One year ago today, Bob Harper found out how precious life can be. In fact, he almost lost his.
In February 2017, the "Biggest Loser" star revealed he had suffered a heart attack while he was working out at his gym in New York City. A doctor happened to be working out at that time in the gym, as well, and administered CPR, using paddles to keep Bob alive.
If you think that day would keep him down, well, you don't know Bob Harper.
On Feb. 12, he was headed to the gym to do one of the more meaningful workouts of this life.
"One year ago today I had a near fatal heart attack. I've been given a second chance and I am not taking it for granted," he said on Instagram. "I am about to go to @bricknewyork and do the workout that I did THAT DAY. It will definitely be at a different intensity."
"Today is my anniversary. It's a really weird anniversary, if you want to know the truth," he said in the video, listing off emotions that he feels. "I'm the luckiest man in the world. I survived a widowmaker heart attack."
He now wants to be a beacon of hope of other survivors.
"I realize I'm part of a club—the heart attack survivors club—and it's never a club you want to be in but once you're in, you find that there are other people just like you that are in need of guidance, in need of support," Bob told E! News. "I want to be able to inspire people."
Since his heart attack, Bob has changed many elements of his life, including his workouts and his diet. Last summer he reveled he'd gone vegetarian.
He's still trying to figure out where he fits into the world post-attack.
"After my heart attack, I really went through a complete identity crisis just having to figure out what life would be like after my heart attack, what all of that looked like," he said. "With the help of my cardiac rehab, with the help of my doctors, with the help of my friends and family, I was able to get through that."
Bob added, "It was really difficult to kind of figure out me, the fitness guy, how everything had changed after that."
These days, Bob is still taking care of his body physically, but his workouts are now less Crossfit-heavy. He does a lot of yoga and boxing.
He also not determined to get back on TV either, choosing to focus more on himself. And really, he doesn't care if people agree with the route he's taking.
"I don't want to stress the big things or the little things anymore," he explained to us. "There's always going to be a critic out there. There's going to be a critic that tells me you need to be completely vegan or whatever the case may be and I'm doing the best that I can. The only people that I'm really going to listen to are my doctors."
As for Feb. 12, he told E!, "I don't find myself wanting to celebrate that day but it will be a day of reflection and a day of gratitude because it was a day that I got a second chance at life. When I say it like that, maybe there is cause for a celebration."