How do you start a post about the person to whom you owe everything that you are and will ever be?

I couldn’t wish for a better mother. She’s a woman that, before anything else, was a mother, and at a very young age. She practically lived and breathed for me and my siblings. Helping us with homework, cooking delicious meals for us, tough as nails sometimes but always making us feel loved and accepted… She always taught us to believe in ourselves. However she quite literally put her life on hold while we grew up, dedicating herself to us 110%.

In her side of the family, everyone was overweight since I can remember. Poor eating habits and lack of exercise were to blame, but these kind of habits can be extremely hard to break when that’s the way it’s always been around your house. My mom grew up with 1 sister and 3 brothers, her being the oldest. We always seem to think that an unhealthy lifestyle is something that we may have to worry about when we get old and our best years have passed. This wasn’t the case for my aunt. My mom’s little sister was a very happy and social person, the kind that would always have you laughing with her words and would always be up for whatever adventure the day brought, she loved to sing and play jokes on people… she was like a little girl in that way 🙂

Then at 42 years old my aunt got diagnosed with chronic kidney disease… the next couple of years were very painful for her and the whole family. It went from bad to worse, she eventually had to have dialysis performed every few hours, several times a day to help her kidneys continue to function. Was in and out of hospitals all the time…her passing was something very difficult for everyone, she left behind a daughter, a son and a husband.

A couple of years after, my mom went to get tests done and the doctors asked her if she was diabetic. She replied “No doctor, I am not”. At that point the doctor indicated that based on the results he got, she was in fact now a diabetic. This was a huge wake up call for her, having still fresh in her mind the loss of her sister, she knew first hand the kind of pain she would be causing herself and everyone around her if she didn’t do something about it right away.

This was the beginning of a new life for her, she finally reached out and changed her lifestyle completely, incorporating both nutrition and exercise. She couldn’t run because of the weight and her bad knees so she started walking a few minutes per day, gradually she increased her speed, until one day she felt the urge to run, which she hadn’t done in over 30 years… that day she was able to run for just a few seconds, but I remember her telling me how excited she was, she said she literally heard a voice in her mind, soft as a whisper that simply said: “Run..!” She was determined to get healthy and stop at nothing! To this day, after only 7 months she has lost 66 pounds and is growing stronger every day. At 51 years young she exercises 6 days a week and eats very clean.

She is my biggest success story and source of inspiration.  This is all the proof I will ever need to show me that it’s not genetics, it’s not your age, it’s not luck, it’s not what happened to you… it’s how you face life’s challenges and whether you rise up and fight for what you want or accept whatever hand you were dealt.

This is where my passion for fitness stems from, I feel a sense of urgency to help as many people as possible to get healthy and live their life without physical or mental limitations, empowered by their own accomplishments, confident in themselves… Happy. After all, we are all in this together!

Thanks Mom, you rock!