Gottlieb Center for Fitness welcomes anyone to come in and join their program. Even if it’s someone that joins, cancels and rejoins…several times. That was Carol Prebis.
Numerous times, she made the decision to become healthier and thus, joined the health club. Each time, she couldn’t find her niche. Her thing that made her want to come consistently. Then she came back in 2007 and met Ursula, the Assistant Director and an aerobics instructor, Bunny and Terry, aqua aerobics instructor, and the most important person to Carol at the Fitness center: Diana Czekalski.
At that time, Diana was teaching aqua classes. This fact was somewhat detrimental to Carol since she hated the water. “I was afraid of the water.” After facing her fear, and taking one of the aqua classes, Carol loved the water. This overcoming of fear led her to attend the club more often with and without her husband Jim. Over the next year they had lost a combined 65 pounds, and Carol had met Diana. At the end of one of her classes, Diana began to plug a new class that she would be teaching at the Fitness Center. It was called Energy Healing.
Energy Healing is the universal energies and electricity that are found through the meridians of the body, and through a various set of routines this energy can be released to reduce stress. Simple tapping at various points of the body can trigger these releases. As a trial of these techniques, Diana was able to successfully work these methods into her Free to Move aqua classes. Carol loved the results, and signed up for Diana’s six-week session.
Through the sessions Carol learned more breathing and tapping techniques to relieve pain. Now every morning she proceeds to perform a routine of Energy Healing exercises geared to help her through the day. She has been able to overcome her neck pain, which doctors described as a ‘military neck.’ Jim, her husband, was able to get over a sinus infection more quickly than it would have taken him before. The stress that came with having Carol’s elderly mother, son and daughter, 3 grandchildren, along with her husband under one roof was drastically reduced.
Combining those techniques with the everyday exercise that the center provides for them have caused better changes for Carol. Her tummy has shrunk, her heart rate has reduced, and her blood pressure is the lowest it has ever been in 15 years! Her 14-year-old grandson has been in awe of her “big guns.” Arm muscles acquired that she attributes to the exercises in the pool. Most importantly, Carol now has the “health of body, mind and spirit” she has longed for.
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM