Before 2016, on any given day, you\u00a0could find Juline Gurney taking\u00a0a kickboxing class, training for a\u00a0marathon and even teaching bootcamp\u00a0classes, but all that changed when Gurney\u00a0had to make the one decision no mother should\u00a0ever have to make: to take her 33-year-old son,\u00a0Joseph Lee Paul, off life support.<\/p>\n
In 2008, Paul was diagnosed with a rare\u00a0blood-clotting disorder called antiphospholipid\u00a0antibody syndrome, and Gurney and her husband\u00a0immediately sold their business, house and all\u00a0their belongings and began to chase specialists all\u00a0over the country to get the best care for Paul.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were told from day one that this disease\u00a0comes with an expiration date, but we did not\u00a0want to accept it,\u201d she says. Regardless of their\u00a0efforts, Paul had a heart attack on May 15, 2016.\u00a0Two weeks later, with no signs of brain activity,\u00a0Gurney removed him from life support.<\/p>\n
Gurney grieved deeply for Paul.\u00a0She stopped spending time with\u00a0her friends and family and lost\u00a0interest in physical activity. And\u00a0though she somehow made it to\u00a0work each day, the minute she got\u00a0home, she\u2019d lie down on the sofa\u00a0and stay there until morning. On\u00a0most days, she would forget to\u00a0eat, but when she remembered,\u00a0she would binge on high-calorie\u00a0comfort meals. In two years, she\u00a0gained 50 pounds.<\/p>\n
As standard company\u00a0procedure, Gurney\u2019s life insurance\u00a0required her to get a physical.\u00a0She didn\u2019t think much of it at the\u00a0time, but a few weeks afterward,\u00a0she received notification that her\u00a0premium would be increasing\u00a0significantly because of her\u00a0obesity, high blood pressure and\u00a0pre-diabetes. She was shocked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to my primary doctor to\u00a0double-check that diagnosis, and\u00a0he told me the exact same thing,\u201d\u00a0Gurney says. \u201cHe also said that if I\u00a0didn\u2019t change my lifestyle, I could\u00a0easily have a heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was all Gurney needed to\u00a0hear. She joined a walking group,\u00a0cleaned up her diet and ate every two to three\u00a0hours. Soon, she had the energy to play basketball\u00a0with her grandson and kickbox for an hour\u00a0without taking a break. Three months later, she\u00a0joined a gym and enlisted the help of a trainer for\u00a0strength-training workouts. It just so happened\u00a0that her trainer was a competition coach \u2014 which\u00a0was a welcome sign from above.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son used to tell me I should do fitness\u00a0competitions,\u201d Gurney says. \u201cI used to laugh since\u00a0I was super conservative and wouldn\u2019t even wear a\u00a0bikini to the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conservatism be damned, Gurney decided\u00a0to go for it, and she has since competed in\u00a0six shows. She even placed first in the Bikini\u00a0Masters Over 50 division at the 2019 NPC\u00a0Topamania Classic. \u201cNow every time I\u00a0get onstage, it\u2019s all for my baby boy, Lee,\u201d\u00a0Gurney says. \u201cI just know he is watching\u00a0down with a big smile on his face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Location:<\/strong> Fort Lauderdale, Florida<\/p>\n Age:<\/strong> 55<\/p>\n Height:<\/strong> 5\u20192<\/p>\n Size:<\/strong> 8-10, now 0-2<\/p>\n Occupation:<\/strong> Business\u00a0equipment financing<\/p>\n Cardio:<\/strong> 45 minutes\u00a0in the morning plus 45\u00a0minutes in the evening<\/p>\n Monday:<\/strong>\u00a0Legs\/glutes<\/p>\n Tuesday:<\/strong>\u00a0Shoulders\/back<\/p>\n Wednesday:<\/strong> Active rest\u00a0\u2014 walk 3 to 5 miles<\/p>\n Thursday:<\/strong> Arms\/chest<\/p>\n Friday:<\/strong> Abs and\u00a0obliques<\/p>\n Sunday:<\/strong>\u00a0Rest<\/p>\n Mantra:<\/strong> Take a picture\u00a0in your underwear. If you\u00a0don\u2019t like what you see,\u00a0change it. Only you have\u00a0that power.<\/p>\n Grab-and-go meal:<\/strong>\u00a0Egg white veggie muffin\u00a0cups. I pre-make a\u00a0bunch for the week.<\/p>\n Stay-on-track\u00a0strategy:<\/strong> If a food has no\u00a0nutritional value, don\u2019t\u00a0eat it!<\/p>\n Did you lose a ton of weight? Overcome insurmountable obstacles and come out the other side fit and healthy? Then we want to hear from you! The <\/em>Oxygen Transform section is dedicated to giving women a chance to share their journeys with others who may also be struggling with weight loss, and give them the hope and motivation to continue forward and succeed as well. Apply here.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before 2016, on any given day, you\u00a0could find Juline Gurney taking\u00a0a kickboxing class, training for a\u00a0marathon and even teaching bootcamp\u00a0classes, but all that changed when Gurney\u00a0had to make the one decision no mother should\u00a0ever have to make: to take her 33-year-old son,\u00a0Joseph Lee Paul, off life support. In 2008, Paul was diagnosed with a rare\u00a0blood-clotting disorder called antiphospholipid\u00a0antibody syndrome, and Gurney and her husband\u00a0immediately sold their business, house and all\u00a0their belongings and began to chase specialists all\u00a0over the country to get the best care for Paul. \u201cWe were told from day one that this disease\u00a0comes with an expiration date, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[114,204,205,206,687,203,207],"class_list":["post-2557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens-health","tag-healthy-living","tag-mind-and-body","tag-motivation","tag-style-and-beauty","tag-success-story","tag-womens-fitness-personalities","tag-womens-health","post--single"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2980,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions\/2980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/high-end-life.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Juline\u2019s\u00a0Training Split<\/h2>\n
Juline\u2019s Favorites<\/h2>\n