Vying for Ms. Health and Fitness
Owner of Happy Thoughts Fitness would use money to save business
LANCASTER — Small business owner Jesica Abraguin needs your vote to help save her business.
She is in the semi-finals of the Ms. Health and Fitness competition.
The winner will receive a $20,000 check and appear on the cover of Muscle & Fitness Hers magazine. Abraguin made it to the top 64 semi-finalists out of more than 19,000 candidates from across the United States.
The semi-finalists are in eight groups with eight candidates, each. One winner from each group will move on to the finals. As of Monday, she was in sixth place in her group.
“I need to be first by this Thursday in order to advance,” Abraguin said.
Voting for the final eight candidates ends at 8 p.m. PDT Thursday. There is one free daily vote via Facebook. You can also purchase a “Warrior Vote” benefiting the Homes for Wounded Warriors
Foundation. One dollar equals one vote. There is a $10 minimum.
“Right now I need as many votes as possible,” she said. “I need as many people to vote as possible. This could really change my life and help me recover the gym and everything it’s lost.”
She owns Happy Thoughts Fitness on 6th Street West in Lancaster. If she wins, she will use the money to help save
her business. She has been closed since March because of the ongoing pandemic.
Abraguin had to sell quite a bit of her equipment already. She cannot set up her business outside because it is too hot, plus smoke from the Bobcat Fire burning in the Angeles National Forest and others makes the air unhealthy.
An Abraguin victory could also help raise the Antelope Valley’s wellness and fitness profile.
“It’s something we’re not known for; it’s something we don’t really have here,” she said.
The Antelope Valley has one of the highest obesity rates in Los Angeles County, according to the LA County Department of Public Health.
“You have me, a small business owner, trying to fix that on a small scale,” Abraguin said.
She opened Happy Thoughts Fitness in 2015 and expanded and doubled the gym’s size in 2018. She will be forced to downsize the business starting next week because of the ongoing pandemic.
“I can’t keep paying for double the size when I can’t even get people in here,” Abraguin said.
Happy Thoughts is a lifestyle.
“It’s a way of thinking, a way of getting through things,” she said. “When you’re hurting, when you’re suffering, when you’re in pain and you don’t want to do something, you’ve got to change your attitude, you’ve got to change your mindset so that you can get through it.”
As a personal trainer, Abraguin puts her clients through challenging routines to help them achieve their fitness goals. However, if you can change your mindset for something as simple as a workout, then you can apply that to other areas in your life, she said.
Abraguin has been unable to get any help.
“We’ve been closed down for seven months,” she said. “I’m not getting any help. I’ve applied for everything that’s ever been out there that I could even get my hands on and I haven’t gotten anything. So it’s really difficult for staying open.”
To vote for Abraguin visit https://mshealthandfitness. com/2020/jesica-abraguin