What a difference a year makes... or 2 3/4 years!

Happy New Year!!!

Isn't it wonderful when a new year starts? it's like you can erase the year before and start all over again. No additional baggage. Well, this year I don't want too!

I always used to love the new year because of all the opportunities it would give me, but guess what? I never took advantage of it.

I will always leave it for tomorrow and you know what that means...? tomorrow is never now!

My last blog entry was in April 2010. It was a very sad day for me. Not only was it a sad day but I was in a difficult place too. I was 39 years old, had just had my second heart surgery and my second stroke. I couldn't move, half my body was weak, no strength no coordination and no balance. I was walking with a walker, taking all sort of medications, doing all type of PT to be able to have my life back and I wasn't even 40!!!

It didn't get better from there... I started developing chronic back pain. I couldn't move!!! Pain level was from 1-10 a 7 at best.

So I gained even more weight than what I already had.

Did this make me realize I needed a change? nope...

What did? I was tired and bored with the life that I had and who I was becoming. I couldn't keep up with my friends and family and I LOVE socializing. I started not doing things because I would get too tired and didn't have the energy. I couldn't walk half a block without having to stop. I didn't have the strength to go up and down the stairs. I couldn't breath.

I was planning a road trip in May 2012 for 2 weeks around the NE of USA and I knew that in the conditions that I was I wouldn't be able to make it. My body was limiting my life and that was unacceptable. So a year ago I said enough... Jan 2nd of 2012 I started a diet... and voila!

I'm not going to lie... it was easy... super easy... The before and after pic are just 4 1/2 months apart. I had lost 50lb.

Why was it easy for me? I don't know... I think about it and it could have been the fact that I said enough? I was definitely committed to the change without a question and temptation. I had only one way to go and why take the longest route?

My mother decided to join and that made it even easier! she was also committed and that meant also cooking *wink* *wink* Mum's cooking :)

I first realized how much I had changed when I was able to road trip the NE, over 3,000 miles and I didn't even feel it in my fingers.

I knew one thing by now, I wasn't stopping...

Started off with some relaxing time at the Hamptons, going up towards Rhode Island and toured the mansion. Cape Cod & Boston and fell in love once again with the city. Came down to New York for memorial day weekend and lived my Sex and the City moment. Some Philly and Atlantic City. And to finish it all down to Washington, DC. Washington was a city that I was never able to tour... just walking from one monument to the other had me spent and here I was... walking and walking and walking and walking around town!

I even managed to loose an additional 7lb, just by eating healthy, walking around and by then I was off the diet.

I had all this energy now in my life that I never before!!!

Due to my malfunctioning ticker, in the past, I was never able to keep up with anything. I would basically always pass out! The surgeries allowed me to be able to take meds and for them to work. For the first time I was starting to feel normal.

I had also had a minor back surgery a year ago... I had the nerves of my back burned. They were damaged due to my herniated disk and were causing the chronic pain. After two hours of what I consider a miracle surgery the pain was gone!!!

It was a new world for me. A world of being able to do things that I had never done before, and then Wholistic Fitness happened...

I remember when I started the diet I called my sister, she's a personal trainer and I was hoping she could give me some tips.

I asked her to give me a couple of exercises that I could start doing at home. She asked me to try some pushups. I went down on my hands and knees and I could barely support myself!

I called her again... "I can't, is there an easier way?". "Sure! try them on the stairs, that way there is not too much weight". I go to the stairs, get in pose and that was about it I couldn't do the movement.

"Mayi" I call her back... "I can't, I don't have the strength". She sent me a video with a little demo on how to do push ups against the wall. It was sad...

Thank God for Groupon!!! It had the most amazing deal for 20 classes. It wasn't a Gym, it was a place exclusively for women, focused on women's needs. I also knew that in order to commit to something it's easier to create a habit. So even better news? they had a baby boomer bootcamp that lasted a month.

That was what I needed to get me going and create my habit.

I was terrified! I had not exercised for like over 15 years. I've never been able to do pushups and sit-ups and a plank???? those words didn't go with my name, just didn't mix together.

So to Cathy and bootcamp I went and guess what? it didn't matter! It didn't matter in what shape I was in or what I was able to do because the only person judging me was myself! and coming from where I was coming, anything and everything I was doing was an accomplishment.

Cathy was amazing, making me feel that I could do it and showing me ways to adapt the moves to me. With her motivation, love for what she does and her daily stories she made that hour every day go by like it was 10 min. Thank you Cathy!!!

I enjoyed every single moment of it... even when I couldn't do something. Cathy would say, it's OK... you'll get it next time. I would look at Cathy and say, no worries... just the fact that I'm here is already a celebration!

I started trying other classes. I said Zumba should be pretty easy, I mean I'm from Venezuela right? I grew up dancing salsa, merengue... Beginners Zumba? I got it under control.

Well nope! remember when I told you I had lost my coordination and balance? well, that doesn't help when you are trying to dance. I almost cried the first day, until I looked around... nobody was perfect and they didn't care... I started laughing at myself! I felt like Patrick Dempsey dancing that weird dance in "Can't buy me love" but hey, who cared??? so I kept going.

I then decided to try Yoga. It's all about mind and body relaxation, right? I was so wrong!!! who knew there are 800 different types of Yoga and that I was attempting a class that was one of the most difficult! Hot Power Yoga...

First day I felt like I was going to die!!! it was so freaking hard!!! but you know? at the end of that first class Kelliann, my amazing and inspiring Yoga Instructor, read a little passage. It said something like why are we so hard with ourselves when we try our best if it's the best that we are doing.

I came back, again and again and again.

I started making friends... people that would encourage me and tell me how much change they had already seen in me. Stephanie, Heidi, Audrey, each one unique and different and here we were together, motivating each other.

I started peaking at other classes, TRX and Kickboxing and saying I WILL NEVER, EVER, EVER DO THOSE CLASSES!!! They look so crazy hard and difficult and the teacher? she scared me, I mean she was doing all these "advanced" classes. True I had only seen her while she was teaching a class or doing personal training. All those things that I thought I couldn't do. I had also never officially met her... and she was one of the owners... scary right?

That is until one day before my birthday. I went in for a class, Kate was around and she started singing, well, kinda singing... somebody is having a birthday coming up!!!

I then knew I had to take her class, even if I had said, never, ever, never...

Kate is one of the co-owners of WF. She makes a point to know everybody's name, she's always smiling and laughing. She greats you first thing on a Saturday morning with a "Top of the morning to you". She comes up with some weird moves... Superman flying while smelling his arm pits or something that looks and sounds like that.

I started taking TRX, was it hard? yes!!! but it was doable.

Kate, by the way weighs about 35lb. That's why it's so easy for her to suspend herself from the TRX, with her pinky, while she does another of her butterfly going up and down while pulling her heavy pants up move...

She always made me know that I could do anything and everything. Maybe it wasn't the original move that she had showed us, but I was OK with asking her for the modified version and even the modified of the modified.

I remember the day when I was getting up to do my pushups on the wall, she said, why don't you try first on your knees before you go to the wall? And guess what? I did!!! Big women pushups!!! I couldn't believe it. My body was changing.

I went from pushups to planks on the TRX... you should have seen me... I couldn't get my butt up. From there I went to almost lifting my behind, to lifting my behind while my upper body was still on the floor, to trying to get at least on my elbows to one day Kate turning around and looking at me while exclaiming!!! "Carolina, what are you doing?', "I'm planking Kate!!!". Guys, you have no idea what this meant to me... Planking made me feel proud of myself and that's not something we normally do. We don't give give ourselves a pat in the back even though we deserve it.

I also made more friends, amazing Jamie, Janet and Allison. We all laugh and sweat together... Sweat sisters!!!

Oh! I don't want to forget to mention that I also walked my first 5K with my WF buddies. Cathy & Kate were there next to us making sure we made it to the finish line.

And then there's Mel. She's the superwomen of WF. She has so much passion for what she does, loves and what she believes in. You can hear it when she talks and her eyes start opening up... from talking about her plans for WF or how she made roasted sweet walnuts for the beets salad. Living a healthy life and spreading the message. She even made me consider going Vegetarian, for crying out loud!!! She's crazy inspiring and could easily get me into anything, you basically want to have what she's having :)

So basically my life now goes around what classes can I make, how much can I challenge myself... will I be going 5 days this week or 6? and that story about exercise and endorphins? well, it's true. They really make you happy!

I want to rock climb, I want to hike around the Olympic Peninsula, I want to sky dive and I want to run a 5K. I know I'll do it and you'll probably read about it.

I sent a video to my sister last week. It was me doing big man pushups...!!! She's an amazing motivation for me. She celebrates with me every accomplishment. She knows what it's taken me to get where I am and she helps me celebrate. I feel and hear how proud of me she is and that means the world to me.

Where will I go from here? Wait and see!!!

Cheers to 2013!