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Alexis: Hello, and thank you for tuning in to this segment of we are living healthy. When most people see a bodybuilder, they see physical strength today. We have an incredible guest I FBB pro who was going to share her story about how her bodybuilder mindset saved her life. Please welcome Deborah Rosado.
Debra Roasado: Hello?
Alexis: Hi, how are you? How are you? I'm I'm actually wonderful. More excited because I get to chat with you for those who are tuning in. Just please tell us a little bit about your story.
Debra Roasado: Well, I started competing in the sport of bodybuilding back in 2012 with the NPC and in 2016, I earned, I have made the pro card with the international Federation of bodybuilding.
So I was competing with the pros and [00:01:00] then on December 31st up 20th coining, I ended up getting admitted to ICU with syndrome, which is basically an autoimmune disease that I touched your nerves causing me to be paralyzed from my eyes all the way down to my toes. Yes.
Alexis: I know I've heard a lot about your story, so I know incredible how incredible it is and how you had to go from being super fit bodybuilder to having something, make you bedridden and have paralysis back to standing.
The one thing I wanted you to tap into was a lot of people think about bodybuilding as just get your nice muscles and that's it, but it wasn't, the muscles did help you recover. But what about that mindset? Like what was the parallels between what you did in the gym? Mindset wise. And how you channel that into your recovery.
Debra Roasado: Well, Bobby Bell doing played a very big [00:02:00] role in my recovery when it came to the mindset, the determination that willpower to get up, walk again, to breathe on my own because a lot of people don't understand that when you're in prep for a show, it's not just going to the gym and working out lifting weights during the Cargill.
That essentially is the easy part. The, where the mindset comes in. It's where you have to stick to a diet, a very strict diet. You have to have that mindset of how far you want to go in this war. For me, it wasn't just the hot. I wanted it to be a career I wanted to go far. I wanted to compete at the Olympia, which is the big, big show where the best of the best in the world compete.
So over the years, training that mindset to stick to my diet, to get that switch in my head when it [00:03:00] came time to prep for shows thing in all right, food is fuel. And nothing else. Nothing else matters right now. Your focus is equal. Chinita eat, drink the water that you need a drink, get the rest when you need the rest.
And even when you don't have that energy to go work out and to do the double Cargill's, you're still gonna do it no matter what. Yes. When it came into my recovery, laying in a bed, not being able to communicate, moving. It was very, very difficult and even harder during the COVID of not being able to have my family with me.
I spend a lot of time in a room all by myself. So that mindset kicked in. Yeah. We'll lose lag. This is not the end of my story. [00:04:00] Not gonna settle with laying in the bed, being in a wheelchair. No, I'm gonna fight. I'm gonna fight hard for my life. I'm going to walk again. I'm going to run again. I'm going to work out again and I treated it as a prep.
And I'm still trading it as a prep because my recovery is a very slow recovery as a nerves regenerate 0.1 millimeter per day. So it could be a two-year three-year process or even more before I can recover a hundred.
Alexis: Yes. And I know that a lot of people are not familiar with the condition that you had to recover from, just so that they can really understand what you had to recover from.
Could you speak a little bit to what the condition was, how rare it is just so they could have some familiarity.
Debra Roasado: Yes. I had never heard of Gamba syndrome [00:05:00] before it happened to me. There are different ways that you can get it my way came from reaction to a flu shot because it was a different dose.
You know, every dose is different every year. My body reacted negative to it causing my immune system basically to attack itself, which then they explained it as imagine little Puranas eating at your nerves. Causing them to basically go to fleet and no communication causing you to be paralyzed. My case was very, very extreme.
My neurologist explained that I am the second worst Casey's ever seen the first case. Unfortunately, didn't make it. I. You know, I'm a believer. So my life was a miracle because I was only given a 10% chance of making it. [00:06:00] And the power of prayer is real. My family supported me and out of having three VIG treatments and three plats, my prayers, his treatment, and after being induced in a coma for privacy.
My body started responding to the treatment and little by little, I started regaining some little bit of movement with excruciating pain, but again, when it comes to bodybuilding, you have to have that mindset that you got to push through the pain. If you want to develop the muscles that you want to develop to be competitive.
Alexis: Yes. And I know we spoke about the mindset, but since you were bodybuilders, since you were staying healthy, your muscles actually helped save your life as well. Right. Just because you were, you had the muscle
Debra Roasado: mass. Yes. That was a big, big role. I came in, I went into the hospital [00:07:00] at 137 pounds of muscle, very little body fat because I was just starting to reverse diet from.
Out of competing and within days I was down to 96 pounds. So my body fed off the muscles that helped a lot. Another thing that played a big grow was the cardiovascular endurance than I had because of, for years being a track athlete. And the way that I trained when I did cardio, I did a lot of hit cardio.
When my heart rate started going up to the one eighties, one 90 and staying there for a minute and, and sometimes the minute and a half, and then it would drop the doctors couldn't believe how I didn't go into cardiac arrest, but it was the shape that [00:08:00] my heart was in, that essentially was able to extend.
Alexis: Yes. No. That's the one thing I love about your story. A lot of times, when we think about going to the gym, when we think about competitors, it's just, we want to look good and we want to win. You want to look good? It's bikini season. And a lot of people are thinking about. How you working out is about maintaining your health and your life and prepping your body to fight off diseases and recover and everything like that.
Cause even listening to you, it was your muscle mass that your body had to feed off of when it needed. It, it was the mindset that gave you the opportunity to push in your cardio strength with kept your heart running. So all the things that people would think were for vanity actually help you in. Period.
Yes. Period. Like you're not just going to the gym for the bikini.
Debra Roasado: Yeah. And even at that, when it came to me walking again, they told my husband, I wouldn't be walking within a year, year and a half. [00:09:00] I w I was diagnosed December 31st, 2020. I was sent home March 24th, 2021. Walking using a Walker. So when I was sent to a sheltering arms for physical rehab and occupational therapy, I was there for two weeks, two weeks and a half.
And I was walking. The lady said it was that muscle memory, that mindset, because every time that there was like, you want to try this? Yup. Let's do it because. How would, I know if I can do it. If I don't try, when I just pushed myself and pushed myself, because one, I have a family, I want to be functional with my family.
I want to teach my kids to have that mindset that no matter what, in [00:10:00] life you may fall, but what that strong mindset you can get right by. Yes,
Alexis: I love you. And your story you've motivated me so much, even just on Facebook. I know that I could talk to you all day, but for those who have questions about maybe bodybuilding in general, or about recovery or about having an autoimmune disease, anything like that, what is the best way for them to find you?
They can
Debra Roasado: find me on my Instagram, Deborah fitness pro, and just message me.
Alexis: Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your story. Thank
Debra Roasado: you for having me.
Alexis: Well, that's it for this segment. We are living healthy. Thank you to everybody who tuned in. If you have not already, please subscribe to the show and follow us on Facebook at we are living healthy.
And if you have a story that you would like to share, don't hesitate to message us so that we can get you here. Thanks again for joining us today. That's it for? We are living healthy.
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