From Skin and Bones, to Fit and Toned! by Tracy Q

My success story doesn’t start with Cathe, but it ends with her and that’s what counts ☺ I was always an athlete… I grew up outside playing football, basketball, climbing trees, riding bikes, doing whatever the boys did. My mom always kept herself in shape so I naturally followed her… I used to work out with her then I took off on my own all through high school.

I wasn’t lifting at all but my arms were always toned (I was born with it, so don’t hate) ☺ Then came a day in September 2000 when I had a stroke at the age of 17 due to a blood clot that had gone through a hole in my heart up to my brain. I’ve regained the use of everything I lost on that day with the exception of a little short-term memory. So the doctors ended up putting me on blood thinners and informed me that I could no longer play sports. That was a HUGE blow to someone who’s never sat still a day in her life. I went from everyday active to doing absolutely nothing as the blood thinners had VERY adverse effects on me.

I lost the desire to get up and do anything, it drastically altered my appetite and I ended up going from about 120lbs to about 100 in 3-4 weeks… I’m 5’5″, so I didn’t want to lose any weight. After countless tests and back and forth with 5 doctors, one suggested I have open-heart surgery to close the hole in my heart, which meant I’d be off of the blood thinners that were wrecking my body. I said yes right away and my parents went along with it.

So the surgery was done 3 months after the stroke. Recovery was awful, I literally couldn’t do anything after having my chest sawed open. Recovery was supposed to be a minimum of 3 months but I only made it a few weeks before I decided to start lifting a little each day, and I was back playing basketball 2 months after surgery. I started with 2lb (yes, 2) curls and I was dying after only a few reps. That’s how far I’d declined and how much muscle mass I’d lost.

Fast-forward to 2007- by now I’d been married for 5 years and had two kids. I was channel flipping one day when I found Cathe on FitTV. It was SO cool to see a girl lifting and kicking butt! I was immediately hooked and started DVRing her workouts. I wanted more though so a few months later I got my first Cathe DVD, Supersets and Push Pull. I slowly started adding to my library and now have quite the collection, which I’m still adding to. I still had a little tone, very little, but Cathe put the MUSCLE back on my body. I’ve put on 10lbs of muscle since starting with Cathe. Everything is more defined and I LOVE it! Pretty sure my husband does too ☺

I went from seriously struggling with 5lb curls to 10lbs, squats with 15-20lbs to 40lbs, and tricep extensions from a struggling 3lbs to 10lbs! Cathe’s workouts are on point! From skin and bones to fit and toned, thank you Cathe for helping me get my mojo back AND some!