A truly motivational transformation.
For eight years, Becky Adams spent 90% of her time in bed with the lights off and door shut. Even light noises could trigger piercing headaches.
In 2001 she was pulling out of the parking lot in her apartment complex when she got T-boned. The crash left barely able to stand even after 10 months in the hospital. At home, her husband and children tended to her daily. She was constantly dosed on painkillers and medications that doctors said she needed.
The injuries were: crushed ribs all along her left side, broken pelvis in three places, severe head trauma, ruptured diaphragm, and a collapsed lung.
Becky bounced from doctor to doctor, desperately seeking relief, not just from the pain, but from the mountain of painkillers she was prescribed. She told Greenfield Reporter:
“I felt like that’s when my life was over. I felt like I was dying. It was always more medicine, more medicine, more medicine.”
In 2014 Becky took a fatal dose of painkillers in an attempt to take her own life. Fortunately, she survived the incident. Though she was still deeply depressed, she made one decision: to stop taking painkillers. Cold turkey.
“I didn’t care at that point if I lived or died. My doctors advised against it … They kept telling me I wouldn’t be able to function without (drugs). They said I wouldn’t live without it. I said, ‘OK, I don’t care.’”
For a year she endured brutal withdrawal symptoms in addition to her usual pain. Her husband even tried to convince her to take some and wean herself off. She refused.
By January 2015, Becky had made it through the worst of the pain. She walked into Greenfield’s Family Fun and Fitness in an expedition to rebuild her body.
Walking up stairs and curling five-pounds were serious challenges. She kept at it for weeks.
Becky recalls one night sitting in the gym’s parking lot alone, still in pain from simple exercises, and crying.
A song came on the radio — “Just be Held” by Casting Crowns.
That song triggered an epiphany.
“Everybody has a story. Mine wasn’t an exception. Mine wasn’t anything special. I always said ‘why me?’… But I finally realized that everybody’s got a story. No matter what it is.”
Becky’s mind was completely reformed. She set a goal of competing in bodybuilding, and stepped onstage for her first show in April 2016.
The gym’s owner says Becky is inspiration personified for all her members.
“She’s living proof that you can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it.”
Husband Mike also said he is still amazed at the transformation.
“She’s 100 percent a different person. She went from somebody who is lying in bed all the time in a dark room to somebody who’s wanting to get up and go. She’s pure energy, going all the time.”
Becky’s outlook on life is powerfully simple. She continues to train and compete, with a smile on her face that was absent for 8 years.
“Some people live their lives letting whatever their situation is be in control. When the reality is we are in control.”
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