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THIS IS MY STORY AND I’M STICKIN’ WITH IT

My Name is Tony Barca,
I have been in the Healthcare field for 30 years as a Radiologic Technologist. I have been in the entertainment field for 50 some odd years years as a musician. I have come to an understanding at this point in my life. You are never too old, too young, too healthy or too out of shape to eat well and exercise. This is the condensed version of my story..

Can Lightning really Strike Twice? Well.....

In 2001 I suffered a heart attack at age 53 The history of that is well documented in the Beachbody Community. A 55 pound weight loss and getting to the best shape of my life. Not an uncommon story with the hundreds of thousands of success stories Beachbody has compiled over the years. I have been associated with Beachbody since 2003 first as a customer with astounding success. I was fortunate enough to be one of the original P90X X-plorers in 2004. I became a Personal Trainer in 2005 and then a Yoga Teacher in 2007. In late 2006 I was asked by our Beachbody CEO Carl Daikeler to become part and founder of a new venture called Million Dollar Body now known as Team Beachbody. As a Team Beachbody Coach the opportunities for helping more people conquer obesity and get rewarded for your efforts is only restricted by your willingness to work at it. My life made an initial diversionary turn that has now become the primary route I will travel the rest of my life.

Ahh, but with all that going for me there were still no guarantees that something would not arise to challenge my spirit and my strength once again. And it did. Lightning struck twice in the same place. In April of 2010 while visiting Los Angeles, at the Team Beachbody Summit I suffered yet another heart attack. OMG, what’s up with that, you might ask? I was asking myself about that for months afterward. All my numbers were good , I eat well and exercise regularly. But it still happened. While laying in a bed at the UCLA Medical Center a team of cardiologists, the grim reapers as I called them, were not hopeful about the extent I would be able to recover. Being 62 years old and all, they told me I would have extensive damage to my heart. Good news is that I didn’t suffer any damage to my heart muscle.. Why, You might ask and I am sure they scratched their heads a few times about this also. There are two things I attribute to the fact that I am still here to write this letter. Number one being the state and level of fitness I was in at the time of the event. My cardiologist simply explained, through years of exercise I have developed tremendous collateral circulation in my heart. This allowed my heart to maintain a blood supply and oxygen to the muscle even under sustained blockage. Thank you Beachbody Workouts for that you supply!! Number two is Shakeology. The nectar of the Gods. This product not only helped me to maintain my weight, cholesterol and blood pressure up to and after this event but has also enabled a speedier recovery from the heart attack. This is astounding to me and when people say, “You don’t look like I had a heart attack”. I tell them Exercise and SKAKEOLOGY are the keys to my success and will be a part of my life forever. Now that is more than just something I heard about but something I experienced first hand.

The cardiology team at UCLAMC are probably still scratching their heads and my own cardiologist told me I did not need to go to cardiac rehab because it would be too easy for me. I have rehabilitated myself using a mix of Power 90, Yoga, walking and P90X. Starting slow and working my way back. I agree this is not your normal rehab but it worked for me. Just this weekend I worked out live with Tony Horton and over 200 Beachbody peeps. I am happy to say that I am fully recovered and working out again with a little less intensity and so happy to be here to share this story with all of you.

I stopped asking why it happened because it doesn’t matter why it happened. What matters is, I am here writing this down, because maybe it will help someone else, maybe you, from being discouraged about what you can and can’t do.
So can Lightning Strike Twice? Absolutely, but you can overcome any obstacle if you have the right tools. Exercise and Shakeology are those tools for me and they could be for you too.“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away” I have had many of those moments since 2003 and am happy to share them with you now.

After almost ten years of association with this fine company one thing has never changed. The commitment Team Beachbody has to changing peoples lives for the better. Thanks once again for all you have done and continue to do.

Peace, power and health to all of you,
Namaste’
Tony Barca>>>>>> Rockin’YOGI aka XRAYMAN