GETTING A MOVE ON: From the very first moment I loved Zumba. I became a Zumba addict. I took my second Zumba class the next day. I was addicted. I love Zumba. It’s not like. I love Zumba. I get to dance. I get to move. I have absolutely no concept that I’m working out. It’s a big party. I went home sore and sweaty, but I woke up the next day energized and ready to try again.

THE TURNING POINT: My doctor said, “You have six months left to live.” And if I didn’t take those six months seriously, I wasn’t sure I was going to be here to see my children and my husband came to me and said, “You can’t leave me with all the kids.”

RETHINKING FOOD: My husband was dealing with unemployment and food banks were our source of food and I ate whatever they gave us. So I took my plate, I cut it in half. On one side was all my green vegetables, whatever I could consume. On the other side, I cut it in half again so you had quarters and that’s where I put my carbohydrate and my protein. And then I measured based on my hand. A deck of cards was my protein. A thumb size would be any sweets or any carbohydrates that I had. So I measured based on what I had available – my fingers and my plates.

ONLINE PARTNER: SparkPeople.com was my favorite website. That website will take you from wherever you are all the way through your journey with great advice, fitness tips, programs, exercises. It will show you how to do them and how to track them. And they have web groups. So you meet friends that are on the same journey you’re on and they help you walk through it.

PERSONAL EMPOWERMENT: What I found was my mental status changed. I became — instead of looking at life as a negative thing or as my food is I have to choose, I saw it as a positive thing that I got to choose. It empowered me to make different choices.

TOOLS OF MY SUCCESS: Zumba. The online resource SparkPeople.com