Tag Archives: carol dunlop

A Safer Way to CrossFit: 3 Ways to Prevent Injury for This Trending Workout

Before I actually became a member of a CrossFit gym, I heard all the cautionary tales of injury, over-training, and the crazy way of training “THEY do over there.”

Was I apprehensive? Of course, but I approached this NEW experience as I have done others in the past and that was to find out what it was really about by seeing it with my own eyes and experiencing it for myself.

crossfit
I’ve come away with three things that you can use for yourself and apply to ANY new (or old) fitness experience to keep yourself safe, too.

Know Your Body

You know your body better than anyone else, so if you are asking your body to do something it truly is incapable of, it will let you know. If you work your body into the ground over and over again, without giving it proper rest and nutrition, it will shut down. It doesn’t take a CrossFit class to do this; it can happen with Pilates, yoga, or even regular weight training. (more…)

Posted on October 18, 2023 by Carol

Fitness Mattrz Provides Tools to Get Healthy Without a Gym Membership

Carol Dunlop is certified through FiTour as a personal trainer, and frequent guest blogger for DietsInReview.com. She has a special enthusiasm for fitness and sharing her passion for health with others, and is also the founder of Optimum Body Sculpting – a website that provides resources for people looking to shape up and lead a healthy lifestyle.

Carol recently started a new extension of that site called Fitness Mattrz – a fitness site and social network that provides members with all the tools they need to get healthy and stay that way – from nutrition advice to workout videos – all from the privacy of their own home.

We interviewed Carol about her new venture as founder of Fitness Mattrz, and this is what she had to say.

Tell us a bit about your journey to health and why you’re so passionate about fitness.

I started my fitness journey after my son was born in 1979. I gained 30 pounds during my pregnancy and wanted to get back in my size 7 clothes. I bought a two-piece, pink workout outfit for inspiration and joined a ladies exercise gym. Within a few weeks, inches and pounds started to melt away and before you know it, I was in a size 5. Wow! I had never worn that size, even before pregnancy. (more…)

Posted on April 23, 2023 by Dana

The Grass is Greener on the Other Side of Breast Cancer Survival

You always hear that saying about people looking for the greener grass, but they never find it. However, I’m here to tell you that I’ve actually found the greener grass. It’s on the other side of cancer survival. I’m a survivor and I don’t need a doctor to tell me that I am clean, I know it already and I feel it inside.

I say the grass is greener because before my diagnosis, I was just living my life, day to day. I would say I was happy, but I was only putting in half the effort. It’s like when everyone around you says you’re “on fire,” but you know down deep inside you the fire could burn better and brighter. No one can do anything about making the fire burn better but you.

Then you get this life-changing diagnosis and you think that you may die sooner than you expected, but you get a second chance and WOW! What a difference. (more…)

Posted on March 7, 2024 by Carol

Winning Prescription for Breast Cancer Recovery: Keep it Simple, Stupid

When I first began my breast cancer journey, I couldn’t get enough input of what to expect and craved glimpses through the journey of others. I wanted to know what mine would be like. Now that I am finishing up the middle part—chemo—I have some room for reflection on my journey thus far.

Deciding to have the mastectomy was the easiest part of this journey, for me. I wanted to have the least possible chance of the breast cancer coming back and I figured it would be a great opportunity to sculpt my body. What woman wouldn’t want that? Dealing with the pain from the mastectomy and the reconstruction, now that was a whole other story of survival, whew! I have a high pain tolerance, but believe me; pills were in plenty of supply. The only thing that I had to worry about was taking too many or staying on them for too long, but my husband kept that in check.

Getting chemo was a HUGE stressor for me. I lost 10 pounds before the first treatment from stress and worry alone. Then I had the first one, gauged my body’s reaction, and moved on to the next and the next. Now, I’m at the end, the last one YEAH! (more…)

Posted on February 15, 2024 by Carol

Breast Cancer: My Search for Answers

Guest blogger, Carol Dunlop is certified through FiTour as a Personal Trainer and through the American Red Cross as a CPR, AED and First Aid Instructor. She has competed and placed in several Fitness America and National Bodybuilding competitions. Carol was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2024 and she is sharing her story of survival at DietsInReview.com. Check out her website, OptimumBodySculpting.com.

Are you aware that one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer? That’s a sobering statement, but one that you may not really connect with unless you have a personal experience with breast cancer. I am the one in eight.

I have to admit that I was like most people, I heard about breast cancer, donated to the cause and sympathized with anyone that was diagnosed. However, I never had a personal experience with it in my family or any close friends, until I was diagnosed. My husband’s mother passed from complications from breast cancer, but that was long before we even met. Now, my outlook and my reaction to hearing that a woman has passed from having this disease is totally different. It hits me deep in my heart. (more…)

Posted on December 21, 2023 by GuestBlogger

When Insurance Refuses a Breast Cancer Patient

Guest blogger, Carol Dunlop is certified through FiTour as a Personal Trainer and through the American Red Cross as a CPR, AED and First Aid Instructor. She has competed and placed in several Fitness America and National Bodybuilding competitions. Carol was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2024 and she is sharing her story of survival at DietsInReview.com. Check out her website, OptimumBodySculpting.com.

Can you imagine anything more devastating than being diagnosed with breast cancer? How about finding out that your insurance company is refusing to pay for your treatment? And that no one in the company can give you any solid or sensible answers as to why?

Now that you’ve gathered your breath from the shock, this exact scenario is what has been playing out in my life and breast cancer journey since I was diagnosed four months ago. (more…)

Posted on December 5, 2023 by GuestBlogger

Consistent Physical Activity Aids Breast Cancer Recovery

Guest blogger, Carol Dunlop is certified through FiTour as a Personal Trainer and through the American Red Cross as a CPR, AED and First Aid Instructor. She has competed and placed in several Fitness America and National Bodybuilding competitions. Carol was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2024 and she is sharing her story of survival at DietsInReview.com. Check out her website, OptimumBodySculpting.com.

Weeks, days, and hours. My time is relegated to watching my calendar intently for the next procedure, appointment, lab work or medicine dose. As I have said before, I was healthy and could go months without seeing a doctor. Now, if I go a week without seeing one, something is definitely off. Not only are there doctor’s appointments for them to basically look you over and make recommendations, there are lab trips for blood draws and tests and procedures and shots. It can all be so overwhelming, if you let it.

I am getting through it by taking one day, one procedure, one medication at a time. Once I’m finished with the last dosage, I am looking ahead to what’s next. Then, I stop. I can’t allow myself to go any farther. Going farther just overwhelms me and causes me to feel anxious and powerless. When it’s just one thing on my plate at a time, I have the power. (more…)

Posted on November 16, 2023 by GuestBlogger

Breast Cancer Isn’t What’s Going to Take Me Out

Guest blogger, Carol Dunlop is certified through FiTour as a Personal Trainer and through the American Red Cross as a CPR, AED and First Aid Instructor. She has competed and placed in several Fitness America and National Bodybuilding competitions. Carol was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2024 and she is sharing her story of survival at DietsInReview.com. Check out her website, OptimumBodySculpting.com.

Having watched the movie “Five” on Lifetime TV that depicts five different breast cancer stories and the impact that this disease has on everyone, including those around you, I have come to the conclusion that this disease isn’t “it” for me. I probably won’t know what “it” will be, but breast cancer will NOT cause my demise.

The movie starts with the story of a little girl wondering why her mom is in her room and wanting to know why all those people are in her home. It’s set in 1969, at a time when children were seen and not heard and neither were they told anything about “grown-up stuff” apparently. My heart went out to that child and I couldn’t imagine having my daughter in such a confused state when there was something obviously wrong with me. (more…)

Posted on November 9, 2023 by Carol

I am Not My Hair, It’s Just an Accessory

Guest blogger, Carol Dunlop is certified through FiTour as a Personal Trainer and through the American Red Cross as a CPR, AED and First Aid Instructor. She has competed and placed in several Fitness America and National Bodybuilding competitions. Carol was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2024 and she is sharing her story of survival at DietsInReview.com. Check out her website, OptimumBodySculpting.com.

In 2006, Grammy Award-winning recording artist India.Arie released I Am Not My Hair as a type of ode to women, especially women of color, to our hair and the many ways we wear it and fret over it. I am certain that most women fret over their hair and agonize over what it will and won’t do, even when it looks the most beautiful. So, I’m sure that you can imagine the uncertainty that I felt when my doctor informed me that I would definitely lose my hair as a result of my chemo treatments.

I waited until I was certain that my hair was actually coming out. When I could feel the clumps in my hand, I knew it was time! My sweet soulmate and husband actually cut and shaved it off for me. There was actually no better, more sweeter or honest and intimate thing for him to do than that. I felt so close to him for sharing that moment with me. I will never forget it and always remember that special time. (more…)

Posted on November 3, 2023 by GuestBlogger

Time to Prepare for Chemo

Guest blogger, Carol Dunlop is certified through FiTour as a Personal Trainer and through the American Red Cross as a CPR, AED and First Aid Instructor. She has competed and placed in several Fitness America and National Bodybuilding competitions. To receive your Free E-course “How to Burn Calories While you Sleep,” check out her website, OptimumBodySculpting.com.

If you missed Carol’s first installment in this series documenting her journey through her battle with breast cancer, you can read more about her moving story here: Reflections on My Fight with Breast Cancer.

One of the worst things about this whole breast cancer journey is the waiting. It seems that I’m always waiting for something:

  • A doctor’s appointment
  • The actual doctor
  • A procedure or test
  • The results
  • The decision

Sometimes, it’s just so much, you feel as though you can’t go through one more waiting period for anything. But, then you do it and you move on to the next waiting period for… whatever. (more…)

Posted on September 28, 2023 by GuestBlogger

Reflections on My Fight with Breast Cancer

Guest blogger, Carol Dunlop is certified through FiTour as a Personal Trainer and through the American Red Cross as a CPR, AED and First Aid Instructor. She has competed and placed in several Fitness America and National Bodybuilding competitions. To receive your Free E-course “How to Burn Calories While you Sleep,” check out her website, OptimumBodySculpting.com.

It’s been over a month since I heard the word “cancerous” in connection with myself. It feels better to know that all the cancer that the doctors could see is now gone. They told me the operation was the first part and depending on the size of the tumor, chemotherapy would be the second part, if it was needed. Immediately, I put all the “ifs” out of my mind and stopped worrying about getting or not getting chemo and my reaction to it, until I needed to deal with it, as a factor.

Compartmentalizing the whole process, at each step, has helped me get through this. I’ve learned that women can do that! Ha! I did it and it has worked well for me. (more…)

Posted on September 9, 2023 by GuestBlogger