Ghana Samuda - Work hard...Get Better

When you're around her, you're bound to crack up laughing.  She's one of those infectious personalities, the genuine kind.  We run together, have worked out together, and we both looove food, so when I said to her, I want to interview you for my blog and she agreed, I chose one of my favourite spots in Kingston, Tea Tree Crèperie at 80 LMR.

Ghana walked in dressed in her office attire, I had to comment on how good she looked, AGAIN!!!

I told her I was famished (when am I not hungry?) and suggested the smoked marlin with cheese, which is usually a beginner's favourite.  I ordered a pot of tea to go with our meals, turns out we both love tea too.

Upon completing our orders I asked her Who is Ghana and who is she not?

I am a combination of contradictory things. I am reserved but I am outgoing, I am creative, disciplined, so much so that others may say I am obsessive.  I love to laugh, I can be very blunt, and so I try to temper that by considering how others may be affected by what I will say.

I'm not a hypocrite, and I'm not lazy- I may procrastinate but when I make up my mind, it's made up 100!

Do you have any nicknames?

Banana/Ghana-Banana/Friday/ Goodie

Have you always been athletic?

 I was never interested in sweating in school. I remember one day after PE class in second form, my teacher came to me and suggested I should try out for track and field, and he got the Track & Field Coach to also come and persuade me to try out and they were really on me. But I wasn't interested in any sports until the third year of my degree that’s when I really became interested in fitness.  I had this idea in my head of how I wanted to look, so I was always looking for what was going to help me look like what I wanted to look like, which was an athletic body type, I did Pep up gym, Spartan, and I did dancing.  I've always tried to be active, I would say I am pretty close to the image I wanted to get to now. Since I was 19 I have been pursuing that idea and now I'm thirty. 

Over the next few hours and some scrumptious crèpes and tea, she shared her journey to when she first recollected being active to now.

I did ballet for three months when I was younger after that I would just dance in the mirror. Then I went to a cousin's dance show, I was about 12 / 13 and I was blown away.  I didn't know that dance shows existed, I was in awe that these things happened. I told myself then, the next show I would be on stage.  I joined Praise Academy the next term and stayed with them for a year, Praise taught me to dance on a stage. During that time I started a dance ministry at my church, I taught myself and I taught others, which I continued for the next five years. 

One day we drove passed Ranny Williams and my mom saw the sign for Festival and she said, you know we should enter this, and we drove in and registered.  I remember we had to think of which pieces we could do and what we would call them.  My mom has always been a part of whatever I'm doing; she made the costumes at the time for the group.   When we went to church the next time we told the group, we were doing festival. 

We did it, I just wanted us to get to the final round, I was being realistic, we aren't professional dancers, we are not like the rest, we're beginners. I'm not thinking of winning.  One of the pieces got a gold medal but didn't get to the next round and another made it to the next round. We performed for the final round and I felt accomplished. As we were sitting, chilling and chatting with the other groups, They announced the winner of Best Contemporary Dance, Grace Missionary Church, I didn't hear it, others were jumping in excitement I was still shocked as there was particular group that I admired a lot and I thought they would win. 

I believe if you work hard at something, you will get better.  My dance company evolved from the group at church, which I started in 2007.  Two of the girls from the church group are still with me, they are principal dancers. I am committed to dancing.  I give it my all, though it consumes a lot of my time.

As I poured the next cup of tea, I shared with her some of my dancing-for-fun moments after a good laugh I asked her about running.

I started running in October 2014.  I had done Sigma before and didn't care about time or anything, but every time I heard about running, I remember thinking it must feel so good. If you were stressed it would just feel good to go run, it must feel freeing.  Last year I had health issues and during my recovery I was worried about how active I would be, so I just started walking.  I would be walking and the next time I would walk faster, I just wanted to be better. And then one day I just said I was going to run. I remember seeing pictures of Sonic's Steppers on Instagram and they were like everywhere and at first I was like, "What is wrong with these people?" Now I'm one of those people.

I worked out at home, while running, I got results, but not what I was looking for. And then there came a point when I was just running only.  I wanted to go the gym but couldn't afford to at the time.  We had a dance season for my Company and one of my friends had been asking me to dance in one of her pieces, I couldn't withdraw as I had already done that in the past and she was disappointed then. I was very nervous, as I was bigger than I was when last I was on stage.  So in March I got serious as I realised the show was approaching quickly and in the first rehearsal I was so exhausted, I couldn't breathe and I said this was terrible.  I would use this time to be prepared.  So I went to Pat and told her I needed her help to push me when I was running.  And immediately Pat was on it, as you know she is also determined.  That day I decided I was going to give it my all, this was April.  When May came around I started Spry and they taught me how to eat, I didn’t think I was changing, the diet was difficult.  I just told myself, I would stick with this no matter what.  I was committed.

During this time I was still doing dancing, rehearsals for the show.  I started to notice that I was able to complete an entire rehearsal and not be dead on the floor. I was getting fitter.  In the past when I was preparing for dance season, I would drop everything, because there was no time, but this time, even though there was no time, I was making time for running in the morning, work until 4:15, head to Spry for 5, then head to the studio for a class at 6:30 until 10. And I would head home  do whatever I needed to do for my family and start over.  My husband was understanding and he is involved in the company, he is very supportive. 

Back in February Craig had taken a picture of Shauma and I when we did a long run.  So for my birthday Shauna did a collage and that picture was in it. And I remember looking at the picture and wondering if that was how I still looked. So I asked my husband if he thought I lost any weight and he didn't noticed either, and so he looked at the picture and said yes you do look like you have lost a bit of weight.   But I kept looking at the picture and I asked Shauna to send it to me and  then I went to look for a more recent picture as I had wanted to see the difference.  So I found a picture from the Food for the Poor run (May 9).  I was in shock, I was way smaller.

Leading up to the show I remember I started eating poorly and I suffered from stress and bloating and I remember thinking I can't undo all my hard work. After the show I decided I wasn't going to stop I was going to keep going. So I decided to continue on my own, I started at Spartan and I knew a few people there and people started sending me programs. Then I started doing sessions with Joel and now I can say all of this has brought me here to where I am. 

Ghana shared some of her struggles with other people and their opinions of her journey.

There are a few struggles, as people watch social media or see me and try to sum me up. I work out with men, I snack occasionally, some people think I’m too muscular.  Some people think I did some gimmick to lose my weight, some think I am taking something to look like this and try to down play my hard work.  People are very critical and aren't very kind. And they aren’t very mindful of other's feelings.  But I know what I had to do,  I feel new, like literally a new person, my clothes fit me differently, I feel differently. New. I have this sense of accomplishment. 

I will say this, if you want to do something, go for it. Just make up your mind and just do it, no excuses.

You can follow Ghana's journey on IG @ghana_samuda and join our running club at Sonics Steppers Running Club @SonicsSteppers

Just Go - Jeniel Answer's Fitness Journey

I love food. Yes I do. I don't eat a lot in one sitting and people give me grief over that, but in spite of the quantity, I love food. I also love breakfast, it's my favourite meal of the day. I will actually opt for breakfast meals at dinner time, I'm a pancake-anytime-of-day-kind-of-girl.

So when I asked Jen to meet me at Cannonball Café, Loshusan, I already knew what I was having for breakfast.

Ensuring I got there a little earlier than her, since she is usually on time, I ordered another favourite of mine, hot chocolate. She was present before my hot chocolate came, we hugged and I told her we had to order before she answered my questions as I was starving. I asked her if she had eaten since morning , "Yes, I'd been craving soup so my Dad had made some that morning." I quickly placed my order of pancakes with egg and bacon, and allowed her to filter through the menu to finally settle on "I will have the egg-whites with whole wheat toast no butter and green tea."



This left me laughing as I knew she disliked eggs but had made the lifestyle change to accommodate her clean-eating challenge for August. I had to commend her for completing her clean eating challenge for August. She went on further to comment on her general fatigue, as she has been running almost every day for the last two or so months.

Ladies and Gentlemen Meet Jeniel Answer.


If you follow me on instagram, you would have seen I gave a shout out to her.

Look out for my blog feature on @answerjen for the month of October! I've got mad ratings for this
girl! #workhard #IslandBelle #fitchick #Fitness #Repost @sonicsteppers with @repostapp ・・・ Our #WCW is @answerjen for
her amazing 6 months body transformation #sonicsteppers #livelaughrun

A photo posted by Elle (@laurislandbelle) on
Sep 30,
2015 at 8:29pm PDT

When I asked her who was Jeniel, with a chuckle, "Wow, that's a hard question." And then matter-of-factly stated, "Jeniel is miserable, I am. I think I have a type A personality which makes me miserable but then I'm still sweet sometimes. You know that sour pop commercial?" No I didn't, I really had no idea where this was going, "The candy is sour and the candy ties the guy at the bus stop and he makes him miss the bus, but after he has made him miss the bus he makes it all better? Well I'm the sour pop- I think I'm an okay person under my hard exterior."



After I was through laughing, and gathering my thoughts over a sip of my hot chocolate, her green tea arrived.

"No just Jen." she shared when I asked her if she had any nicknames, we then segued over into another conversation that wasn't suitable for the general public.

Her passion for fitness is very apparent as she straightened herself in her chair and smiled when I switched the conversation to her childhood and co-curricular activities, "I danced, I swam, I ran, the only extracurricular activity I didn't do was karate, and music-I'm not very good at music. I was a part of the Little People and Team Players Club, Cathy Levy, I was their youngest member at the time at age 6. And as time progressed I got lazy."

Jen's lazy had become borderline hypertensive and her acknowledging she had put on too much weight now in her adult years."I just never felt like me. So I got up one day and hauled my ass to the gym. It was something I was saying for a while and I never made an effort. But saying it for a while I started buying gym clothes and sneakers. I went to the doctor at the end of February 2014 and I was 182 lbs. 5'4''.
It was something I was grappling with before; I didn't need to hear the number to say I was going to go to the gym."

"My first day at the gym was March 25, 2014, it was a Tuesday. I had never really gone into the gym, it was something new to me. Going on a treadmill and elliptical was new to me. The girl that worked in the Manor Park Express Fitness at the time had helped. I think she realised I didn't know what I was doing. And she said let's work out together. We did half hour of cardio and then we did some workout with 8kg kettle bells and that was heavy then for me. I don't remember what else I did
that day. I don't remember how I felt, but I remember the date."



It's been clear that once Jen makes up her mind about something, she doesn’t need much convincing. "I just said I would try and go 4 days of the week, except Fridays as that was my time to chill with friends and just relax, I was there on Saturday mornings."


"Running was just something else for me to do. You and I had a conversation about running and I asked you how you joined and you shared the email address. My first run was Thursday, because somewhere between Monday and Tuesday I didn't want to pen an email and my intention was to send you an email and I accidentally started to send the message to Laurel instead of Laura. Which was pure coincidence that she had also just sent an email to them too." Jen has many times shared her story of driving home at four in the morning and wondering what the people running on the road had against their bed. It's one of those stories that come up time and time again when we consider we are now those people.

She tells me , "I have no regrets. Not even when I'm dead tired, or not even on my first long run and I was deading. It was a 5K the morning of my first run and I was dying at work. When I was driving to the meet up I only saw one dog and two street sweepers and now I find myself convincing people to run. It's almost a year ago. September 18th. My anniversary run." As she giggles to herself she quickly pulls out her phone while she asks me what day does that fall on? It
will be a Friday.


"Running is a different energy. Everything about it is different, the pain is different, the frustration is different. There is a sense of fulfillment because I get to lower my times each run or make it better. I look forward to race days to make it better. I set a goal time and I look forward to running that time. Sometimes it doesn't happen but I can't be too bummed.
Even if I did better than my last run but not the time I wanted, I'm not too bummed."

When I asked her about how she does it, she quipped, "Gym is something I had to do for me. It's something I had to do. I have to get up to go to work in the morning, so now I have to get up to go to the gym. I made it a priority and a necessary part of my life." She continue, "Right now I'm not going to the gym as much but I'm running over time, in preparation for my first official marathon, I am not observing my rest days!"

She was quick to spill the beans on what a typical day looked like for her now, "Most mornings start with a run, I go home and prepare my meals for the day. Breakfast which is fruit and yogurt/ oats and yogurt and I'll find a snack sometimes a snack is egg whites or some protein like I started to buy Martina's (@CleanTreats_ja) protein cake, which are awesome and then around 1:30 I will have lunch, which is veggies and protein or good carbs, which is usually chicken or fish since that is
all I eat, dinner I sponge off my father, but I play with it, or if I don't eat all my lunch I will have it. I try not to skip dinner."



She laughingly pointed out "The fact that I actually like it." As one of her biggest surprises to date. "I
have a friend who keeps asking me, what do I mean when I run because I don't even walk fast. I'm still amazed that, Hey I wanna run! When I'm on vacay, my step dad plays football on a high school field but I will go and run on the 400 m laid track. It is boring, but I will try to excite myself, running different lanes or whatever."



"To date I have lot 42 lbs. When I started working out I wanted to be healthy weight,140lbs, but it not cutting it for me right now, so now I want to work on a leaner me, my goal has changed."

Jen's advice

-
Just go. You don’t have to wait on anybody or anything, if you want to, just go. Enjoy yourself. Challenge you.



You can follow Jen's fitness journey on her IG at @answerjen.

Following My Dreams - One More Breath - Pt III

Back in August when I was setting my goals and seeking balance, I had decided to challenge myself to start running.  In more details, I became inspired by a high school acquaintance, Shauna while I wasn't interested in running to lose weight I had shied away from the sport as I have large breasts and disliked the idea of them moving while I run.  What struck me the most about Shauna is that she is also well endowed in the breast department, but still seemed to manage to run.

I decided this would be my challenge and I would step out of my comfort zone and give it a try.  I sent an email to the running club, Sonics Steppers and so my journey began.

Morning of Kingston City Run

Monday September 3, 2014 at about 4:30 a.m I was at the Manor Park gas station to join the other members.  The 5KM run that I would embark on would be like no other experience. Firstly, I quickly lost my breath before I had even reached my 1KM mark and by the time I had completed the 2.5KM turn I would throw up the lovely banana I had at 3 when I woke up. I remember Andy who had volunteered to run with me, kept encouraging me and letting me know I would get better, just keep at it. Patrice who also joined me on my return, gave me tips on what to eat and how to improve.  Almost a year later, running is my drug.

DRUGS 101
Have you ever taken drugs? The happy kind? Running releases not only endorphin's but all the happy and feel good hormones that leaves me on a cloud # that I have literally become addicted to. I have watched myself, I dislike days when I didn't start it running.  My co-workers have become very aware of the days when I do not run, and have even encouraged me to not return to work without a run.

FYI I think this is a great method to overcome depression and handling stress.

It is my ME TIME, I unleash, release and recover from anything that angers, weighs or hurts me.  I use this time to refocus on my goals and clearing myself of anything unwanted.


Not to mention the health benefits- leading a sedentary lifestyle due to my job, I have found that I have been the healthiest since I started running. My lymphatic system gets a kick when I move. Sure I have had some injuries a long the way due to improper form and shoes, but what's a challenge without some hurdles? 

I know for a fact that running helped me to get through one of the most intense years of my life.  And I have watched myself grow as a runner and as a person.  Running has also taught me much about myself that I didn't quite know for certain, like the fact that I suffer from shortness of breath, or exercise induced asthma, and how to overcome these one breath at a time.  Breathing has been one of my biggest challenges since I started running.  As I would learn over the course of this year that developing a pattern is crucial and the growth becomes apparent in the constant ebb and flow of pushing myself and being gentle with myself.


Being a part of a running club has opened my eyes to a whole new world of fitness and happiness.  I have participated in road races and obstacle courses, I have watched what my body can do with some training and a goal in mind.  I'm preparing for another year, and aim to compete in my first half marathon this December, I am excited about this journey and look forward to the growth that will take place.

If you are interested in joining a running club, please check mine out at sonic.steppers@gmail.com.  I look forward to seeing you on my next run.