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A FIGHTER
We are beyond proud of our amazing WARRIOR Dawn Mazarakis!
45 years young, 3 kids, and a passion for boxing. She is a Single Mom, Athlete, Mentor, Friend and most importantly, a true Individual. She is true to herself, her goals and her future. An accomplished amateur boxer with a amazing 14-2 record!!
One of the women she lost to, she “hunted down.” What for? To improve, learn and be better off the next time around. The two became sparring partners and today are very close friends. That’s what WARRIOR mentality is: utilizing a set of psychological and physical skills that allow someone to be effective, adaptive, and persistent. Life is more than caring for kids, careers, spouses, friends and money. She is reminder to us all to keep moving forward in search of your best self. Improvement is about attitude and effort, even if only in small, incremental steps. Life isn’t supposed to be smooth and easy at all times. Rise each day with a purpose and never give up. Find your passion and true sense of self, because it’s in there, ready to shine, ready to fight, ready to fly...
Love Myself - Trust Myself - Forgive Myself - Fight for Myself - NAMASLAY
WEDNESDAY WARRIOR
It’s a true honor to have this amazing, strong, powerful woman Diana represent our Wednesday Warrior. One of the greatest things we can do for ourselves is to look fear in the eye with determination, courage and grace. A true Buddha Warrior knows that life can come at you hard and ruthlessly. What comes after the fall is what determines our future. We must rise and trust our instincts and inner spirit.
Life has thrown me several difficult blows in my 52 years, but none was more devastating than becoming a widow at age 41. My sons were 3 and 7. How would I raise my boys without their dad? Who would take care of me? How could I provide them the life they deserved? Who was I without my partner and the life we planned? The answers lay within me.
Once I emerged from the “widow fog” and found my footing, I would raise my boys with strength, kindness, compassion, tenacity, stubbornness & raw emotion. I was driven & determined to make sure they were ok. Being a solo mom was lonely, isolating, overwhelming & difficult, but shutting down was never an option for me. Was it pretty? No. Was I perfect? No. Did I do it? Yes! I left space for grace, forgave myself for my shortcomings, and learned from my mistakes.
I showed up. Every. Single. Day.
Swimming, boxing, running & walking helped quiet my mind and provide stress relief. It helped me feel like me- the ever evolving me. I can never be who I was before he died, but I’m on the quest to who I am supposed to be, now, and going forward. Like a dragonfly that once was a larva, I am made of the same DNA, but I’ve emerged unrecognizably different.
A POSITIVE ATTITUDE, HARD WORK AND DEDICATION!
WEIGHT LOSS AND TRANSFORMATION
Hi! My name is Erin and I am presently down 47 lbs since last May. I had to hit rock bottom to realize that my weight and health would be a detriment in the long run at the rate I was going. Last May my dad went into the hospital with what he thought was pneumonia to find out that he was having heart problems. He was not overweight, never smoked or drank heavily. He was realitively healthy. That scared me to death and woke me up to think that if he’s healthy and this happened to him, I couldn’t imagine what might be in store for me if I continued to live the way I was living…..basically unhealthy. So I made the concience decision from that day forward, I would start my journey to be the healthiest version of myself.
WHAT I HAVE DONE TO GET WHERE I AM NOW
May 28th of 2018 I signed up at 9Round where I met Jodi, Gina and the rest of the 9Round trainers. They truly have changed my life for the better. After my first workout, I was hooked (pun intended...lol). I can honestly say that I never thought I would love working out but I feel so much better after I do, even if it’s after a long day of work. I love going because I love how all the trainers have gotten to know me and what I am capable of. At the begining, I needed a lot of modifications while doing some of the exercises because I was physically not able to do them because of my weight but now, I can do them. I may struggle but I do not quit. The trainers know my potential and continue to motivate me to do better every time I go. They have become family and I am grateful to have them with me on my journey of living my best life becoming a healthy happier confident me! With all this training in boxing over the past year, a friend of mine convinced me to get in an actual boxing ring and spar with other women. Never in my life would I have ever thought I would do that. I had the confidence and training to be able to do this and I truly enjoyed myself! I completed my first major 5k in November in under an hour and to me that is a major accomplishment. I look forward to doing more in the near future!
Diet is just as important to leading a healthy lifestyle along with exercise. I have done Weight watchers in the past and while it did take off the weight, I did not keep it off. I felt that I was restricted to certain food because of the point value system and that made me feel like I was being cheated. So here I am with a completely different mindset. I choose not to eat the fatty, greasy fast food that I once loved. I love to cook and found that with pinterest, I can create healthy meals and meal prep for the week. I have found this method of meal planning completely necessary and successful so far. While it does take awhile to prepare my meals for the week in one day, I found it to be completely rewarding because let’s face it, whether we work out in the morning before or after work, the last thing we want to do is cook ourselves a meal. So meal prepping is a NECESSITY in my life. Plus it deters me from going to the fridge to make something quick and not so good for us or stopping on the way home to get fast food. It’s already waiting at home for us to reheat…. NO EXCUSES!
HOW I STAY MOTIVATED
This is not always an easy task for anyone who is on thier own journey to lose weight but for me, I take it one day at a time. I know the scale should not define me but it does hold me accountable. It’s not so much as an actual goal weight for me that I am determined to get to, but I am more focused on getting to a healthy BMI. I want to be healthy first and foremost. I don’t want to have diabetes or heart problems that I could easily prevent. So that in itself is motiviation but there’s more. Family and friends have supported me from day one when I had made the decision that I needed to change my way of living, they were there for me and continue to be. The amount of gratitude I have for everyone who has been behind me is way beyond me. I have such love for everyone who is in my corner. When I first started this, I started posting my milestones of what I had done so far in weight loss on Facebook and Instagram. I was doing this to hold myself accountable. I was not doing this for the words of encouragement or approval of others but I am grateful for those who did. I was told by two former friends that I need to stop posting because I need to do it for myself and not to look for approval. I was also told that I am self-absorbed and it was getting to be too much. Needless to say I didn’t need that form of negativity in my life, so I parted ways and haven’t looked back.
Since being on Instagram, I have found similar women have posted thier progress and transformation and it has been so inspiring to me that I wanted to do the same. I want to inspire people. I want them to say “Because of you, I did’t give up” Within in the past 6 months or so, I have had so many women request to follow me because they see my story, positive quotes and transformation over the past year and want to know the secret to my success. Ya know what my secret is….. A POSITIVE ATTITUDE, HARD WORK AND DEDICATION! I have learned so much already but yet at the same time, there is always more to learn. I found out that “If losing weight was easy, then everyone would be doing it”! I recently had someone I haven’t seen in awhile tell me how great I look and wanted to know everything I am doing. I was blown away that she was able to tell me her struggles and what she was trying to do to get healthy as well. I love that I can help people even if it’s just telling them my story, it gives them the strength to continue on thier journey. If I were approached by someone who is at a standstill and about to give up, what would I say to them? I would say that at some point we all struggle. Here I am right now trying to get over that 50 lb milestone but I seem to have plateaued. I will not stop because I want to be healthy. I found this quote that speaks to me. It says “I didn’t come this far to just come this far!” I would tell them to focus on the positives, confidence, energy they now have, clothes now fit better and a happier you!
TAKING PRIDE
I have so much to be proud of within this past year but what I am most proud of is the dedication that I have invested in myself. Many people don’t know this but I was born without a thyroid gland which basically controls your metabolism. For the rest of my life I will always have to take medication to regulate my nonexisitent thyroid gland. My last physical back in November, I had my blood drawn to test my levels and I am happy to say that since my increase in physical activity, my dosage of Levothyroxine has reduced. I have a new level of happiness, confidence and strength I’ve never had before. While I still have ways to go in my journey of being a healthier version of me, I know that I will not stop till I get where I want to and in the meantime I will continue to inspire as many as I can. I feel that if people see that I can do it….So can they! I will end my story with this quote “There is no shortcut. It takes time to build a better, stronger version of yourself”
