Several years ago, on a cold and quiet November morning, Nicola Graham
awakened from a sound sleep and instantly plunged into a real-life nightmare, a terrifying struggle with an armed and unhinged ex-boyfriend who left her battered, bleeding and on the verge of death.

“He had broken in through the kitchen window, found a plate from the kitchen and got on top of me, where he started breaking the plate across my face,” the 36-year-old Chicago native recalled. “I realized that someone had broken into the house and when I grabbed the man’s mask off and noticed it was [my ex], I called out his name and screamed, ‘What are you doing here?'”

From the corner of her eye, Graham noticed him clutching a large butcher knife,
and that’s when the real battle began. Before it was over, her 12-year-old daughter was knocked unconscious and Graham had suffered multiple stab wounds. While she played dead, his fleeing footsteps echoed in her mind as a voice challenged her from within: “Are you going to die, or are you going to live?”

Graham had chosen the latter. Her attacker was arrested and charged, and Graham spent months recovering from her injuries. She relocated to Texas and vacated her corporate position in the health care industry to become a personal trainer.

Based out of 24 Hour Fitness in Allen, Graham uses a variety of exercises, weekly
bootcamps regimens and nutritional guidance to help clients reshape their bodies and reclaim their health, a gift that she now realizes is too precious to lose.

“I worked for a company that owned hospitals and their goal was to maximize patient admissions, so that made me want to help people with preventative care,” she said. “The more I studied, the more I learned that with proper nutrition and daily exercise, we can prevent a lot of illnesses.”

As an African-American woman, Nicola is aware of the cultural roadblocks that perpetuate unhealthy habits and believes that small changes in action and attitude can make a difference.

“All of my friends were feeling pressure to become like what their men said they wanted, a ‘voluptuous woman,'” she said. “I enlighten people to realize that a little thickness is okay, but being outright fat is not healthy for you. Thick is not it, healthy is it.”

Graham’s two main tenants are eating better and being active for 20 minutes every day—“If it means just cleaning your house, walking around the corner, or while at work, taking an elevator down to the bottom floor and then walking back up the
flights of stairs. If you have access to cable or the internet, there is no excuse to not work out because you can use those ‘fit channels’ right there in the comfort of your own home.”

As “Coach Cola’s” clientele list continues to grow, the fitness advocate and mother of two eventually hopes to operate a nonprofit that will allow the economically disadvantaged to afford individualized training and dietary services.

And as a survivor of domestic violence, Graham uses her own inspirational story of survival to urge other victims to escape their abusers before it becomes too late.

“I try to tell women that not everyone makes it out of a situation like this,” she said. “That night when it happened, seven other cases like mine were on the news and all of those other women died. I got wounded 10 times and lived, but some of them got stabbed just once. I ask, ‘What if that was you? You’ve got children, friends and family in this world that love and depend on you. It’s not worth your life.'”

To learn more about and start a regimen with Nicola “Coach Cola” Graham, head to http://www.alcfitness.com/ and http://alcfitness.tumblr.com/.