My name is Mary Beth Broockerd.  My husband, Chuck, and I have lived in Lee’s Summit for 31 years.  We have two beautiful, kind daughters, Emily and Ashely.  We also have two very energetic, adorable grandsons who are teaching us a lot – keeping us on our toes!

I attended Baker University and graduated from Kansas State College of Pittsburg (now known as Pittsburg State University) with a degree in elementary education.  Shortly after getting married, I began teaching second grade and a few years later, fourth grade.  After our second daughter was born, I was fortunate enough to become a stay at home mom. When the girls were both in school, I began job sharing in a periodontal office with another young mom.  It was a small office, so we covered each other at the front desk and chairside assisting on our given work days.  I worked there for 28 years, retiring in 2017.

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with food, too much love at times, so I’ve struggled with yo-yo dieting and emotional eating.  My reasons for wanting weight loss were usually for the wrong reasons – to please someone else, or look a certain way for a special event rather than for self-care and overall health.  It seemed like if I had my eating under control, the exercise part was missing or visa versa.  And continued success was elusive.

When I was in my early 40s, my mother passed away at an early age form a long struggle with a debilitating auto-immune disease.  She was a smoker, lived with a lot of stress, and healthy eating and exercise weren’t exactly at the forefront of possible solutions for improvement.                                        My eyes were opened to the fact that this could happen to me also, and I knew lifestyle had                          a huge impact on life quality.

I tried all kinds of “diets” and workout programs but never made the right connection.  Then one day after many years of searching, I heard about a small gym in a strip mall near my house.  Why not try it?  It was what I had been looking for.  It clicked with me.  I began to feel better, which encouraged me to continue.  That was three years ago, the longest I’ve stuck with any other workout program.  The overall goal for me now is to eat wisely at least 80% of the time and not beat myself up the other 20% that I allow myself certain indulgences.  This combination of food and movement seems to work for me.  I feel so much better physically and mentally that I don’t want to go back to the old habits.  Everyone’s fitness goals are different with different circumstances.  The destination of my health journey took much too long, but I feel like I’m headed in the right direction now.  It was my experience that working to find the right combination of healthy eating and movement that spoke to me, staying with it for at least a month to start establishing it as a habit, and putting it at the top of my to-do list each day was key for me at Time2Change Fitness!

My husband Jack and I live in Lee’s Summit (only 5 minutes from the studio) and we have 2 beautiful daughters Taylor married to Rhett, and Madyson is in her senior year at University of Central Missouri.  Taylor and Rhett have given us 2 wonderful grandchildren, Gracelynn 2 and Jackson Rhett 9 months.  We own Harmon Floor Covering in downtown Lee’s Summit and enjoy traveling as much as we can.

I started at T2C (Get in shape for her) in September of 2014 to lose weight and get in shape for my daughter’s wedding, I didn’t want to be a “fat” mother of the bride!

A couple of years after being here I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and working out and diet has been a key to keeping my A1C under control to where hopefully I can soon get off medication. It has always been a challenge for me to stick with a diet or workout out routine, but being at T2C has made it easier for me and been held accountable.  There are times when I wake up and am just like I really don’t feel like going to the gym today but, always felt so much better when my work out was finished.  Justin has always pushed me just enough to keep me going but not over the top to where I’d want to quit.

September 27, 2018, I was diagnosed with Stage 2, Grade 3 HER2 positive, estrogen receptor positive and progesterone receptor positive breast cancer.  It was words I was dreading to hear for a couple of weeks since having a mammogram and awaiting to have a biopsy.  My gym visits had to be put on hold while going through treatment which consisted of 6 rounds of heavy doses of 4 chemo drugs, then 3 chemo drugs because my body couldn’t handle one of them.  This was followed by a double mastectomy, which ended up having a staph infection and having to have tissue expanders removed and having implants placed, with having one of the implants removed a week later.  Then 4 weeks of daily IV antibiotics and another 4 weeks of oral antibiotics.  While, continuing with a low dose of chemo directed to the HER 2-positive cancer, to help reduce the chance of a recurrence. Throwing in 25 treatments of radiation in the mix of all of this.  I was finally able to return to the gym in September with having only 2 more chemo treatments to go.  Which I finished on October 4!

 Since returning I have been a little frustrated not being at the level I has when I left last September but, I know eventually I will get there.  At one point in my life I never would of thought that I would miss going to the gym but, over this last year I really did.  I felt better about myself and felt my health was better.  Now I am working to get back to where I was before or even better.  I have a long way to go but, I know with the support of both my family at home and gym family I will get there! 

I would encourage anyone to get goals for themselves even if it’s starting out just a few pounds.  Stick to it, if you slip up own up to it and get yourself back on track.  You may wake up and say I don’t feel like going to the gym today, GO, you’ll feel better after you do.  Nothing is an easy fix or happens overnight.  Stay in your routine, keep yourself accountable, do the work and you’ll be rewarded in the end.                                                                                                                                                                                         

                       Most importantly LADIES MAKE SURE YOUR GETTING YOUR MAMMOGRAMS! Recipe

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