MVP Award – Andrea
MVP Award – Andrea
By Michael Harlandrland
This year is a little different for us when picking the winners of Best Me Yet. We had so many people do so well and it presents a challenge with only picking 3 people. Normally our 3rd place prize is a mix of physical transformation and community involvement.
The transformation portion of this choice is self-explanatory (body composition). The community portion has us factor in attitude inside of our facility – encouraging, motivating, supportive, etc.., participation in our external events, level of commitment, social media activity inside and outside of our private Facebook group and their own personal pages, and items like that.
Since so many people did so well, we decided to create an MVP winner to go along with our placements based solely on body composition. Without a doubt, Andrea took this prize!
To start, Andrea drives 30 – 40 minutes to train with us every day. This is if there is no traffic (and when does that happen?). On top of that, she battles Lyme Disease, has a full spinal fusion, epilepsy, arthritis, chronic pain & fatigue, gastroparesis & IBD. Lastly, she also dealt with a heart issue and GI issues. Here’s what she had to say about it:
“So the heart issue I had they think was part of my chronic Lyme Disease. I was feeling tired but when am I not tired? My heart rate spiked to 180-240 while resting and I couldn’t get it down for 36 hours. I couldn’t catch my breath, was too dizzy to walk & I couldn’t speak or see clearly. This happened on a Monday night, on Thursday I went to train knowing I was still in a nauseous fog and Greg wouldn’t let me train. When I was putting my shoes on in the lobby I was overwhelmed just by putting my shoes on with the music going and stuff. I definitely could not have trained. And even though I cried when Greg told me I couldn’t train, he was absolutely right. The whole cardiac/possible seizure incident took me out for 8 days of the challenge- eating during this time was tough as I couldn’t stand on my own and I was super nauseous.
The GI part of my health was the hardest part of the challenge. I spent a lot of my adult life after having MRSA in my spine with a J-Tube for tube feeding as I developed gastroparesis and was unable to swallow anything. After my digestion healed enough to eat again I ate in small amounts to stay comfortable but I wasn’t paying attention to the balance of what I was eating because I was constantly snacking. This led to unhealthy habits. So when I started the program my body couldn’t digest the food properly in the quantities and intervals we were supposed to eat at. I was in acute abdominal pain overnight and at many points during the day. I became best friends with my heating pad. Greg and my doctor encouraged me to stick with it and my body
would adjust. By week 6 my body started to adjust and my pain was reduced. I will never have perfect digestion but the schedule of this program along with the balanced meals allowed me to find a whole new level of digestion I never thought was possible. It was all about routine and sticking with it. When my J-tube was placed I weighed 69.5 lbs. After I ballooned to 140. I am so happy to be in a place where my body feels its best. It was a painful road for sure. And the diet piece only came after training for so long and my body was ready for the next hurdle.”
Well, as she always does, Andrea fought and overcame ALL of this! Despite the GI issues she managed to decrease her body fat by almost 5%, with a total weight loss of 12.2 pounds!
She is one of the absolute strongest people we know and couldn’t think of a better person to be our MVP.
