This is my story...

My mother had 2 children, my younger sister and me. I call myself the experiment child. My mother, God bless her heart, was quite worried because as a child, in Jamaica, I would not eat. I wasn't putting on any weight and being her first child she did not quite know what to do.

So, when we moved to Canada, she had an idea, she would fatten me up by feeding me cornmeal porridge every morning and making sure that I did not get up from the table until I finished my stew peas every night. Needless to say, cornmeal porridge and stew peas are my favorite foods to this day!

Eventually my mother became quite pleased because I started to put on some weight, however, by the time I was 17, I weighed 180lbs with stretch marks to prove it! She was not so pleased about that. Neither was I.
When I moved to California to go to College, I realized that I had to do something about this weight, not to mention my mother's voice in my head saying “you need to exercise and lose some of that weight”, thanks mom!

I started walking with a friend from college and we used to walk 3 miles a day 4 days a week. When we started to feel like we were getting better we would run half the way and walk the other half and soon enough we were running the entire 3 miles. I started losing some weight and feeling good about myself. I began to feel like I wanted to do more. I decided to join a gym and take aerobic classes. I started at the back of the room and then moved to the middle and then before I knew it I was in the front going toe to toe with the Instructor. As a matter of fact when the instructor did not show up, everyone encourage me to do the class. I was so excited and it was so much fun teaching moves to people and having them follow.

With exercise and eating nutritiously, I lost 50lbs! I became a Certified Aerobic Instructor, and found something that I love to do! It took me 2 years to lose the weight but I have kept it off for 18 years and now as an adult in Jamaica, I continue to train and workout with the help of my coach and Personal Trainer, Barry Wilson, who by the way is an incredible motivator and the best coach I could ever find.

I have to admit, I still eat cornmeal porridge and stew peas every now and then but I have also found a love for fitness, not only as a profession but also as a way of life.

To all our readers, we want to encourage you to get out there and exercise, make fitness apart of your lifestyle, make it be a part of you.