Chiropractic Weight Loss Testimony- Bernadette Banda

Starting a weight loss journey can be beneficial for anyone who wants to live a healthier life. For Bernadette Banda, she experienced that through hard work and the motivation that she has been searching for. In this inspiring and heartfelt testimony, Bernadette Banda tells the audience about her weight loss journey and the people that have helped her get the motivation to achieve her goals. Bernadette Banda is a 51-year-old woman, who was already on her weight loss journey in February 2014 by eating right, however, she could not find the right fitness program to help her lose the weight that she desperately wants to get rid of. She mentioned that one day, she was looking at LinkedIn and received a message from Dr. Alex Jimenez and went to visit him and explained her situation to him. Dr. Jimenez suggested to Bernadette to go and visit Daniel Alvardo, the owner of PUSH Fitness, and see what he can do. Bernadette explained that she was skeptical at first, thinking that Daniel will be disgruntled and not wanting to help her, however after that first meeting with Daniel, her life started to head in the right direction. She described how so much of her life changed after meeting Daniel that she started to lose the weight. Bernadette mentioned how PUSH Fitness became her life’s philosophy as she took it upon herself to never give up and to always “push” herself to any fitness goals that she wants to achieve. That drive she had, has affected her lifestyle as well, whether it was a fitness goal, education goal or a life goal, she never gave up when the going was tough. Bernadette gives praise to Daniel and all the PUSH trainers for their efforts and support for helping her to become healthy and pushing her on her weight loss journey.

[00:00:22] My name is Bernadette Banda and I’m 51.

[00:00:27] My fitness journey began back in 2014 in February. And when I started to do is I started to eat clean, you know, at the request of my daughter, who kept asking me, “Mom, you can do this. Mom, you can do this. You can get fit, you can lose weight.”

[00:00:42] I was sitting at 200 pounds. I was not feeling good about myself, I was not feeling good physically, I hurt a lot. And one day I was on LinkedIn. And Dr. Jimenez messaged me and asked me “How would you like to try CrossFit?”

[00:00:57] And I thought, well who was this person and what is CrossFit? And I thought, well, I got nothing to lose. I just went ahead and I messaged him back and I said, OK, Dr. Jimenez, I’ll give it a try. I’ll come in and see you. So he’s said to come to see me and I went to see him and he said. So what’s wrong with you? Your neck hurt, your spine hurts. What’s going on? I said, no, sir. I’m just fat. I need help. My knees hurt.

[00:01:21] And he said, OK, so what you want to do? I said I want to lose weight, but I want to make sure first if it’s OK with you that I can lose the weight, that I can do the exercise, too. I don’t know what CrossFit is.

[00:01:31] So he said, go over and see my friend Danny. And I said, OK. So I thought, alright I got to go see this gym person. They’re probably going to look at me like I have to work with you.

[00:01:44] And when I walked in, Danny immediately said “Can I help you?” I said “I’m looking for Danny” and he said, “I’m Danny.”

[00:01:53] I said, “Hi Daniel, I’m Bernadette.”  I mean I was very scared. I was very nervous. I was like, what the hell I am doing here? I don’t belong to a gym,  I know I need one, but I don’t belong here.

[00:02:03] And he said, “Yeah Dr. Jimenez called me about you.” He said, “What would you like to do?” I told him, “Well look at me.” And he said, “Well let’s get started.” I said, “Yes, lets.”

[00:02:14] He never judged me. He never looked at me like he didn’t want to work with me. Made me feel very welcome. I’m very grateful to Danny for that. Because it was that one little encounter that pushed me, that kept me motivated. So I just kept coming back. And haven’t stopped ever since.

[00:02:42] I’ve been coming to Danny. I actually was eating cleaning right back in before February 2014. Like I said before and I really didn’t do any of the exercise part until August.

[00:02:52] That’s when I met Dr. Jimenez. That’s when I came over and met Danny. And so I’ve been coming to Danny since August of 2014.

[00:03:03] He’s got me a long way. A long way.  I did not think it was possible for myself. What is  PUSH mean to me? PUSH means it’s what I do. It’s my everyday philosophy in life. I push myself. I’ve reached certain goals education-wise in my life, career-wise in my life, I’ve met a lot of goals. That’s what push means to me, push myself to the limits that you can be because anybody can push themselves.

[00:03:31] It’s all in the brain, it’s all mindset you’ve got to want to have the oomph to do it. The motivation somewhere, something out there has to tell you. You can do it. You want to do it? And I figure, what the hell did I have to lose? Yeah, the weight? But what else can I have to lose? You know, I’ve always lived my life with never, never having to say for me. What if? Why didn’t I? I’ve never done that and I never will. So I decided to do this. How has it changed my life?

[00:04:04] I can not believe to tell you how it changed my life. I love life. I mean, it’s just been great.

[00:04:23] People look at me like I’m an unattainable goal. I’m not. If I can do it, anybody can do it. Believe me. Anybody can do it. And I did a lot of this, of course, my daughter. I have my grandbabies, my beautiful grandbabies. I have my family.

[00:04:43] And I’ve always been a role model to somebody. Always. If it’s not to my daughter, it’s been to my nieces. My family members, my students. I’ve always wanted to be the most optimal role model that I can be in life. And this is one of the ways I am doing this.

[00:05:05] I give my motivation, of course, to God. God above. Who has been good to me. So I need to be good to him back, by taking care of myself. Living this long life as I can. To help people appreciate the blessings we have in life. And one of these blessings is my health. to keep my health up. And I feel good about myself. I want other people to feel good about themselves too because this is possible.

[00:05:34] I haven’t reached the goal and I want to reach it. Then again, we’re all perfectionists in this kind of lifestyle. I’ll never reach the goals that I want to reach only because, you know, they’re always going to be that much higher. And that’s ok, that’s what keeps me going.

[00:05:50]What have the PUSH trainers done for me? Not only Danny, you know a lot of times your employees are a product of your management. And because of this man’s kindness, because of this man’s professionalism, because of this man’s business acumen,  you can see it in his gym. You can see it in his trainers. They’re all awesome, though. They all are very nice. They’re all willing to help you.

[00:06:23] None of them ever made me feel like, oh you are just a gorda, get away from me. Never felt that way. I feel like I can go to any of them if I need to.

[00:06:33] Everybody, roots for everyone here. This is the kind of gym that I like being a part of. You know, in other gyms and you don’t get that scene, that environment. You don’t get that same atmosphere. Not a big deal, that’s on them. This is what I prefer to be. I’ve asked other people to come here. I told other people. This is the place to go.

[00:06:58] I hope more people come. I want more people to do what I do. Meet the kind of people that I ‘ve met. What does your trainer mean to you? He’s the world to me. He believed in me. I really didn’t believe in myself. Didn’t really care. But like I said, I had nothing to lose. I had to try it. And he stuck with me. I gave him hell every day, I mean I probably gave him hell and he deals with me.

[00:07:56] He’s a kind, kind person. And he’s good at what he does. He’s very good at what he does. And you know, his family is here, his own family is here, what does that tell you? It tells you a lot about business. In fact, his family’s here, says a lot. They trust they trust him. What he can do, they trust what his trainers can do.

[00:08:24] It says a lot about the business.

[00:08:30] Yes. I may put a lot into this. But I also believe that Danny pulled a lot into me. And I’ll be believing myself. Help me to be strong myself, as a person. I recommend this place. I recommend it all the time. Just thankful that to have been blessed to know about this opportunity and to taken this opportunity, that it’s been wonderful. It’s been wonderful.

[00:09:06] And it’s my way of thinking now, it’s my lifestyle. I can imagine my life without it. I just can’t. God bless you.