New book focuses on quest for self improvement
Coach Caprice O’Bryant Gutierrez celebrated the launch of her first book, “Prayers Up, Weight Down!,”on Friday, April 5, at Christian Life Center, 6363 183rd St., in Tinley Park, Ill.
The book is a 30-Day quest to the best version of you. Throughout her personal journey of overcoming two serious car accidents, traumatic brain injury, seizures and total memory loss (amnesia) she had to release emotional pounds of depression, anger, and un-forgiveness. Her key to resilience was to combine her faith and fitness.
At the launch party, there was a Q&A discussion teaching attendees how to release the weight, so they leave with an action plan on how to jumpstart their journey and a live performance from NBC’s “The Voice” artist Sa’Rayah.
Losing weight is a hard effort for each person. While some manage to drop the pounds with extra trips to the gym or by cutting back on junk food, for others, their trouble runs deeper than bad habits.
The motivation behind Gutierrez completing her book was to support people to not only outdo just the external of losing weight but dealing with the inside of the body as well. Spiritually, emotionally and physically.
“I realized that we are helping people lose physical pounds, but then people would gain it back. I was like, ‘Oh my God, people are losing the weight,’ but there were so many emotional things that probably added to it and because physical is fitness is such an emotional journey. It’s like OK I lost 20 pounds but how do I maintain keeping it off ?,” Gutierrez said.
She discovered not only in herself but other people that were able to be successful and keep off the physical pounds were successfully healing themselves on an emotional level, and that is what sparked the light bulb.
“It’s amazing and incredible to train people, but I need to take people on a journey to connect their mind and their bodies. We have to go deeper, we can go to the gym, we can eat right, but we need to go deeper,” she said. “We need to start from inside to the out when you get healed emotionally it becomes a lifestyle because you are holding on to the weight of your past and what happened.”
In the book, she teaches practical ways not just to lose but how to release physical, emotional and spiritual pounds.
In 2007, Gutierrez survived a severe car accident, leaving her with a Traumatic Brain Injury, unable to walk and impaired cognitive abilities — to the point where she had difficulty following simple instructions.
After getting back on her feet and returning to a ‘normal’ life, Gutierrez was unfortunately in another car accident, just three years later. She was left with tonic- clonic seizures, which became a lifelong
pattern that would later be diagnosed as Epilepsy.
While all of this could have brought anyone down, Gutierrez was fueled by her battle and decided to ‘stomp out every excuse.’ In her eyes, there was no excuse not to stay healthy and fit, as it always made her feel better, empowering her to focus her energy on what she
could do, instead of being tied down by her circumstances. It made her feel unbreakable.
After falling in love with fitness and climbing out, Gutierrez became certified and opened the impactful Excuse Free Fitness, in Homewood, Ill., in 2015. With her gym, Gutierrez strives to provide her clients and members with a sense of hope and inspiration never to give up, no matter life’s circumstances.
Excuse Free Fitness has been thriving, yet Gutierrez found that it was so much more than physical pounds that people needed to get rid of so “Prayers Up, Weight Down” was born.
Whatever is weighing you down can be conquered to catapult you into the best season of your life. Throughout this 30-day quest, Gutierrez will walk readers through principles found in the word of God and teach them how to apply those principles to nutrition and exercise practices. Nothing happens overnight or even in 30 days. However, as readers commit to renewing their mind, their relationship with food will change.
“The most rewarding thing she has ever done Because it’s a constant reminder that is not just about me is more significant than me because I’m not only for myself,” she said. “I’m here for purposes more prominent than me. I know everything that I went through everything for a reason, and God has gifted me all the tools to help nurture someone else and so that someone else can be resilient in their journey, too.” Gutierrez said.
For more information about “Prayers Up, Weight Down,” visit www.prayersupweightdown.com. For more information about Excuse Free Fitness, visit excusefreefitness.com.
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