“To understand how I felt before I took charge of my health, it is necessary to understand what my life used to be like. When I was a young child, my parents got divorced. Not being old enough to deal with the emotional baggage that the divorce entailed, I took to eating junk food as a means of moderating my emotions. This went on for several years. I developed a monstrous sweet tooth, and a plethora of bad habits that contributed to me continuing my utterly unhealthy lifestyle. Suddenly, I was in the fifth grade, and I was  wearing the same pant size as my dad, 34 men’s. Middle school was brutal to me. Girls did not want to talk to me, and coerced the guys in my classes not to talk to me either. I had no friends, no real life, only a passing of days and years in which I buried myself in my studies and yet more junk food. The junk food made me feel happy and warm, so I was oblivious to the havoc it was wreaking upon my body. A double chin, stretch marks, muffin top, ripped pants, high blood pressure, difficulty breathing were just the start. And for all of my troubles, physically and because of the consequences of my obesity, emotionally, I was still unaware that I was the sole cause of my pain. I did not realize that it was my fault for continuing to do this for myself. I was ignorant and blissful; I was without shame.

Throughout my childhood and the early parts of my adolescence, there were many things that should have been a wakeup call to me. My mother’s constant warnings to quit eating junk food should have saved me from my fate, but I ignored her and thought of her as a vain old woman. My own aversion to buying new clothes because I was deathly afraid that they would not fit me should have told me something was wrong, but I just pushed it out of my mind. The fact that I was 21 years younger than my father and wearing the same pant size as him should have told me something, but I chose not to listen. I even avoided mirrors for a long time so my own physical appearance would not be there to challenge my idea of food, the world, and myself. Something that gave me a shade of awareness to my ordeal was when I visited my doctor for my yearly physical and he told me that my blood pressure was so high, I would have to take high blood pressure pills for the rest of my life. The news disturbed me, and all of a sudden I began to wonder if maybe I was doing something wrong. I approached the dreaded mirror, and for the first time in years, looked into it honestly. I was horrified with what I saw; I was horrified with myself. In that moment I realized it had been I that made this be, it had been that I did not listen to all the warnings, it had been I that was wrong. In that moment, I realized it was only I that could save myself, and I would do it, no matter what.

Today, and every day since that fateful visit to the doctor, I have felt incredible, because I have cleaned up my diet and pursued one of the hardest workout programs in the world: Insanity. The thought of being truly in control of myself is so uplifting. I am aware of my body, aware of my eating habits, and most importantly, aware of my progress. At the visit to the doctor that changed my life, I was 17 years old, weighing 245 lbs. Now, as I type this, I am 19 years old, weighing 195 lbs. Not only have I lost a net 50 lbs, I have put on a large amount of muscle. I am four times as fast, can actually jump, and went from being unable to a single pushup, to being able to do 50 pushups without halt. In the last two years, I have grown about half a foot in height. At my worst, I was a size 38 in men’s. Now, I am a size 34. The awareness of these feats inspires me to keep on fighting to be even more fit, and my body, now so much leaner and stronger, gladly accepts the challenge. I am happier, in part because of my bettered physical condition, but mostly because I did it; I beat being overweight, and I will always have the tool to stay above it: my body.

The responses to my transformation have been just as incredible as my feelings about it. I receive a great deal of praise from my family members and old friends. People from my past are wowed by who I have become. Some do not even recognize me. The kindness directed toward me has been wonderful, especially when it comes from the new people I have met. As a 19 year old guy, I am not afraid to admit that it feels good when people check me out as I walk by. It’s a human thing, I believe, and I enjoy it. The best kind of feedback I have received has been people asking me for advice to help them achieve their own transformation. From friends, to family, and even my own doctor, people have come to me seeking advice because of my great results. They want to know how and why it happened. Even the doubters, even the people who cast me aside in my youth, because I was fat, have come asking for help. These responses and the attention inherent to them have made me feel like a hero, the hero of my own life.

All of my success, all of my improvement, my entire transformation could not have been possible without my beloved Beachbody coach and mentor, Veronica Dowdy. The core of physical activity has been the Insanity workout. I had been flirting around with it for a few months before I came into contact with Veronica. Soon after meeting Veronica, I found that my workouts were a lot more focused. Veronica was constantly sharing tips with me on how to eat healthy, giving me alternative healthier recipes to famous dishes, and answering all of my questions, both about diet and exercise. With Veronica guiding me, I saw that I was able to achieve more results from my workouts, had increased form, and a greater sense of power in my body. When I sustained a knee injury that stopped me from working out for several months, Veronica checked up on me and helped me stay fit even with my injury. I am much more knowledgeable about working out and healthy living because of Veronica’s guidance. I feel like I can effectively help others by the great example that has taught me so much.”

I am LOVING this workout, the music is awesome, the “rep effect” as they call it feels a burning sensation that tells me that my muscles are working and that my body is changing. The workout comes with a barbell and a set of 5 and 10 lb plates. I had to order an additional set for Joseph to use. I was happy though, that I only had to order one set and not two.

What’s interesting about this first phase of the workout is that the routines are short… 25 to 35 minutes, they combine 15 minutes of yoga (flow) with 45 minutes of walking, or about 20 minutes of abs with 35 minutes of walking.

I am amazed at how many women have been concerned about “getting bulky.” We don’t have the ability to become bulky on our own and quite honestly, I have NO idea what a female bodybuilder has to do in order to become bulky like that. When I competed, I was lifting about 170 lbs with y legs and around 60 lbs with my arms and I wasn’t bulky at all.

So that’s my review so far.

Asylum prepares you for playing sports, ALL sports, from basketball, football, soccer, swimming, sprinting, if it’s a sport… well this workout will prepare you for it.  Today the workout was “Speed and Agility.” The first time I did this workout it was not really Speed and Agility it was really my own version which should be called “Slow and Clumsy.” I struggled through it and when I was done, I was really bitching about how much I had hated it.

The lesson here is once again, to not give up and continue. You have NO idea how many times I lost my balance, questioned my ability and just really wanted to give up… but I didn’t, I kept at it, and slowly my body has started to respond. In today’s Speed and Agility workout I was able to do some of these exercises without stepping on the ladder (yaay me!) I was able to keep my balance, do all the moving pushups and about 95% of the workout. YES! and now that I have gotten my breath back, i can safely do a Snoopy dance without passing out. YEAH!

This is what i love about these programs, there is no guessing involved, yeah, I feel a bit lost at times but that’s just an effect of my clumsiness and not the programs themselves. So if what you’re doing is not working for you and you’re not getting the results you want, why, oh why are you continuing to do the SAME thing? That’s why most people quit, because they don’t get the results they want. If you want results, you have to do something different. Most people spend thousands of dollars in gym memberships every year only to quit a few weeks into their membership and waste their money.

If you want to save money in gym memberships AND get results, Beachbody is the answer and I can coach you through your journey so you can get my results, in the same way that I was coached to get mine. The people that I am now coaching are getting GREAT results, if you want to join them, contact me at ha***********@***il.com.

This has been no kidding the most amazing personal experience ever, I can actually place it next to jumping out of a plane with a parachute (dad, if you’re reading this I don’t mean to freak you out and I promise I won’t do it again)   I arrived to the competition place expecting to find a lot of catty women, on the contrary, they were pretty awesome, supportive and helpful. I loved that they were there for me even when they didn’t know who I was and I was not part of any team there. I think we all knew how hard we had worked to get there so there was a level of respect that I have not experienced among women, it was a sisterhood and I loved it. As i got ready to go on that stage, these women cheered me on, encouraged me and told me “you’ll be great” and when I was done, they cheered me again and said what a great job I had done.

I was pretty calm until I had to walk on that stage, then it all hit me at once and I got a bit nervous… but then as the audience was silent… I heard my little girl yelling “YAAAY MOMMY!” and when it was my turn to pose she yelled: “GO MOMMY! GO MOMMY! GO MOMMY!” I remembered that I was not there by myself and that my daughter and my hubby were cheering for me from the audience. Joseph said that a few people chuckled at how cute my daughter was, she was the only child who did that

Once the competition was over, I felt pretty tired, burned out and exhausted. The first week after the competition was brutal. I wasn’t working out because my body needed rest more than anything. Quite honestly, I trained non-stop for five months with one rest day/week to reach my goal… you BET I was tired! So I took a break for a week and that week turned into two weeks. Yes, as shocking as it seems, I have NOT worked out for two whole weeks and I have been pretty good with my diet except for the pizza I had that made me sick this past week. I think my body was telling me NOOOOOOOOO!! DON’T EAT THAT PIZZA!  After losing one night of sleep (I won’t go into details) I can honestly say, lesson learned, my body just does not like that amount of greasy stuff and salt.

What seems incredible to me is that this all started with P90X. After completing the first 90 days and seeing my results I could tell that I had found something that truly worked, but I never thought that I would get into the shape I am now, at 43, after having a child! It all started with a comment from my hubby saying “I have seen this infomercial and I’d like to get P90X” and then I wrote a question to a Facebook friend at the time who later became my coach “Does P90X really work?” The truth is that once I saw my results, I had to keep going, pushing play and digging deeper. We bought RevAbs and then Insanity and here I was, getting ready to be on that stage after only 14 months of beginning my fitness journey.

So what now? My biggest fear quite honestly has been reverting to how awful I felt a year ago. I honestly don’t want to go back to that. I had no energy to play with Angelina and it felt awful. I never, ever, ever (did I say NEVER?) want to go back to that! So here I am, going into a maintenance plan, working out with Joseph and doing another round of P90X and then Asylum while P90X2 gets released. My diet is not as restricted, although I’m still eating clean (which means non-processed foods, no TV dinners and nothing that contains ingredients that I cannot pronounce.)  My goal for next year is to get the posing down to a “T”, more confident on that stage and come home with a trophy, that’s my personal goal. My professional goal is to help as many people as possible reach their fitness goals.

Maybe your personal goal is not to compete, maybe it’s just to feel more attractive to your hubby, or maybe it’s to fit into that beautiful dress that you have saved. I can tell you for sure, that If I could lose weight and get in shape, so can you. If you don’t know where to start, let me know and I will guide you and coach you for FREE. Send me a message for details or look me up at http://www.facebook.com/ExceptionalFitness

Yesterday, I found myself telegraphing my intent to quit the competition. I took my pictures and measurements and unfortunately, after working really hard last week there were not many changes in my physique. I found myself wanting to push the competition date further and caught myself thinking “why am I doing this if it’s not working?” I wrote in the wall of my group “I’m having an off day and I’m ready to quit, I don’t like my pictures today.” However, when comparing my pictures from yesterday to the ones I took in February when I started the training, the changes are huge and I have come a long way. Thankfully, I have a husband who won’t let me get away with quitting, nor will he allow me to push my competition date any further and on top of that, I have a great accountability group that has offered me their support. I would have quitted a long time ago if it weren’t for them!

This morning I woke up feeling better and I realized what’s missing from my training is getting adequate rest. After sitting down with Joseph and discussing this, we figured something that will work for me… I will be going to the gym straight from work, instead of having dinner first, waiting two or many times three and a half hours to go to the gym because all I want to do is stay home and not have to workout again at night. I end up coming home from the gym way too late, going to bed past 11:00 and then up by 4:00 to do Insanity and the rest  all over again. By doing this, I’m only sabotaging my training, my rest and giving myself even more reasons to quit. Last night when I had that conversation with Joseph, all I could hear were my mother’s words on one of our many mother-daughter conversations: “none of my kids are quitters!”

So, enough of this self-sabotage on my part! At the same time, I invite you to take a look at your promises to start taking care of yourself… consider that every time you have stopped working out and eating healthy, you are doing something that is a self-sabotage. What is it? Dig deep into your intentions, look for your reasons of “why are you doing this?” Trust me when I say this, I have been really struggling these past couple of weeks and have to constantly talk myself out of quitting and when I can’t talk myself out of it, I look for support from the girls or my husband. It works to have support, more importantly, if you do quit, take responsibility for quitting and don’t blame anyone else. No one can really “make you” do something you don’t want to do… (unless your life is being threatened.)

It’s so important to find the right type of support you need as well. I don’t always like to hear “you need to rest more” because I know it’s true. I don’t always like to hear “you shouldn’t eat that right now” because I now it’s true and I especially don’t like to hear “you CAN’T quit right now” because I know that this is 100% true. Surround yourself by people who will support you in your intentions to get healthy. It’s so easy to find people who are resigned about their weight and health issues, it’s easy to feel resigned but it’s courageous to step out of the box and fight that tendency to do nothing about it. Be courageous, reach out and ask for help and support… heck I hate asking for it, but I am reminded that I’m not perfect and I need ALL the support possible when I’m ready to throw in the towel. The truth is that I would have never, ever started this journey to better health and fitness had I not had an awesome Beachbody coach who saw in me what was possible and not the proof that I was seeing in the mirror and in my pictures. Every now and then, he’d give me a gentle kick in the butt to get me to push harder. There is no way I’d be able to workout the way I’m doing today, had I quit P90X, RevAbs or Insanity.

The only secret to success is getting the support you need to ensure that you don’t quit when you start to feel discouraged. When you notice yourself telegraphing your intentions to quit… notice that, stop and know that the only way to succeeding is by not quitting. So don’t quit!

I must be weird, I mean seriously! I have no issues with the workouts or with eating healthy. I now can turn down ice cream or frozen yogurt very easily. I don’t mind saying “no thank you” to the cookies, brownies or cupcakes that they offer at work. The evil $0.25 snack machine has no grab on me. I simply ignore it. But the water??? Which is good for me, I completely dismiss… and the funny thing is that I LOVE how good it feels to drink it! Maybe there is more to it, maybe it’s this idea that I “HAVE” to drink water. Maybe I’m resisting this part of the coaching like my 3 year old when I tell her that she has to go to bed “but I don’t want to, it’s not dark outside” she tells me. Regardless of the reasons, I had to find something that would work for me in order to drink the water I need. So I got myself two water drinking buddies, a friend who is training with me and my hubby. My hubby knows how competitive I am so throughout the day he’d send me text messages: 12 he’d say, my response was 48 at one point his message “I’m winning 90 ounces HAHAHAHAHA!” I had already finished my 72 ounce Bubba and had filled it up, I was so focused on drinking that I hadn’t realized that I was almost done with it… by the time I replied, I had finished my second Bubba, a whopping 144 ounces of water and I was done with my water intake for the day at around 4:10 PM.

I may not find the reason for which I sabotage myself, but I do know two things: I know that getting an accountability partner works and I also know that when changing a habit or creating a new one, it takes 21 days of doing it consistently for it to become permanent. So all I need to do, is continue to drink water consistently throughout the day for 21 days with the help of my two accountability partners. it will be easy after that. So my lesson for today is find something that works so you can reach your goal. You know yourself well enough to know what that is.

I had been afraid of saying something about my plan for two reasons, 1- I was waiting to “see” if I was going to start to get results on the plan I am following (and yes I am). The second reason is that of course, like with anything else I am terrified of failing. Regardless, I am taking it on. My goal is not to win (although that would be cool), but my goal is to BE there on stage. Yes… me, in my 40’s competing in my age category with other amazing, fit women…. and defying everything that people have told me (mostly women) about how when you have a child you can “never get your body back” I am out to prove that it’s not true, that not only can I but I am going to be in even better shape than I have ever been.  So far, I have lost 3 inches around my waist since I started this training and it has only been 2 weeks.

I expected this to be challenging and yes, it has been. But at the same time, it has been somewhat easy. For example. my trainer has me prepare my meals ahead of time for the whole week. I label everything, yes, every single container, bag, etc. 6 meals per day, I am to eat every 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Yes, it’s a lot of food and even though it’s a pain in my happy butt to prepare the meals ahead of time (it takes me about 3 hours), I am saving time, energy and the risk of failing. My trainer has set me up to win, (thank you Tracy). There is NO way I can fail my nutrition plan if I have everything there, ready for me. I drink lots of water, lots more than I have been drinking and I am eating REAL food which rocks and I get my cheat day in which I’m allowed to eat what I want (for a maximum of 2 meals). AWESOME!

My workouts have been all set up for me, well for all of us we are a total of 23 ladies doing this. Yes 23 of us! Are the workouts challenging? Heck yeah! Am I sore? You bet!. Do I love it? Oh YEAH! How can I fit it in my schedule? I’m still figuring it all out. Where is my hubby in all of this? Supporting me all the way, he’s my biggest cheerleader and has been insisting that I blog about it. I have other friends as well who have kept the secret for me (Marvin, my coach, I would not even be considering this if you hadn’t talked to me about P90X, Richard, thank you, my coworker Alana – not sure if you read this but you kept telling me “blog about it, you have to blog about it!” Barbie, THANK YOU for sharing Tracy with me and the other gals. And babes from the bikini group, you guys ROCK, every post, every challenge, every cheer for each other, my goodness am I lucky to be part of this! This is the most amazing group of women I have ever known So thanks to all of you who have been part of this, I appreciate it and of course Tracy, thanks for setting me… setting all of us to win.

I have come to the realization that I have added a lot more to my plate – I am getting certified as a Turbokick instructor. Turbokick is a program offered by the very famous Chalene Johnson, who is another one of the Beachbody coaches, creator of Turbofire, TurboJam and ChaLean Extreme. This Sunday, i will be ready and prepared to teach the class

Where does this all leave me with P90X? Are you kidding me? P90X started it all and I am continuing to use the Beachbody products, it’s a lifestyle change, there is no question about it. I wouldn’t even be here without P90X, RevAbs, Insanity and all the other amazing programs out there. I have a photo shoot on June 4th and the competition at the end of July… on to my biggest fitness challenge for me yet! I am READY for this!

I started this journey as a goal to beat the threat of diabetes and I have accomplished that. I am happy to say that when I went to get my annual physical which I had postponed for very long, I discovered that all of my tests came back completely normal. My blood sugar levels were normal, my triclyceride levels were normal. My doctor also wanted to make sure that my thyroid was normal because he was concerned that one of the reasons I had gained so much weight was that my thyroid wasn’t working properly, but that too is normal. I am 100% certain that if I had continued on the same path of irresponsible eating and not moving, the results would have been very different. I love it that I am healthy. I am thankful that I can look at myself in the mirror and recognize the person looking back at me. I love it, that I can look at my daughter and know that I have done my part to stay healthy and share the gift of healthy eating and an active lifestyle with her as well.

So now that I’m healthy, why continue? Heck, because I want to stay healthy and because I want to look great. Yes, it’s true… I want to be that 40 something mom that can teach other moms how to get fit and stay healthy. I want to be the person who can teach other women how to cook healthy for their families and how exercise and how preparing good, nutritional, delicious food is not difficult and can actually be beneficial not only to them but to their whole family. That’s my commitment. That’s what I am aiming for… and then of course there is another thing I have under wraps but I will not be disclosing that until the time approaches, but this is something completely out of the box for me and I’m excited and so looking forward to this fun thing I’m doing, well I’m not doing it alone, I have 22 other beautiful women that I have gotten to know in very few days who are doing it with me.

And with that, I must say I love my life, I love my husband who supports me in everything I do, no matter how out of the box it is. So this post is dedicated to him: Thank you honey, my life is amazing because of you.

Of course what happens with me is not that I don’t trust that it’s working but I think that somehow I should look like a swimsuit model ALREADY, regardless of the fact that I have only been working at it for a few months (it hasn’t even been a year) and that well, I’m NOT a swimsuit model. Hey but at least I can make fun of myself and laugh at how silly my thoughts are at times. Truth be told, I am in much better shape than 3 years ago, 2 years ago and 1 year ago. I am probably in better shape now then I have been in years. People who have recently met me don’t believe me when I tell them how I looked in May of last year, until of course, I show them my pictures. As a result from all of this, I have noticed that I am less and less impatient because I do trust the process. This stuff works, you can’t expect it to wake up one day after doing P90X for 2 or 3 weeks and all of a sudden you’ll be fit. No, it is one little step after another. What I tell the people I coach is: “Don’t focus on the number on the scale, focus on how your clothes start to fit, if they start to feel a little loose here and there, that’s when you know it is working. If you’re not losing weight quickly enough, adjust your calories, check what you’re eating. Keep a food journal and plan your meals ahead of time taking in consideration how many calories you will be consuming, drink plenty of water and watch the amount of sodium you eat. I don’t eat much salt and I have increased the amount of water I drink. I keep a 25.5 ounce BPA free plastic bottle by my desk and fill it up 3 times with water.

There have been people who have lost 150 Lbs or more doing P90X, or some of the other workouts and it takes something, it takes consistency and trusting that it’s going to work. When you trust that it will work for you, then you just don’t want to stop, little by little, step by step, day by day… just remember one workout at a time is what will bring you closer to your goal. It’s the sum of all the workouts together that will get you to your goal.

I had my blood pressure checked a couple of days ago for my physical, it is 118/69. That’s the blood pressure of a healthy 25 – 35 year old female. (Source: http://www.coronary-heart-health.com/blood-pressure-results.html).

So this got me thinking, I am going to have a six-pack and I am out to prove that I can do so even if I am in my 40’s and even after having a child. I am also out to prove that contrary to normal belief, I don’t have to be a professional athlete to have a six-pack. I can have it all, be a wife, mom and be in the best shape of my life. I am on day 40 of my current workout, Insanity. So six-pack, her e I come!

If you have been following my blog, you will probably have read that I had a couple of stressful weeks. Yes, that not-so delightful, gray-hair causing, irritable thing that happens when we’re on a deadline or things are not going as well as we expect them to go…. STRESS came in hissing like a snake and ready to bite my happy butt. If you are one of my friends, you probably know that I am well known for being a “hard worker” or for doing a lot (work, school, being a mom, wife, exercising, translating, interpreting and sometimes putting an event together). So the truth of the matter is that I must enjoy taking a lot of things on, so why stress? I wonder… well maybe I like to be seen as an overachiever or I like it when people think “wow, how does she do it?” The truth of the matter is that no matter how I put it, I like to look good and that’s all there is to it

I had worked out with Tony Horton on Saturday but did not work out on Sunday, Monday or yesterday… why? Because I had a cold and hadn’t slept well, and felt sick, and blah, blah, blah. Truth is regardless of the reasons, I didn’t work out and I felt worse. I got home yesterday and I was feeling extremely exhausted and irritable. I just wanted to go home and sleep and that doesn’t work very well when you have a 3 year old who has been waiting to see you all day and who probably doesn’t quite understand why mommy doesn’t want to play today.

I got home last night in a MAJOR funk and when I asked myself why, I realized I hadn’t worked out for two whole days! And it occurred to me… I’ve been doing Insanity so I must at least have some results now, right? And so it was that I decided to finally take that bikini I bought after the holidays and take pictures just to see what results I had gotten. To my surprise, my tummy is almost flat! I discovered that this was the only thing I needed to get myself back on track and out of that dreadful funk. I happily went to bed committed to working out this morning, no matter what, no excuses… but then I coughed my head off all night and according to Joseph, I was “breathing funny” although he didn’t use those words, it was “honey, you weren’t really breathing funny, you sounded like a stuck carburetor.” Although I know that’s not true (cause I never heard it!)… fine! So I guess he doesn’t quite like my lullabies.   Regardless, I caused him to get very little sleep. (Good thing we’re married because the whole embarrassment of sounding like a stuck carburetor just disappears when you’re married… trust me on this one, it’s  a GOOD thing)

When the alarm went off at 4:30 this morning, Joseph refused to get up (understandably). So I worked out by myself for the first time in 3 weeks. To my surprise, although the cough is still there, I am feeling much better, I have energy and I have been able to stay focused on my projects and the funk is completely gone.

Yes I know, I need to listen to my body, because it wouldn’t be smart for me to just workout if I have a fever. We need to use some common sense here people. The truth is that I slept well, regardless of the (ahem…) carburetor noises I was making and I didn’t have a fever.

This to me was a good lesson on what Tony Horton calls “Exercise Bipolar Disorder” as he put it so simply in his book: “When you move your body, you heal your mind.” The funny thing is that I instinctively have known this for years. I took on running years ago, mainly because I thought that running was giving me an outlet for my negative feelings and at the time I was going through a nasty divorce from an unhealthy marriage. I ran and loved the feeling of the wind hitting my face, the fresh breeze and smell of the ocean as I jogged 13 miles from Santa Monica to Will Rogers’ Beach and back. I ran because my body kept telling me to keep going while my mind kept telling me that if I only ran a few more steps I’d feel better… and finally at the end of the 13 miles I did. Much better, more refreshed and stronger. I got in shape in no time during that year. It was emotionally difficult but also emotionally strengthening, awesome and empowering at the same time. And so it was, that I got addicted to all those feel-good brain chemicals, but hey, if I’m going to be addicted to something, why not something that is actually GOOD for me?

Years ago I started running as a means of escaping all the frustration and feeling of failure from a marriage that hadn’t gone as I had planned and then I couldn’t stop running, and took on running several 5K’s (my best time was 23 minutes), and then I just ran because it felt, oh so good… as good as a glass of Pinot Noir and a piece of dark chocolate… that good. The same thing I did now, I started working out to get healthier, because I want to live long and see my daughter grow up and be as much part of her life as I can and now, I am working out because I just can’t stop, I feel great, I feel strong and it makes me happy. Joseph told me this morning “Oh, you seem much happier today, what changed?” and I replied “I worked out.” So it is, that exercise has become an integral part of my physical and emotional well-being.