An email to a friend

I had a friend I grew up with that knew me when I was "fat" email me about a month ago asking me HOW to get motivated to to change her lifestyle and what I did to change mine so drastically and here is my reply:

Dear ______________________,

First off, the best thing you are doing right now is having a desire to change. That's the first step. There needs to be a strong desire. Growing up very over-weight, my highest weight tipping the scales at almost 250, I would cry about my weight and be so unhappy over it, yet, I never really had the desire to change.

Til one day, when I was 20 years old, something inside of me just snapped. I could not take it any longer and I got on my knees and asked God for help to make a drastic change in my lifestyle. I didn't want to go on a diet, I wanted a whole new life-style. From that day on, I have been on track. It had to come from somewhere deep down inside of me. My desire never was to be a size 2. I just wanted to be healthy and happy.

Where does a girl who hardly exercised a day in her life and lived off of fast food begin? Well, I started by doing a lot of research and found a friend to do it with me (my dad). Here is what I learned and has worked for me.

-Write down every single thing you put in your mouth. EVERYTHING! Even if it is a teaspoon of whatever. Write it down! Those calories add up.

-For me, I went on a 1200 calorie a day diet. Sounds restrictive I know. And the first few days were really really tough. But you can eat a lot with 1200 calories. Fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains and lean protein are what my diet consisted of. If I wanted a "treat" it was a very small portion (often times just a bite of dessert, just to have a taste)

-Self-control & self motivation is so important in changing your life-style. It is so easy to give up and go eat a box of donuts. But I always told myself "Nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels". I live by that motto now.

-Exercise, exercise, exercise! I am not talking running a marathon. When I first started changing my life 5 years ago, I would only be able to make it on an elliptical machine for 2 minutes at a time before I felt like passing out. So i would go 2 minutes, stop a minute to rest, go another 2 minutes, stop a minute... until I reached 30 minutes of good heart pumping exercise. It gets easier and the weight comes off and I have basically CURED my asthma now. I rarely rarely use an inhaler, where I was using it almost everyday before.

-Once you get on the scale and see results, you become more and more motivated to work harder to keep it coming off.

-You will reach a plateau at some point. Everyone does. For me I have been battling that for the past few years. Even marathon training wasn't helping as much as I thought it would. NEVER EVER give up. If the weight doesn't come off, do not go back to your old "life". If nothing else, you are keeping your body healthy and you will feel better after eating right and exercising.

-Reward yourself. For me, the greatest reward was new clothes because my other clothes were falling off of me and it was a need to get some new ones. Even if the reward is something as small as a new pair of earrings after losing 10 lbs-- do it! Make yourself feel special for working so hard to make such an important change!

This truly does work. I am down 85 pounds now and have never felt better. I still struggle from time to time but I am ten times happier. I truly believe that one of the hardest things in life is conquering yourself. We are our own worst enemies and constantly have to fight the battle to over-come self doubt and fear. Start with small changes if you need to and gradually increase. Ask for help when you need help. Just do not give up! Our bodies are capable of so much- we just have to convince ourselves of that!

Good luck & keep the faith,

Cami