Olympia, WA
Hi, Beachbody buddies! I am a Japanese Canadian turned 40 (Ek!) this year, but I still feel like a kid having fun in life thansk to healthy lifestyle and my redneck goofball hubby. I was born and raised in Japan, and I moved to Canada after highschool at age of 18. I have been training Karate over 20 years. I downhill ski since I was 5 so I love snow! I taught skiing to beginners and
Hi, Beachbody buddies! I am a Japanese Canadian turned 40 (Ek!) this year, but I still feel like a kid having fun in life thansk to healthy lifestyle and my redneck goofball hubby. I was born and raised in Japan, and I moved to Canada after highschool at age of 18. I have been training Karate over 20 years. I downhill ski since I was 5 so I love snow! I taught skiing to beginners and intermediate for a couple of seasons in Canada. I have been pretty active and athletic all my life. I love outdoor. Currently I am learning to mortor cross with my Honda CRF100. We live in a country so I practice in our backyard.
Well, my life seemed to be under control. However, it wasn't. During my college years, I got married to Mexican Canadian met in college and decided to leave school for a while and start working to support. After switching to a few good opportunities, I ended up with a nice salary corporate job. During that time, somehow I had a problem with yo-yo-diet. Several pounds gain, several pounds loss. Repeated over and over. Definitely I was going through emotional eating. I sometimes gorged myself to eat but felt so sick after and thrawing all up. Due to that, the enamel in back of my front teeth have eroded. So don't thraw up! Looking back, I realized that I was not very happy with my marriage. It was definitely mentally psychologically verbally abusive relationship. Funny thing is, I never recognized the issue during that time. After 8 years of the marriage, I discovered that my husband (ex) was having affair with another woman and she got pregnant. I had to go through very ugly divorce caught in the middle of love triangle. I tried to work it out, but no success. During the divorce process, I fell into depression and having suicidal thought all the time about putting myself out of misery. Not having my family and close friends in Canada, I had nobody to talk, other than crying every night snuggling with my dog. Somehow, busy career life helped me not to carry it out, but one time I was really close, and realized I needed help. Instead of taking anti-depressant drug, my physician diagonosed me for "adjusting disorder" meaning depression / panic due to being incapable of sudden environmental or circumstance changes and told me to go intense counseling. Boy, that worked well. I switched one counselor to the other a few times to find the match. Unfortunately, she was not an appointed counselor for group medical so being embarrased and ashamed, I had to tell everything to my parents in Japan and ask for money to borrow for the counseling. I went through the really tough time in my life. During that time, my weight dropped down to 100 lbs. and I thought I was still too fat to win my ex back. Thanks to the conseling, I successfully went through the journey of psychological recovery. When the divorce was finalled, I felt so much more freedom to be myself. Things happen for reasons, I say. (I am planning on writing a book about my bio since I have so many things to tell so stay tuned!)
After the bitter divorce, I thought I would never be in any relationship again. Well, I was wrong. Through my good corporate career, I met a wonderful man (the goofball I mentioned in the beginning) from U.S. We started dating. It was a long distance relationship but driveable distance so we took turns on weekend to see each other. Sometimes we met in halfway point in Pacific NW (Washington State). An year later, we got engaged and I decided to quit my corporate job and moved to U.S. and we got married in 2004. Since then, happily ever after for me. Life is full of surprises. Actually being dumped by my ex was the best thing to turn my life to the best.
Back to Beachbody history, I have been a loyal customer of Beachbody when they just came out with Power 90> and Slim in 6, but ever since I moved to US and live in a rural area, I found importance and passion for home fitness programs that Beachbody offer. I have not been seriously overweight, just gain some pounds to several pounds due to vacations, holidays, or just being lazy (slacking off, you know...LOL). But Beachbody Fitness programs have helped me get back in track and back in shape. I tried pretty much most of their Fitness programs. I love them! After moving to US, I was working for a while in a corporate office but got laid off a few years ago. I was sick and tired of job search and decided to become a Team Beachbody coach in April, 2010. Since then, I am a full-time coach to help poeple lose weight, get healthy, and be happy to live life to the fullest. My 79-year-old dad is a semi-retired practicing medicine over 40 years (former cancer surgeon, still working for 3 clinics in Tokyo as physician and chief administrator), and as I grew up, I remember constantly told me that we can prevent from getting most of diseases and not having surgeries by active lifestyle, healthy diet, exercise, and quality supplementation. I feel proud that I am folling my father's footsteps believing that. He has never had any surgeries, he still works as a doctor and save people's lives, he downhill-skiis with my 72-year-old mother, does ballroom/latin dance, plays saxophone in a jazz band, etc. He is my hero. He truely enjoy his life, and I want to be like that and share that with you.
Me? I love to eat (Yes, I admit I am a foodie), and that is one of the main reasons for me to workout every day. I have to Burn, burn, and burn! After all, I feel good, healthy, and happy. That is all that matters in life to take care of myself. As a full-time coach, I would love to connect with you and be your friend to support you for whatever your fitness goal is. We can do it together, have fun and be happy! Let's go!
God bless.
Akiko Yoshii-Johnson
P.S. Please find me at facebook by searching for "Akiko Yoshii-Johnson" as well as "Team Beachbody Coach Akiko Yoshii-Johnson"
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