Little did Zack and I know when we were diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis in 1986 and 1983, at the ages of six months and three months, that our greatest challenge in life would eventually lead us straight to our greatest blessings.

I [Zack] grew up in Ohio and lived there until 2012 when my health took a serious turn for the worse. I hit a lifetime low of 28% FeV1; and I found my rock bottom as I discussed transplant options with my team at Cleveland Clinic. Many things would change after all of those pre-transplant work-up tests and talks, but the most important was my decision to change from trying to hide my disease to being open and accepting of it. 

2012 brought on a number of new things for me - Finally acknowledging how sick I was, leaving full-time work as a medically disabled adult, moving from Ohio to Florida and trading in my 8-8 incredible work ethic for a much more structured day centered around my health. Breathing treatments, regularly scheduled meals and exercise multiple times per day became what was important.

I discovered CrossFit in the fall of 2013 and quickly took a liking to the new boundaries I was able to push myself to. Florida had been good to me and I was able to bump my PFT's from my low of 28% back up to the mid-to-high 30's after a year or so of committing to a healthier lifestyle. But it wasn't until just a few months into CrossFit, with the intense cardiovascular training, that I was able to bump my PFT's back up to the mid 40's. I had heard of The Cystic Fibrosis Lifestyle Foundation through my social worker in early 2014, and with my new passion taking over my life six days a week, my first Recreation Grant helped me obtain my Level 1 CrossFit Certification that I was able to turn into a part-time job at the gym I was attending.

I [Farrel], on the other hand, grew up on a ranch in small-town East Texas. Soon after my diagnosis, my mom took it upon herself to dive headfirst into nutrition, realizing that if she fueled my body in a way that would more efficiently combat infection, then scarring and damage to my lungs might not progress as rapidly. I was raised on lean proteins, low glycemic carbs that included just about every vegetable known to man and healthy fats such as nuts and avocados, while sugar was kept at bay until I wandered into my first Skittles experience at age five. Everything was trial and error for her and everything was recorded in journals that she has used over the course of my lifetime to pass her knowledge along to me. Although I admittedly fell off the bandwagon in college, nutrition has become something that I not only pay close attention to, but have grown to enjoy! And as a result of God's grace and her tireless efforts, I'm now 33 years old with a baseline lung function that sits around 85%.

Fast forward to October 2014 - I was at a point when I had been either hospitalized or on home IVs every three months for over two years and I was beyond sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, so I began to shift my focus to cleaning up my diet again. Eventually, I settled into a new nutrition plan that I felt enhanced my quality of life so greatly that I posted about it in a Cystic Fibrosis Facebook forum, hoping to encourage my peers to try it as well. But because of the difficulty CF presents in gaining weight, and because with my newfound routine I had shed a tiny amount of unhealthy fat, I was immediately misunderstood and criticized by over two hundred of the very CFers I had been so excited to help. I felt completely defeated! Until this really handsome guy jumped in and defended me, a stranger half a country away, because he so heavily identified with my drive toward better health.

[Zack] My eyes saw a bikini photo, my heart saw true passion and my brain recognized the intelligence and fearlessness to try something outside of "our norm". I was hooked!

[Farrel] I guess that post did SOMEthing right because it led to our first conversation that day, our next conversation the following May and my first visit to Florida to meet him in July!

[Zack] July 16th, 2015. After only two months of online video chats, phone calls and text messages, my heart was pounding as I stood at the airport terminal, wondering if the person on the other end of that phone all that time was even real. We had planned out a 4-day weekend without ever having actually met each other...How bad could it be, right?! After an extra hour flight delay, I finally laid eyes on this 5'1'' blonde beauty and, without hesitation, pulled her in for our first kiss. BAM! Fireworks! And we haven't slowed down since! Four months later, she moved here; Two months after that, we launched our social media project, Team Debo for Cystic Fibrosis; Four months later, I publicly proposed to her at the Tampa Great Strides Walk; And on our one-year anniversary of July 16th, we said our "I do"s on Anna Maria Beach, followed by a celebration with 110 of our closest friends and family, a pizza buffet and a brownie sundae bar instead of cake.

[Farrel] I had my dream guy and I had my dream wedding and best of all, I had them despite being told that I probably never would. Not much was known about Cystic Fibrosis when Zack and I were born except for the average life expectancy, which barely exceeded grade school. Our parents were warned that we would most likely never attend high school or beyond, never graduate, never have the opportunity to pursue a career and most certainly never get married or raise a family. So imagine the inexplicable joy and gratitude that surrounded us as we faced each other at the altar and exchanged our vows, realizing that not only one, but BOTH of us, were never expected to make it that far.

[Zack] God works in some crazy mysterious ways! And we know that He brought us together for so many reasons; One of them being our social media project, Team Debo for Cystic Fibrosis, and its mission to impact the CF community with the perfect combination of faith, food and fitness. The CFLF has played a huge role in bringing this project into fruition by not only awarding me the grant I mentioned above, but also a second grant for the purchase of equipment to build a garage gym in our new home. We're so excited to not only use the equipment to maintain our own health, but also to help educate the CF community through exercise training videos that are featured on our social media and website.

[Farrel] Whether it's Zack's videos, my recipes or the motivational and funny memes that we love sharing to connect with our followers, we genuinely enjoy striving to live our lives with CF in a way that will positively impact those around us. Thank you, CFLF, for your passion for helping others and for all of your continued support in turning our ideas into reality!

"And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." - Romans 8:28

                                                                      Help Others to Live Stronger and Longer!

                                                                               

 

 

Zack and Farrel DeBaltzo are Cystic Fibrosis newlyweds in Florida on a mission to change lives with faith, food and fitness. Zack, a personal CrossFit trainer and Farrel, a blogger and author in the making, live with their 13-year-old furbaby, Biscuit and enjoy beach days, road trips, church events and college football. They can be found on Facebook and Instagram at @teamdeboforcf and their website, full of workouts, recipes, motivational content and additional resources, will be available at the end of February.

 

 

To receive an e-mail notification and link to the new CFLF blog post each week please e-mail erin@cflf.org to be added to our list.

 

***Views expressed on the CFLF Blog are those of the bloggers themselves and not necessarily the Cystic Fibrosis Lifestyle Foundation***