I have been a nurse for 10 years. Prior to that I had many careers: bouncer, landscaper, internet developer, baker, photographer, and US Army Medic. It was during my time in the army, back on 2001, that I was in what I considered the best shape of my life. I was 235 lbs, but always thought I was fat. I was never as fit as many of my fellow soldiers, and I had no lung capacity, so after a short time, I was honorably discharged from the army due to the fact that I could not complete the run portion of the physical fitness test in the required time. Looking back at that time, I definitely fell into a bit of a depression, whether I realized it or not. The weight started to climb. 

For several years my weight yo-yo'd. I went up 50, down 40. Up 60, down 80. Up 50 more. At around 300 lbs (2011), I considered bariatric surgery. I went through the process and actually lost enough weight on my own to fall below the requirements for surgery, so once again, I figured I could do it on my own and canceled the surgery. Five years later I was now 350 lbs and could barely function. The really showed itself to me when I was working in the ER one day and we had a cardiac arrest patient. I started doing chest compressions and within 30-45 seconds I thought I was the one having the heart attack. I could not perform the life saving skills I was trained in due to my weight. So I went back to the surgeons and started the conversation all over again. I had yet to actually commit...that was until the day after the Super Bowl in 2016. I stepped on the scale and it read 356. I was disgusted. I not only made the decision to go through with the surgery, but at that point my doc wanted me to loose some weight before surgery. Thats when I found DDP Yoga.

I knew I couldn't run, or lift too much, so I found the low impact style of DDP Yoga was perfect for me. I actually lost 35 pounds prior to surgery with a combination of DDP Yoga and better eating. Then I had the surgery. It was an amazing tool that allowed me to drop a tremendous amount of weight in under a year. I went from 356 down to 179 in less than a year. I had been doing some DDP Yoga in that time but after a while my doctor told me that I had to stop doing low impact things and start hitting the weights. I had not only lost the weight, but I had lost any muscle tone I had. So I hit the gym....hard. Weight training 4-6 days a week. The muscle started to come back. 

I had gone from a size 52 pant to a size 32. As I started adding muscle back, I found that I was adding weight, but my waist was staying the same. To date, I have bulked up to 215. A recent scan at the gym tells me that 189 of that is lean muscle. I am at 15.7% body fat, down from over 35%. I feel amazing. 

 I have now begun to incorporate DDP Yoga back into my active rest days in between the weight training. I almost forgot how much your workouts kicked my ass. I sweat more doing DDP yoga then I ever do with the weight training. The pump I get from your sessions is equal if not greater to what I get at the gym. I love the program and honestly, am a little upset I ever paused them. 

My goals at this point are to get down below 10% body fat, get my personal trainer certificate, and who knows...maybe become a DDP Yoga instructor? (Need to open a DDP Yoga center in NY?)