough to motivate me to workout and be healthy but instead it pushed me into a deep depression. I began eating everything but mostly sweets which packed on the weight fast. I felt ugly, fat and I began wearing 2XX clothes to hide the fat. I did not feel attractive anymore. My doctor put me on Paxil to help with the anxiety and depression. The more I remembered how fit I used to be, the more I consumed sweets (my drug of choice). My thoughts were always filled with what I could do to start some kind of a program to get back into shape again but nothing motivated me to do that. I started ordering weight loss pills and CDs that would hypnotize you to lose weight but of course, none of these things ever worked. 6 weeks after I had my radical surgery for cancer, I found out I had to start taking care of my two little grandchildren. They were 5 weeks and 13 months old (both on bottles and in diapers when they came to live with me). I already had a son that was mentally challenged so things became so difficult for me that I always felt as if I wanted to go to sleep and not wake up for a very long time. Somehow I got lost in life taking care of others and I ended up going from being happy and working out, to an overweight, out of shape, depressed and very unhappy person. It seemed impossible for me to ever get my slim and fit body back again. I used to be in the greatest shape before all of this. I used to run marathons, do triathlons, and I even did the American Gladiators as a competitor and won. I kept asking myself, “what happened to me”?


2) What was it that triggered your commitment to a healthy lifestyle? What was the turning point when you said, “I have to do something about my health and body”?

There wasn’t a day that went by that I wished I could find a way to become thin and fit again. The turning point for me was when I lost my job as a Controller for a large corporation. The corporation decided to file bankruptcy and I was left without a job. All of a sudden I found myself at home taking care of my grandchildren full-time because we couldn’t afford the $980.00 a month child care when I wasn’t working. Then my granddaughter said to me, “it’s okay that your belly is so fat grandma”. I smiled at her but inside it really hurt.


3) What Beach Body program did you decide to use? How did you find it and what did you like about it? What was it that made you think, “this will work for me”?

It was actually my husband who saw the P90X Infomercial and asked me to purchase it for him. But when P90X came, my husband never started it. I opened the box and saw the first DVD that Tony Horton said to watch. Tony Horton was really the one who triggered me with his work ethic, integrity and most of all his training ideas and coaching. He acted like a REAL person. Watching Tony Horton’s DVD in my workout room totally motivated me. I decided right then and there to start the 90 day program even though my husband was not ready to. So every day I worked out and Tony would say, “keep pushing play”. Or he would make a comment like, “if you can’t do this or if you can’t keep up, “just do your best and forget the rest” because eventually you will be able to do everything. But at the same time he made me feel that this workout was for the elite, the strong, those who were willing to pay the price to get what they wanted. Even though on the outside I was terribly overweight, I still felt I WAS ONE OF THOSE SPECIAL PEOPLE!


4) What obstacles, temptations, or distractions did you face as your transformation began? How did you overcome them to get to where you are now?

My first obstacle was really hard at first, realizing that my husband wasn’t ready yet to start working out when P90X was delivered and that if I wanted to get serious and commit to getting fit again, I was going to have to reach deep inside of myself to do the program without him. I knew no one else could do it for me. When I first started doing P90X, I couldn’t do one sit up on the Ab Ripper X DVD. I cried right there on my floor the first time I did the Ab Ripper DVD. I felt so hopeless and out of shape that I couldn’t even do one of the ab moves. But because Tony kept saying, “just do what you can and eventually you will get better and better”, I did not quit. I kept working at it and after a week and a half, I started being able to do a couple and then more and more. Another obstacle I had to overcome was what society said about old women. Older women are usually caring for children or grand children, cooking, cleaning, a little overweight, a little out of shape, etc. People would tell me, “oh, you look great” for your age! It would be so easy to fall into that category and not work at being healthy or fit again. I realized that I was going to be turning 50 and I could turn 50 looking and feeling really great or I could turn 50 looking like a very tired, unhealthy, unfit and overweight woman (what society said was okay!). My next obstacle was eating clean everyday and not letting what others were doing with their food affect me or tempt me. After about 2 weeks of doing P90X, it started to get easier for me. I started looking forward to my workouts. The biggest challenge of my life came while I was doing my 12th week of P90X. My brother had left 3 weeks prior to this on a 2 week vacation and he never returned. I had to make a phone call to the police department to report my brother missing. My whole family became distraught as we new something was very wrong. All of the old feelings and pain came when I used to turn to eating sweets and food for comfort and stopping any exercise when stress or bad things happened. This was a huge cross roads in my life as to whether or not I would start binge eating and stop exercising again as I had done in the past when I would plummet into deep depression. But it didn’t happen this time even in the midst of everything that was going on. I had been trained and programmed by Tony Horton to push play and to keep moving forward and shake off all the junk and I was still doing it. I cried sometimes but I didn’t stop. The funny thing is I did turn to food for comfort. I ate three P90X protein bars at one sitting!!!! But it didn’t sink me. I was okay (a little bloated) and started my usual routine the next day.


5) Describe yourself now. How do you look? How has your body changed? How has your life changed as a result of your transformation? Do you have a special accomplishment, favorite feature, or unique story to tell since you began your transformation?


I have lost so much weight and most importantly a huge amount of body fat. My low self-esteem began to rise and my confidence started coming back. Instead of wearing fat clothes, I started wearing clothes that I used to wear when I ran marathons and triathlons. I stopped feeling so depressed and I was able to get off of the Paxil. My life changed so much when I found that I could just push play to do my workouts right in my own home. That was huge for me because going to the gym was costly not only for the gym fee but for the fee I would have to pay for child care since I had two grandchildren that needed to be watched while I worked out. I was always in stress mode because I was always running with two little babies from place to place, even to the gym! Now I can workout and the kids are busy in the comfort of their own home and I don’t have to pay someone to watch them. Instead of feeling like my life was half over, I feel like I’ve just begun a new life, one of health, confidence, happiness, and being fit. I think the biggest accomplishment for me is that I got so bombarded with stress, anxiety, challenges and just plain life that I forgot who I was and what I wanted in life. I was so busy taking care of everyone else that I forgot how to take care of myself. Like so many women today, I was so busy trying to take care of my family and grandchildren, I just couldn’t figure out a way to take care of myself. If I could ever meet Tony Horton or even Carl Deikler (sp?) and tell them personally how they helped play a key role in changing my health and fitness which then changed my life, I would welcome that opportunity. Thank you Beach Body and thank you Tony Horton.


Coach Question: How has your Personal Coach helped you achieve your results?

My Coach is Jim Thacker and I must say that he has been an inspiration to me. He has always made himself available to me for any questions or encouragement that I might need. He has always encouraged me and looked out for my best interest as far as doing my Program. Jim has always been positive, right from the get go. I’ve been very fortunate to have him as my coach!