All of my life I have been surrounded by beautiful skinny people, my mom, my brother, all of my sisters, my uncle and just about every friend I grew up with. It has been a struggle to be less perfect than these people. To top it off some of the people have managed to have even more qualities that I have never had and makes me feel even less perfect than before. For instance one of my sisters has the singing voice of an angel, and my other sisters have college educations and even a wonderful career. I can’t sing a lick, I have no college education, all I did was graduate high school, and my career is raising my child. Now I know no one is perfect and just because someone is skinny does not make them any more beautiful than I am, but in todays world skinny is beautiful and even the smallest of flaws are talked about by people just to make them feel better about themselves.

You can’t turn your computer on without seeing ads about being skinny, or open a magazine without reading about someone who lost so much weight in so many weeks. There are so many sites giving you tips on how to lose weight, telling you things you’re doing wrong, and tons of sites showing “the perfect workouts” to get that hot beach body. It sometimes is overwhelming and makes you feel worse because there are so many contradicting sites telling you yes this will work and then you go to another one and they say no dont do that it won’t work. How is a person supposed to know what to do and what not to do!?!?! I personally like to browse some of these sites just to see if they do have any tips that I could work into my weightloss journey. I will say about 90 percent of the time there is nothing that I take from these sites because it’s either a variation or what I’m already doing or it’s things that I don’t feel the need to do. If I were to eat the way the internet tells me to and do all of the exercises it tells me i should do, I would be vegan and very very exhausted from doing 99 of this and 99 of that and running and 50 of blah blah and thats not even half the exercise! I may not do much during my days and yes I would probably have time to do these very long, exhausting exercises but I wouldn’t enjoy myself while doing them and I wouldn’t stick to them. I like the workouts I do, I enjoy them and look forward to doing them. That’s one reason why I have stuck to it for 5 weeks now!

My oldest neice, Harmony, is turning 8 on Saturday and her parents are throwing her a suprise birthday party, in which there will be cake… some people would be scared of this if they were trying to lose weight but not me. I have never been one to eat many sweets, they make my teeth hurt really bad so I limit what sweets I have. My main problem is over eating, always has been! Kelley and I had a great day yesterday, we played outside most of the day. It felt wonderful for it to be so early in the year! She had fun playing in her battery operated car until it died lol. We brought it inside since it rained last night and she has been playing on it all day in the livingroom haha! My day has been spent cleaning jelly off of everything… I gave Kelley jelly pancakes for breakfast since we are out of syrup and after i cleaned her table up and gave her a bath to get the jelly off of her entire body I have been finding jelly and sticky spots on everything I touch it seems! I think she was trying to paint the house with the jelly! I did my weigh in this morning and have not lost anymore weight… but the good thing is I haven’t gained any either! I guess thats all for today, I think I may take a nap :)

Weight on 12/27/2011 – 222 pounds

Weight on 2/1/2012 – 214 pounds

8 Pounds down since I started :)

By Felix Hamel:

Below I have outlined my current workout; I like to workout early in the week so I can enjoy time off on the weekend but a good rest schedule is almost as important as the training schedule. Most people will prefer taking a rest day halfway through the week.
Monday: Chest and triceps workout with 30 minutes of cardio
Tuesday: Leg workout with 30 minutes cardio
Wednesday: Back and bicep workout with 30 minutes of cardio
Thursday: Shoulder workout with 30 minutes of cardio
Friday: Rest or cardio
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest or cardio

Cardio will usually consist of treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike but any type of cardio will offer results, the most important thing is to be able to consistently do cardio and switch up the routine if it starts getting boring.

Nutrition plays the most important role in a weight loss regiment, but it also needs to be addressed with realistic goals. Eating healthy all the time is impossible, so trying to eat healthy most of the time is crucial. I never give up a night of drinking or a good meal a few times a week but I will always try to counter balance this by eating healthy for the rest of the week. What works for me is trying to eat healthy during the week which is made easier by following the same steps every week. First, it is absolutely essential to begin the day with a good breakfast with lots of protein; this will help to keep a feeling of fullness throughout the day. My breakfast usually consists of egg whites, some fruit, a glass of milk and whole wheat tortilla. For the rest of the day I will eat several smaller meals such as chicken with vegetables. I also try to snack on fruits throughout the day and add in a protein shake after a workout. For dinner, I will often make chicken wraps with whole wheat tortilla or a stir fry with a glass of milk and fruit. Eating many smaller meals also helps keeping the stomach satisfied without having to eat large portions and will help resist cravings for unhealthy items.

Losing weight requires a lot of dedication and cannot be accomplished overnight, but I have managed to change my lifestyle without giving up things I love altogether and by making smart decisions. It is possible for anyone to get great results by following these principles, I am far from being an elite athlete or expert nutritionist but applying these techniques to a regular lifestyle can shed pounds without having to make any extreme sacrifices.