I started coming to the Rye Y about two years ago. I was a cancer patient. The chemo and the radiation really wore my body down so someone hooked me up with the LIVESTRONG program here. And it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.
I had no balance, everything was bad then. We worked for weeks with a group and nobody had balance so we all learned and we got better and stronger. They showed me a million different ways to exercise—do this, do that, try MELT, and I could pick out what was best for me. It’s a great program.
When it was over, I was going to sign up but I didn’t because I work at Westchester Community College and the gym there was opened up to the staff, for free. So I started going there but it’s limited. And I really missed doing a routine. So I came back [to the Y] and I signed up. I try to come either here or there four or five days a week. And I just do an hour. And it’s wonderful.
I go up to the fitness center and ride the bike for a half hour; I try to do five miles a day. And I do a lot of the machines. I feel tremendously better when I do it. I’m now in remission for a year. But I’m still on medications and I will be for four more years. And there are a lot of side effects. Just doing this helps tremendously.
My goal is to just keeping doing it so my bones don’t ache. I’m trying to lose weight but it’s tough because of the medicines I’m on. But it’s also tough because they make me hungry. So I need to get my diet under control.
I love it here. From the people at the front desk when I walk in to the people upstairs, especially Christine and El who were my LIVESTRONG instructors, it’s been a pleasure. They motivate me, just by seeing me and saying “keep going!” It’s such a great Y. It’s so clean and beautiful. I’m lucky to have it.
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