Dawn Damon: Hey, everybody. Good to be with you today. I have an incredible guest with you, with us today, and I can't wait to share her with you. She's gonna be your new best friend. Listen to this. My guest today is a fitness therapist and a certified health coach specializing in movement disorders. Yes, she's gonna get you moving. She developed a dynamic, motivating program designed to challenge clients both physically and mentally as they work towards improving their health and performance. She has coached and supported. All kinds of people, business women, business owners, athletes, mothers, and older adults are strengthening overall wellness, increasing productivity, and achieving a more balanced lifestyle. She's the owner of K2 Corporate Wellness, author of the recent book, 20 Minutes to Live, so please welcome my guest today, Katheryn Pistoresi.

Hello!

Katheryn Pistoresi: Hello.

Dawn Damon: What a joy to have you on the program today. You and I had a chance to talk before, and you shared your story with me, and I said, I gotta have you on you. I just need to allow my audience to hear your incredible story. But first, just share a little bit more about yourself, your book, and what you're doing.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Well, thank you for having me on the podcast today. I'm excited to share.

Dawn Damon: Yes.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Well, my life has been a whirlwind of exciting things and. I guess to start out with, born in Texas, I've traveled all over the United States. My dad was connected with oil, and so we moved a lot, had a lot of opportunity to make friends fast and say goodbye fast, and wow. I started my business 42 years ago, and that was physique fitness therapy, and I started working with gymnasts. Because I was a gymnast. I coached, I went into nursing for about seven years, and then decided to start my own business as a personal trainer and jumped right in. And here I am all these years later, excited because now I get to spread the love of Jesus like I always have, but on a newer platform because of my book.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Well, I was in a car accident, actually, I messed my hip up, so I had two hip surgeries. I had a lot of pain, and from there I just realized that I'd better start changing what I'm doing, and I had an opportunity to meet someone who had Parkinson's, and in a second that man changed my life, and I started working with movement disorders because I had a movement disorder. That was because of the accident and the way it shifted my hips and my lower back.

Dawn Damon: Hmm.

Dawn Damon: Oh my God.

Katheryn Pistoresi: God protected me from all the horrific things that happened to my body in those 47 days. And the beautiful thing is, after that, I literally had 20 minutes to live, and a night nurse spoke in my ear, and she said, Kathy, you have 20 minutes to live. You need to make a decision, or you're gonna die. You have 20 minutes to live. And I hurt her.

Dawn Damon: Wow.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And I couldn't speak, you know, I had a trach. I was in a coma, but I heard her.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Yes.

Dawn Damon: I think that's such an important, important point that you bring up because we've been told, and we understand that hearing is the last thing to go. So you were able to hear her, you couldn't respond or show her that you heard her, why 20 minutes to live, what was happening?

Katheryn Pistoresi: Yeah, they had tried everything to save me. I had died a couple of different times. They brought me back, and that particular night, it was just the situation, and they had told my husband literally, she's got 20 minutes. And so, you know, I'm yelling and screaming in my coma. No, I don't wanna die. I wanna live. And she just kept saying it and saying it, and so I started yelling for Jesus, and he came to the side of my bed. With his arms reaching out, he picked me up, held me in his arms, and calmed me as I begged and borrowed. As I said, I wanna stay, I wanna see my grandkids, I wanna spend more time with my husband, and he calmed me and just told me I was gonna be okay. Not to worry. I could stay and lie back in the bed. And that night I turned the corner, and he gave me a miracle. Yeah.

Dawn Damon: That's just such a miraculous story indeed. We talk a lot on our program about being bravehearted and being brave women, and that was indeed a very brave moment for you. And so you turned the corner, and to everyone's surprise, you lasted longer than 20 minutes. You woke up. What was that like, and what was the recovery like?

Katheryn Pistoresi: I actually didn't wake up, per se, okay, for about two weeks.

Dawn Damon: Okay.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And, but my vitals, everything turned the corner. I started improving. They started weaning me off oxygen and the vent and all of this stuff. And, um, waking up was a surreal experience. I woke up and all these people, my family, the pastor, friends, they were standing around my bed, and they were waiting for that moment where I opened my eyes, and I opened my eyes, and it was like a screen, like a hazy screen. And I'm looking around, and I'm like, who are these people? People? And I didn't know anybody. And my son would say, mom, why? Do you know who this is? And I would be, I couldn't speak, and so I would be like, mm-hmm. You know,

Dawn Damon: Oh.

Katheryn Pistoresi: I don't know who that is. And then they were like, and then my husband, it just makes me sad to think about it. I didn't know who he was, but I knew who one of our best friend guys are. Oh, and so it was, I knew a friend, but I didn't know my husband.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: But then my daughter walked in the room.

Dawn Damon: Oh.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And my son said, who is this? Walking in the room? And I said, my beautiful daughter. And yet those were lip-synced, you know, those were not verbal words. They were lipped, you know, because my vocal cords were so damaged, and I still had a trach.

Dawn Damon: So you can't talk, you can move your lips, but, wow.

Katheryn Pistoresi: I knew my daughter, and that kind of went on for a couple of weeks, you know, that I wouldn't remember people, and then I would remember people. So I, I think it's a process and a determination to come back to living and come back to recognizing who is around you. And I had some short-term and long-term memory loss, but now, 14 years later, I really don't deal with that at all. I don't have any problem dealing with memory loss, and that is the beauty of healing.

Dawn Damon: Yes. And your road to recovery, that had to have been lengthy. There had to have been moments when you were discouraged. Are you a fighter? Did you just wake up with joy every day, or did you have those moments where you said, I don't know if I can keep going on?

Katheryn Pistoresi: Of course, I had moments like that, but you know, I think. That my personality has always been to wake up, be expectant of what God has for me, and that was built into me a long, long time ago. And so to own your own business, to jump in and be involved in leads, groups, and different community groups to be involved in church, it all takes. What God has given me are gifts, right? He has instilled in me. And so I was a positive person to start with, and I was always an overcomer, and I would fight to overcome anything, any obstacle in my way. And so the greatest part about that was when he woke me up, and as I started to go to a rehabilitation center, I saw people who were worse off than me.

Dawn Damon: Wow.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And that inspired me, and I didn't feel sorry for myself. There was just that, okay, I can't walk, I can't talk, I can't move my arms and legs, but God says I'm gonna be okay. He told me when he was holding me, I was gonna be okay. Now, in my mind, okay, is walking, talking, and spreading the love of Jesus, right?

Dawn Damon: Of course.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Yeah. And so inside of me, I had that in my brain. I had that in my heart. I had that. And so, um, learning to. Move my arm, moving to feed myself, moving to walk with help. Three weeks in rehab, and I was able to walk with two people holding onto me, maybe 30 steps. I was able to start moving my body, and I was able to start moving my arm to feed myself. The road home was beautiful, and my husband had it all set up, and the hospital bed in the living room, and you know, Jess is going to rehabilitation. Yeah, there were moments that I looked at the PT, and I would say, can't I do more? And she'd say, no, Kathy, your lungs can't handle it.

Dawn Damon: Oh,

Katheryn Pistoresi: And so there would be a step forward and a step back because my lungs were so damaged, and so I believed nobody else really believed I was gonna get there. I don't think. I think they just, it was a long haul. So about a year, and I'm walking and talking and going to rehab, and everybody is seeing that, oh my gosh, he's coming back. And so the Miracle unfolded in a beautiful way.

Dawn Damon: Oh, yes.

Katheryn Pistoresi: For people to actually see in every walk of my life, people saw something different. They saw God working, and they saw how he transformed me and they, they knew what the doctors had said. And what I didn't know was that the doctors had told my husband all these horrific things, she's gonna be this, she's gonna be that. You're gonna have problems with this. And he never told me. My husband never told me any of that.

Dawn Damon: Good for him.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Yeah. And so when I got the hospital records. Maybe a year and a half afterwards, because I started journaling, I was blown away by what the doctors had said in the report, but God's bigger.

Dawn Damon: That's right. I mean, that's one report, but another report says I'm healed. You know, another report says, my God shall yes. And so you believe the report of the Lord. And I'm thankful that you didn't have to beat out all of those negative prognoses about your recovery or how close you knew, how close you were to relocate into heaven, and getting to the other side, and yet you had a word from the Lord. You had a word from Jesus personally that kept you going and determined.

And I wanna ask you, you were always physically fit, you were a gymnast, and you were a coach. Do you think that having that framework of strength helped you to recover? Well? I mean, certainly, it set you up for great compassion for your clients who struggle with mobility. I guess what I'm thinking is, how can people renew the strength in their bodies? They haven't been through what you've been through, but maybe they're pretty sedentary. Can they recover?

Katheryn Pistoresi: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. The one thing that matters is that you have to believe it. Mm-hmm. The first thing is you have to believe you can't. You have to believe that God made our bodies to move and to be physical and to not just sit and do nothing. And when you have a movement disorder or you have an injury, you become sedentary. Mm-hmm. Then you know you can become depressed.

Dawn Damon: Yeah.

Katheryn Pistoresi: I don't think that I was depressed. I believe that I knew that I knew. I was gonna be okay. I just didn't know how long it was gonna take.

Dawn Damon: How long?

Katheryn Pistoresi: And so I would say to other people, you know, God heals in his timing. He doesn't heal in my timing.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: But he did say I was gonna be okay. And so everybody who struggles. If you have a coach like me, I can pour into you, I can pour into that positive reinforcement. The, the, the scriptures that lead to it. God gave me a scripture from day one, and you know what it was, what was it be? It was still and know that I'm the Lord.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And you know what? I'm not a be-still person.

Dawn Damon: Oh.

Katheryn Pistoresi: I am a go-getter. And so before, during, and after. And so that one scripture was, no, no, no, no. You stay in the bed, and you be still long enough to hear my voice.

Dawn Damon: Yes.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And that was a daily thing. And then he would show me through other people and show me through a hummingbird, you know, that you need to be still.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: I'm building your nest.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: I'm building your body one day at a time. And so that's how I coach, I want people to understand it's one day you have one day, sometimes you have one hour. What are you gonna do with it?

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Are you gonna take care of yourself? Are you going to eat right? Are you gonna pat yourself on the back for taking a walk? You know, what are those small little increments of things that you could do that would just make you feel whole?

Dawn Damon: Amen. Yes.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Yeah.

Dawn Damon: I think sometimes we underestimate the power of baby steps that we think, well, it's just this little thing, but that little thing leads to the next little thing that's right. And you begin to take more territory and nudge your way forward. And so I think there's a ton of power in just doing the small thing consistently. Yes.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And you know, it's community. It's not just me.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Doing one thing by coaching one person. It's a community. And so I would not be where I'm at today without community. And we had this very, very strong small group, 50 couples strong, that we had been involved with for years and years and years, when I crashed and burned, guess who was there, right? The guess who had the prayer chains? Guess who I mean? It went out all across the nation, and I had no idea the reach and the, the amount of people that were praying for all of us and were at my husband's beck and call. They were there in the middle of the night. They were there in the day. There were prayer vigils in the parking lot by the hundreds, shining their lights up to my room. I didn't know any of this.

Dawn Damon: Wow.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And when you find out the power of community

Dawn Damon: Yes.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And they stuck with us to this day. Yeah. They were the ones who held us up financially, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. And it takes your involvement to be in a community. It takes you being humble and reaching out to have a community. And then when something happens. You've got Jesus, and you've got community.

Dawn Damon: Yeah. There's nothing more powerful. I so believe in that, the power of the body of Christ and how when we're all working together like that, we're fulfilling the call of God and the, and the plan of God that it we're, we're not in a silo.

You know, isolation, withdrawal, those things, those are dangerous places to be. Although I'm sure there are times when whoever is suffering is yourself. I know times in my life when I've suffered where I just wanted to pull back. I just wanted to be left alone and just. Curl up in a ball and feel sorry for myself and be the victim.

And there have been times where the community said, come on, let's get out. Let's go for a walk. Yeah. Let's do it. And I'm very thankful for that. What would you say to the person who might be isolated today? Who, and maybe you did just say it, actually, but the woman who might think, oh, you know, I'm good on my own, nobody needs, it's nobody's business. I can handle this by myself.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Mm-hmm. I would say wake up and pray to the Lord. Ask him to bring you community, ask him to bring you girlfriends, or you know, ask him to bring you an angel. I prayed for angels.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: I had angels at my bedside keeping watch over me and four-hour shifts.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: I didn't make that happen. My husband and Jesus made that happen. Mm-hmm. But I would say reach out. It's scary. I know it's scary, and I know that people get depressed. I've been depressed before in my life, where I just didn't wanna live.

Dawn Damon: Sure.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And you know what? I was not taking care of myself. I was depressed, and a doctor told me, you need Jesus, a doctor.

Dawn Damon: Wow.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Yeah, I had, that's a great prescription, right? But I had Jesus, I just wasn't connected to the vine, you know? I was just kind of flailing out here. Not connected, not abiding.

Dawn Damon: Yes.

Katheryn Pistoresi: With Jesus. And I think that's the key, abiding with Jesus. And also everybody has one person that they can reach out to. One person. Whether it's a girlfriend, a husband, a boyfriend, whatever. Everybody's got one person that you can reach out to.

Dawn Damon: Amen. Do that. Reach out to someone. Don't go it alone. Don't be alone. No. God's got a plan for community for you. And so now you're the owner of K2 Corporate Wellness, and that's your coaching business.

Dawn Damon: Yeah. How does that flow and work? How can someone get a hold of you if they're like, yes, I wanna work with you?

Katheryn Pistoresi: You know, the fun part about all of that is, I'm 70 years old and beautiful. I'm still vibrant. I'm still, uh, I still have a brain on, and I still love what I do. And so I deal with, I have clients that are, um, you know, have movement disorders, and a lot of 'em are elderly. I have a 99-year-old client. Okay. They're all having some dementia, and they're all, let's just say, coming to the end of their lives.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And I don't know when that's gonna be, but I met a girl through a guy that I met 25 years ago. He called me and said, you need to meet Kay. And she's a functional nutritionist, so she moved to Bakersfield three years ago. He called me, Hey, call her. I called her. We met, she's younger, and we just hit it off. So she's functional nutrition, and I'm fitness and mindset, right?

Dawn Damon: Yeah.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And so we decided, how can we train on a higher level, how can we reach more people on a higher level, and do the same thing that we're doing? So I was telling her about how I did corporate wellness many years ago, 20 years ago, when it wasn't popular. And I had a company here in town that I did corporate wellness with for seven years, and we didn't have an app, and we didn't have a website, and it was just me on site 12 hours a day.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: So she's like, oh, we should do corporate wellness. And so we started looking into it. We decided to partner with another company that has been doing it for 14 years. Okay. And so we developed Pay two Corporate Wellness. Now we can sit on our computer, and when we sign a company up, we can have a hundred employees, and we can sit here. We have an app. We have a website, and we could do everything sitting here on the computer, the same way as I drive across town.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And being one-on-one with somebody.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And so we're transitioning. I'm transitioning a little bit because this is going to fit better with where I'm at in my life. Right? Sure.

Dawn Damon: Yes.

Katheryn Pistoresi: So I'm not giving up those clients. I'm just transitioning into what we want to inspire, and we want to make disciples, and we want people to be healthy and fit. And so she's the nutrition, I'm the fitness and mindset, and she's been in business for 25, 30 years doing what she does. And so it's a beautiful combination, and we launched our new business on the first of the year. And, so we signed companies up that, you know, help them with insurance premiums, help them have healthier employees, help them have better mindsets, and we give them a watch or a chess band, an app, and we can see everything that's happening. They can work out, they can take a picture of their food, they can do mindset videos, everything is on the app, and we can track all that. So then, the owner of the company, we can say after the six-week challenge is over, here's what the stats are. You add this many people involved. This was how well they did on their fitness, on their weight loss, and on their nutrition. And, it will improve the whole culture of the business.

Dawn Damon: Yeah. That's incredible. And I mean, you know, God knew that was what was in store for you when you were 47 days in a coma, and how joyful to see it coming to pass. Mm-hmm. And congratulations on that for you and Kay. Right. The K you two. Thank you.

And tell us a little bit, I know our time is just about gone from us, but. Your book, how well is it doing? Where can we find it? On Amazon? I'm sure. What's all in your book? Yes. Your story.

Katheryn Pistoresi: So here's the book, 20 Minutes to Live: Discovering Miracles, Perseverance, and the Power of Prayer.

Dawn Damon: Mm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And you can find the book on Amazon, and of course, some local stores here in Bakersfield. And you know, it's a book of. What happened, how the community was involved, and then what I learned from it all. And it's an inspirational story, and it's a miracle story. And I believe, you know, God told me to write the book, and I complained, and I said, you know, I'm not a writer. I'm not this, I'm not that. And then one day he said, you're all of those things. Let's do it.

So I started journaling, and I did journaling for like, I don't know, 10 years. Nobody wanted to talk about what happened to me. My husband didn't want my family, my community.

Dawn Damon: Yeah.

Katheryn Pistoresi: So I had to piece it all together. And when I pieced it all together, it was a lot of information.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And I wanted the book. God wanted the book to be a miracle story.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: He didn't care about how I put it together. He just wanted it to be Tell your story, Kathy.

Dawn Damon: Yes.

Katheryn Pistoresi: It's my story. I gave you this life, I gave you this story, I want you to share it.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And, so I sat down and within three weeks, at 1.2 years ago, I had it done, and then I hired a publisher that I had known. Which is a beautiful story, too. And she wanted to do it, and so yeah. So the book came out two years ago, and it's done very well locally; it's done very well. I've done some speaking and traveled to different places and done some women's events and some women's conferences, and without a doubt, every time I speak, there is someone in the room who has changed.

Dawn Damon: Yes.

Katheryn Pistoresi: There's someone in the room who needs to hear that story.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Maybe a piece of the story.

Dawn Damon: Mm-hmm.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Not about me, but about the situation.

Dawn Damon: Sure.

Katheryn Pistoresi: About how God is always there. We just have to look for that. You know, we just have to tap into that.

Dawn Damon: Amen.

Katheryn Pistoresi: And listen to what he wants.

Dawn Damon: Yes. Well, I believe that God is going to allow someone who needs to hear this to find this episode of this podcast, the Bravehearted Woman, someone who needs to know that God still works in miraculous ways, that angels still accompany us and are surrounding us. That prayer, the power of prayer works. And so wherever you are, my friend, my sister, whoever's listening, trust and know that God is working on your behalf. And that fire that you had, Kathy, that you said, I am determined to overcome. I'm praying that same fire will just ignite in the souls of others that listen and say, you know what, as you said earlier, wake up. Let's get up. Let's get going. Find community. God's gonna, God's got a future. Look at what was in store for you. Something wonderful is in store for my friend on the other side of this trial.

Katheryn Pistoresi: That's right. Amen.

Dawn Damon: Amen. Thank you so much for being with us on the BraveHearted Woman Podcast. You are indeed a bravehearted woman. How can people find you if they want to know more about you, or invite you as a speaker?

Katheryn Pistoresi: Um, you can find me at k2corporatewellness.com. You can find me at kathypistoresi.com. You can call me. I'm happy to give out my number. Is that okay?

Dawn Damon: Sure. You, you certainly may. And we will also make sure that all of this information are in our show notes.

Dawn Damon: Beautiful. Thank you once again for being with us, for sharing your story.

Katheryn Pistoresi: Thank you.

Dawn Damon: Yes. Any parting words or last comment?

Katheryn Pistoresi: Hmm, last comment. Get up and get connected to Jesus.

Dawn Damon: Amen. Well said. Very good. Well, Bravehearts, thank you once again for listening and tuning in again today. And you can also find me at the bravehearted woman.com. Hey, maybe you have a story to tell as well, and maybe, like Kathy, you're saying, oh, I dunno if I wanna write this. And yet I feel like God is tugging on my heart, head on over to the bravehearted woman.com. I help first-time writers get their story out. If that's you, click on the link, let me know, and we'll get connected again. It's great to be with all of you. I'll leave you like I always do.

Hey, Bravehearts, it's time for you to find your brave and live your dreams!