We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessica “Jet” Bolz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jessica “Jet”, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on?
My illnesses as a child and through the last 45 years from Hodgkins Lymphoma to Breast cancer to having a massive heart attack, dying, brought back and receiving a new heart from an 18-year-old beautiful donor has created a beacon for others to turn to for help, comfort, safety and restoring their body with me. My approach to my work is from a place of empathy which really relaxes patients in my field which is primarily obesity, cardiac issues, cancer and diabetes. I’ve incorporated the idea of laughter and joy into my workouts, so clients learn to reach their health goals using happiness as part of the care plan. My water fitness classes are themed, and I dress up from everything from Princess Leia in Star Wars to Freddie Mercury from Queen and the clients love the fun and unique workouts. I feel very relaxed speaking to others from my place of survivorship and knowing that the mind is a very effective tool to fight disease and breakdown of the body. I have also counseled people who suffer from trauma bonds and anxious attachment issues and fears of abandonment coming from a very real place where it almost destroyed me.
Jessica “Jet”, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I was a competitive swimmer as a child, third in the state in 50 freestyles by age 10, the year before I was diagnosed with my first cancer, Hodgkins’s disease. Throughout my life although I could no longer compete from all the side effects from treatment including radiation and chemotherapy, I continued teaching and refereeing the sport and ran a swim program in Bayside for 5 years teaching ages 5-92 to swim. I always felt safe in the water. After an abusive marriage and two children, I walked away from dental assisting and moved to North Carolina after my husband’s death. A year after my move I received a call from Duke Diet and Fitness asking if I could come work as a lifeguard there, I had not lifeguarded since I was 17 but not one to back down from a challenge I went back and got my lifeguard recertification, and my life changed. What started out as just lifeguarding exploded into the clients falling in love with me and vice versa. I was asked to teach classes, so I got my water fitness certification and started thinking of new concepts to make exercise fun; this is where my themed workout came into play. I had many costumes Elvis, wonder woman, cowgirl, cheerleader, Freddie Mercury, Star Wars and wizard of oz. The clients went crazy for it and the pool became a foundation for fun and joy. I worked with Francis Ford Coppola who taught how to properly swim and it was just unbelievable. He actually invited me to teach his family in Napa which was an incredible experience for me. I realized I could apply the same ideas I used to heal myself into my workouts to heal others. LAUGHTER!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I was teaching one of my water fitness classes and I had a massive heart attack while doing so. No one knew CPR although it was a medical facility, and I lay dying on the deck. I spent 8 weeks in the hospital and coded three times. The doctors at Duke told my family I was dying and gave me last rights. My son who is my health proxy told the doctor if there was a 1 percent chance to get me back to take it. They put a pacemaker on me and my organs started to rejuvenate. I was able to come back and get the heart transplant, but I had to learn how to re walk, talk and write again after being in a coma. I also could no longer feel my feet and my right hand. I worked for 4 months after I got home to learn how to ReWalk and talk and at times I just wanted to give up, but I pushed through, and I am now back to teaching again and although my life is forever altered, I realized just when I thought I couldn’t get any stronger this happened. I ended up running in the Dash to Paris to the Eiffel tower for the para Olympics just 7 months after my transplant. Mind over matter,
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I learned that I had to stop fearing abandonment and hanging on to others who didn’t support me. I have always been magnetized toward narcissists growing up in that environment and it caused me to be in multiple terrible and abusive relationships that I just hung onto because I feared being alone and I thought that was all I was worth. This heart transplant finally gave me the strength to speak up for myself and I like to think my new heart “Rockette” stood up for me when I couldnt and finally fought back against my boyfriend to tell him he could no longer emotionally and sexually abuse me. Im started to reclaim my love for myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jetwarriorfit.com
- Instagram: jetwaterfitness
- Facebook: Jessica Bolz
Image Credits
Jessica Bolz