2010 to 2012

2018

My name is Lenore Colley Winfrey.
I decided it was necessary to take my health seriously if I wanted to live to see any grandchildren I may be blessed to have. I had a major surgery that required me to take steroids for the rest of my life.
Steroids can and will add additional weight as well as impacting other body parts and their functions. I stayed on these necessary drugs from 1996 until December 2009 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Following my diagnosis I would have to take a pill which was brand new to the industry and all of the side effects from the drug was still undocumented. I felt that although all the medicine I was taking was necessary, I didn’t want to continue taking these harsh drugs together. So, I made the conscious decision to stop taking the steroid and risk further injury or worse or take the cancer pill and live – I chose to live and try to remain cancer free. After being educated on how eating, exercise and living as close to a stress- free life as possible can affect your body, it was a no brainer on what I had to do. My daughter, Crystal was proposed to in 2010 and this too was an incentive for me to get moving! Crystal had started her company, 4Star Fitness and was doing well. I didn’t want anything to do with it because I didn’t want to be judged…especially by my daughter – plus, it would mean she would have to know how much I weighed, my body fat index etc. Everything I was already embarrassed about. I shared with my her my concerns and was pleasantly surprised with her responses. We started slow, she would come with me to the YMCA and work me out even though I acted out and kept saying, “No, I can’t, I’m not doing it”…she was patient and funny. I was hooked.
My favorite was the boot camps where there were other people. We had fun and accomplished things we never saw ourselves being able to do, men and women alike.
Because of Crystal and my oncologist’s encouragement, I am on a life-long health and fitness journey, one I would never willingly be on if it weren’t for Crystal. Since 2010, I am down over 60 pounds down 3 dress/pant sizes; a vegetarian, and a 9-year breast cancer survivor!! I will never be small, I don’t want to be, but, I am healthier and because of Crystal, I actually exercise on my own, which was a huge undertaking for me. Thank you, Crystal, when’s the next boot camp?