Hey Team! Here’s a heartfelt testimonial from one of our members of whom I am so so so so proud of.
Thank you Laura, for being courageous enough to share your life with us… your sharing inspires others of what’s possible.
Master Palangi
As someone who has always been healthy and strong, you can imagine my utter shock and dismay that at 39 I found out I had cancer and had to undergo surgery.
Two, actually. They were traumatic and very difficult. But the worst of all of it, was the overwhelming sense of betrayal. My body, this body that was so strong and so…well healthy, had failed!
Looking back, the crises point for me was coming around after the second surgery without even the strength to hold a glass of water to my mouth. And when you’re that weak and that ill, people look at you differently, with such pity in their eyes, you almost can’t endure it.
During the following weeks, I can’t say that things got any easier. When your body suffers from something like this, all you spend you time doing is sleeping because frankly your body is fighting so hard to heal that there is no energy left. You’re too weak to do anything else. I was too weak to go to work, too weak to even hold my little toddler daughter. I couldn’t cook my husband dinner or even just do the dishes. Laundry? Out of the question. Every morning I would wake up, force myself to brush my teeth and take a shower. As soon as I managed to dry off, I was back in bed for a two hour nap just to recover from the effort. Those simple joys, the “stop and smell the roses” joys were for everyone else going about and living their lives while I lingered miserably in bed watching stupefying daytime TV.
Once in awhile I would wake up in the middle of the night and think anxiously to myself,
“Is this what it’s going to be like from now on? Is this my life now?”
I would drag myself up and go in and look upon my little girl while she was sleeping, or reach for the comfort of my slumbering husband to help me chase those dark thoughts off, but they were truly ever present in the back of my mind. Especially when I was alone during the day.
Those were dark and terrible days, indeed.
One afternoon, a rare occasion found me out of the house to creep to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription.
I saw in the window of a store I passed by a yellow flier. Nothing fancy, but big bold letters screamed, “Fat? Just kickbox….Palangi Kickboxing.”
An unfortunate result of my particular condition had destroyed my metabolism and in 6 months I had put on over 20 pounds. So, well yeah, I had gotten very fat (when you factor in the 20 I had meant to lose for the last 5 years…). I grabbed that little brochure, stuffed it in my bag and went home. I called the number that night and left a message.
Within an hour, Master Scott called me back. I liked what I heard and I liked Master Scott’s positive enthusiasm for (it seemed) just about everything.
I breathlessly waited for the green lights from the doctors that I needed to get started.
A follow up appointment a couple weeks later delivered the news that I was cancer free. “Congratulations on your recovery!” was what I heard over the next few weeks and although I was truly grateful for the grace that spared me a much different fate, I couldn’t help but think, “Recovery? This? This isn’t recovery….look at me, I’m a fucking wreck! Fat, weak and exhausted…all the damn time. How is this recovery?” Looking in the mirror in the morning left me simply horrified. I didn’t even recognize my own face! And the evening of each day found me collapsing into bed a 9pm with barely the energy to kiss my family goodnight.
This was NOT my vision of recovery. I knew in my bones that if I wanted my life back, my full and fulfilling life, I still had fighting to do.
Once my doctor said I could begin “light exercise” I threw caution to the wind and went to Palangi Kickboxing class. Frankly, I barely survived the first class, or the second. I couldn’t jump rope for more than 15 seconds at a clip and I barely eeked out 2 pushups in a row. But I loved every minute of it. It’s structure, it’s speed and it’s discipline. The classmembers are kind and open and Master Scott drives you to give everything you have. Everyone works damn hard and even though I left each class shaky in the knees, soaked through with sweat and gasping for air…
I felt a sense of deep achievement for just sticking with it. And, unnoticed by me, steadily, things began to change….
Flash forward two months and see me running our household errands on a sunny Saturday. In particular, my last stop. See me at the grocery store picking up our lengthly list of supplies. See me pull into my driveway with the kid out cold in the back and without a thought, lift her from her car seat. She wakes up in my arms and won’t let me put her down and I stand on my lawn and think, “Now what? I have got to get those groceries in the house.”
And see me carry each packed full bag up the front stoop and into the house with my daughter dozing in my left arm(did I mention she’s 32 pounds and asleep, that’s dead weight) and the groceries slung on the right (another 10 – 15 pounds per bag or so) and six trips later I don’t even have a hitch in my breath or tremble in my arm or even a bead of sweat on my forehead!! It wasn’t until the last trip that it even dawned on me what I was doing…and how strong I had to be to do it!!!
It was at that moment that I stood struck silent, hugging my daughter and thinking… “This is recovery. I am recovered!”
So, I thanked God for delivering me from my illness, and I thanked my friends and family for supporting me through it and I called Master Scott to Thank him for coaching me and to tell him this story and what Palangi Kickboxing has done for me.
In the two and half months now since I joined Palangi Kickboxing I have lost 15 pounds and my BMI dropped from over 30 to 23. I’ve lost a total of 8 inches just about everywhere and just this week managed to do 10 REAL down to the ground pushups in a row without collapsing.
I can tear ass up the stairs and I can stay up until 2am. I can chase my kid down the block, dig a trench and wrestle with my husband. I am cooking up a storm and the laundry is never a day old. Not to mention I work a solid 50 hours a week in a demanding job. I’m back to being myself, my real self. And it’s wonderful!
Palangi Kickboxing was (and is) a core component to this recovery. Master Scott’s coaching and training drove me to develop the strength and endurance I needed to reclaim my life.
Thank you Master Scott, and see you in class.
With gratitude,
Laura Cooper
