Hello

Born and raised in the automotive capital of the world, Detroit, Michigan, once an innovative and proud bustling city that fostered commerce & community, in the most recent decades becoming a wasteland of broken dreams, violence, and poverty. With the migration of the automotive industry overseas, other supporting industries exited the city as well. Fresh fruits and vegetables, farm raised animals were not being sold in the city limits once 40,000 residents left shortly after jobs disappeared. The risk of robbery and violence by those who remained behind with little to no income was a daily reality. Sadly, even today, driving from mile to mile, access to food and beverage consists of fast food restaurants and liquor stores. Needless to say, fruits and vegetables existed in highly processed forms such as in a can or frozen packaging, and the fresh variety only appeared on special occasions like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter. 

 

My saving grace, my parents who kept us in activities, tap dance & ice skating in elementary school, cheerleading in middle school, and swim team in high school. The metabolism was accelerated even through college with ROTC and lifeguarding. 

 

But reality set in shortly after marriage and having a baby. My metabolism came to a screeching halt! Utterly perplexed and embarrassed, I expanded from a size eight to a size 20. I gained over 50 pounds after having an 8 lb8 oz baby boy. I told myself, girl, you were an athlete, get back active and everything will be back to normal in no time. But girlfriend, I was so wrong. I tried P90X, Insanity, Weight Watchers, Yoga, Jillian Michaels, Taebo, personal training, eating six times a day, NOTHING, I MEAN, NOTHING would fix it. I recognized that my mom had had the same struggles and as well as my father. 

 

Then the unthinkable happened, I was called to the hospital. Mom had suffered chest pains and palpitations just from walking from the car to the office building heading into work. Upon arriving, my mother received an onslaught of medical testing, then a consulting cardiologist encouraged a cardiac stress test. Waiting for the results was mortifying, as if time stood still. In those moments, thoughts consumed me of the outcome of death or debilitation. As the doctor gave the prognosis, we all glanced at each other baffled that a certain percentage of occlusion in the coronary arteries was "normal."  His solution; change your diet. Mom took his recommendations to heart, literally, and she researched heart-healthy diets and found a detox program. She asked me to join her quest, and I geared up for a 14-day trek up the mountain of discipline of a liquid only detoxification. I suffered pounding headaches, stomach pains, and lightheadedness. But after a few days, something magical happened, my mind became clear, I have felt energetic, even enough to get in an exercise session. Because I didn't need to shop, cook, clean dishes, or meal plan, I had extra free time to pamper myself, get extra sleep, read books on my list, completed projects that I had been putting off. By the end of the two week endeavor, I dropped 15 lbs, had glowing clear skin, gorgeous hair growth, and most impressiive was that I kept twelve of those pounds off.