One year to this date I finally listened to my dear friend, Miss Lee and bought 3 Cardio Coach workouts. At that time I was in a very dark place!
Over the years I had been yo-yo dieting, gained massive amounts of weight, started drinking too much, started smoking, was unhappy in my relationship to the extent that it paralysed me. I was so unhappy with my life that it effected my job and everyone around me.
My first Cardio Coach workout was volume 7, at that time I couldn't jog more than 20 seconds at a time. I got through the workout huffing and puffing, thinking I am going to puke but strangely enough it made me feel empowered.
Then I got to challenge 3 and I heard Coach Sean say the words that are in my signature line "You are free to turn impossible odds into a set of stairs that will either lead you 6 feet under or 600 miles high, bringing you to a place few will ever reach" and it changed my life forever! I didn't only listen to it, I heard it. I think it was the first time in many years that someone actually got through to me. I knew if I continued on the path that I had been on at that time I would be dead before I was 50. I was 43 at the time and did not want my kids to grow up without me.
From that day on, I never had another drink, didn't touch another cigarette, bought the rest of the Cardio Coach workouts and started powerwalking with very short running / jogging intervals, together with my dogs.
The weight started to come off slowly and I started feeling pretty good and then in November I was diagnosed with cancer. I thought someone had the rug pulled out from underneath me and thought my life was over and I was going to die. I started listening to Coach Sean almost all day long, even when I wasn't working out, or when I had to get my biopsie or PETscan done. And just a few days into it, I knew this was not going to beat me and that I would kick the cancer in its pants no matter how bad it was. It turned out to be not quite as bad as everyone originally thought it would be.
When I came home from the hospital after surgery, it was Press Play Saturday, of course I couldn't work out but I listened to it while hanging out on the sofa, thinking about all those terrific friends I had made online. 8 days after surgery I took two of my dogs, my Cardio Coach workout and started walking, 1 week later I started running short intervals, almost giving my doc a coronary
Since then a lot of things have happened, 12 months after I have started this journey I have lost 102 lbs, my running distance has increased and just a few days ago one of my dogs and I went on a 11.2 mile run.
I defied my doctor and conventional medicine to go on my own path about cancer and in the process have turned into an advocate for patients rights, started a blog and was contacted by an agent who found my dogs and my story intriguing and suggested that I write a book about our journey. I love writing and never shut up anyway, so hey .....
As I went through this journey with changing my diet, exercise, health etc. feeling better and better every day, I knew something was not quite right. I don't want to go into details about what happened but I had been in a mentally and verbally abusive marriage for 14 years. 5 weeks ago it escalated and I left with my two kids, 5 dogs and $ 62 in my bank account. I stayed with a friend who I can never thank enough for doing what she did. It takes a very special person to take someone in who not only comes with 2 kids but also 5 dogs in tagtow.
It's been the best thing I could have done. I don't pull into the drive way, seeing his car and having a knot in my stomach, The kids and I don't have to walk around on eggshells anymore and wonder what shoe is going to drop next. Or when he is going to get completely wasted again with his drinking buddies and go after one of his kids. I don't have to listen to anyone anymore telling me that I am fat, lazy, a terrible mother, worthless ..... which at some point I had started believing - despite of the fact that I was kicking and screaming and yelling no, no, no, you are wrong. Deep down when the person who is supposed to love you tells you how horrible you are, you start wondering if there is anything wrong with you.
I hired an attorney and filed for divorce and sole custody two weeks ago. Now I feel like there has been a weight lifted of my shoulders and I can finally breathe again. Not only did I lose over 100 lbs, I dropped 230 lbs in dead weight.
I got myself back on track, started working my fanny off, started a new company in the eco / green business that is slowly taking off and I am doing pricing opinions for banks for foreclosures, shortsales, loss mitigation and refis, working from home. With that I got enough money that the kids, the dogs and I can move into our own place July 1
I couldn't have done it without my kids who mean the world to me, my Cardio Coach and Cathe workouts, the support of my friends, online and in real life, and last but not least my dogs who have been by my side through all of this.
I am sorry if this sounds self-absorbed! My hope is that it shows anyone here who is going through tough times, no matter how bad it is, there is always light at the end of the tunnel and each of us is capable of turning our lives around, no matter how hopeless it seems to have gotten. And if you think you have hit rock bottom, there will always be a hand to help you out of the ditch, if you are ready to not only listen but to actually hear.
To leave you with the words of my favorite coach: "My wish for you is that you live your life with the energy of your full potential."
