Guest Essay #1

As I said a while back, I'd like to start a regular feature to spotlight the fitness achievements of others, so here is the first of many (I hope) installments of "Guest Essay"...This one comes from DeDe, a very nice gal I met on my Body for Life Women's Group...doesn't she look awesome?!? Way to go, DeDe! Very inspirational...

DeDe writes:

I started BFL after I watched a friend of mine, whom I’d seen struggle with her weight for many years, shed about 100 lbs and, more notably to me, keep it off for more than a year. I figured, if she could do it, then there’s no reason I couldn’t do it, too.

Unlike many people and against the advice of many health gurus, I didn’t really have a goal. I just wanted to get started. I’d been heavy my whole life so I didn’t even know what it meant to weigh 120 or even 140. I just knew I wanted to get slim. I started thinking about how life would be when I was thin… what I would be able to do, and how I would feel. I also had a little added incentive... I had just started at a new job and there was this man I had a total crush on. Each day on the treadmill or bicycle or stair-climber I would push myself to greater and greater intensities by fantasizing about how, once I got thin and fit and sexy, this man would not be able to resist me. Hey, whatever gets the job, eh?

It didn’t take long for my focus to switch from getting slim, to just continuing to feel great. It really is addictive.

The biggest hurdle for me was learning how to cook and prepare foods that a.) were fast and easy to prepare, b.) fit into my crazy schedule, and c.) were pleasing to my palette. The BFL website was good start, but then I found “The BodyArt Cookbook” by Tanya Mein. It really helped me think differently about how to prepare a week’s worth of meals in advance so that I could just grab and go. Since then, I’ve also discovered some other resources I now couldn’t live without: “Stella’s Kitchen” by Stella Juarez, and “Mrs. Bishwit’s Kitchen” by Joann Kabat.

This is my before and after... (see pic above)

I still have about 25 pounds and 14% bodyfat to go, but I feel great and know that this is definitely the life for me.

DeDe
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and don't forget to drop me a line if you want to participate in "Guest Essay"