Phit-N-Phat...Making Fitness and Weightloss a Lifestyle

Project Mammy: Making Over My Momma

I have officially decided my mom is a project that all of us can use. She's proven to me that this time IT IS FOR REAL. You see, I have seen her get a diet going many times only to fizzle out shortly afterward. Sound familiar? I think ALL OF US reading this blog have been there more times than we can count.

When she came to me early February "wanting my help" I was hesitant at best. That may sound crazy because she is my mom, but I have a very busy life and have learned to choose wisely where and how I spend the time I have. I'm not a butt; I'm just realistic that I can only drop my time where it can make an impact. I'd rather focus hard on a few things and succeed than to half-ass approach several things.

My approach with her was simple. I spent one hour at her house describing the absolute basics of losing weight while my son played and I rode her stationary bike! Here's what I said:

1. Read The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno. Choose most of your foods from what she says.
2. No fast food for two months. That is her trigger and she just can't have it without falling off the wagon.
3. Five meals a day. She's a one to two times a day eater. Six would blow her away but she can do three meals and two quick snacks.
4. Keep the menu simple. Don't worry about calories, macros, mixing proteins and carbs, or making the best choices. Just make a menu YOU KNOW you will stick to with foods YOU KNOW you will eat and enjoy.
5. Drink water.
6. Walk.

That's it. She sent me her first menu and it was filled with good foods that she likes. The menu may not absolutely perfect but it is LIVEABLE. As I said the other day, I'd rather you do it 90% of the time with a decent menu than to continually mess it up and binge.

Let's fast forward six weeks later:

• Mammy has lost 16 lbs in those six weeks just by changing her lifestyle.
• She had blood work done yesterday and we will compare her numbers the next time she goes to the doctor.
• She has walked her first 5K at a 22 min. pace.

Each week I will blog about what she's doing and we will interview her on thoughts and feelings. This is some email exchange we had this week.

From me...

I want to chronicle your story like I have been on the blog, but make it official. Regular stats, video, emails of menus, and all kinds of stuff. People have heard my story over and over again; I think it might be neat to see another weightloss story from a Boomer and someone who has a lifelong struggle with weight.

I know your first reaction is going to be yes, but really think about it. It wouldn’t be a total invasion of privacy (LOL), but I will want to feature what all is going on with you on a regular basis along with announcing we are doing it. Once we do that, THERE IS NO GOING BACK. I’m not saying you aren’t going to succeed; what I am saying is think about if it will be too much pressure and therefore lead to not succeeding.

From Mammy...

I’m going to succeed whether you do that or not.  My mind is made up.  I don’t want to die ten years from now or sooner.  I want to see Logan and Lexi grow up and hopefully give me some great grandchildren some day.  I think it’s a great idea.  So many people like me feel like it’s hopeless with all the health issues like Osteoarthritis, etc…I’d love to do it! 

I can handle pressure, I raised you and Joe didn’t I?  HEHEHHEHE!

Now I want to hear from you! What do you want to know about Mammy and her plan?

Corinne's Weight Loss Food Prep Video Lessons

After high demand and countless requests, I put together a video series of a typical food prep Sunday. Two things I like all my clients to do each week: plan your menu and exercise THEN prepare the food.

Trust me, if you HATE journaling the sure fire way to get out of it is to make one menu a week, prepare all of your food, and then eat it. Don't deviate. If you do that, you don't even have to worry about tracking. You already know your calories and have the FREEDOM to focus on your exercise.

My prep session took me about 4 hours. Not every week is my prep that long. This week I had to get together extra stuff like two weeks worth of snack bags for nap time. I also took about an hour break to eat some dinner and spend time with Chris and Logan. Throughout the prep I was able to get some laundry done, flipped through some piled up junk mail, and clean out old email with my laptop. I make use of all my time.

The other great thing about this session is that my total grocery bill was $149.00. Seriously! This covers all of our food, detergent, trash bags, etc. It's so much cheaper to eat healthy and do your own stuff.

Let's say you live like this:

• Three times a week your family eats out for dinner at $25. That's conservative for most people. We typically spend $30 including tip and drinks.
• You eat out for lunch each day spending around $5.
• Two days a week you stop and get coffee with a meal or pastry and spend $4.
• You eat out of the snack machine or convenience store once a day at $1.

You are up to $113 on the CONSERVATIVE side. Most of you are spending more than that and eating breakfast and snacks more frequently. One of my pet peeves is someone who has "no money" for a gym membership but all kinds of money for the snack machine.

$113! You haven't fed your kids and husband outside of three dinners! No snacks, no breakfast, no lunches, and four dinners are left. Eating healthy isn't expensive; it's a cheap lifestyle but like everything you have to do a little work for it.

For example, I don't buy much pre-portioned or bagged stuff. I can do it myself pretty fast. It saves a lot of money to buy a box of cereal, some raisins, and peanuts and bag it than to buy the already portioned trail mix. For about $10 I prep 14 bags of snacks. You can't buy the pre-done stuff at 14 HEARTY bags for $10. Plus, you catch stuff on sale or with a coupon and you are really in business.

My prep day this week included:

• Cutting up 3 containers of strawberries (on sale)
• Peeling and bagging Cuties (on sale)
• Bagging grab bags of baby carrots
• Boiling 10 eggs (5 for me and 5 for Chris)
• Crockpot Chicken Breast (on sale and I use low sugar BBQ sauce)
• Microwaving 10-4oz. servings of Sweet Potatoes and bagged them with 4oz of the BBQ chicken (great snack)
• Cooked asparagus, squash and zucchini, and bell pepper boats
• Prepped a large bowl of Cilantro, Red Onion Green Salad and a large container of plain green salad for Chris to take to work
• 7 Servings of Broccoli, Spinach, Onion Quinoa Salad for lunches
• Bagged 1/2 cup servings of Fiber One
• Bagged Logan's fruits and snacks PLUS cooked his chicken tenders for his lunch for the week
• Bagged 1 oz servings of almonds

I'm ready to go for the week, Chris has all his food at the office, and Logan's lunches are done. My mornings will be much easier getting out the door when I just pop bags of goodies into the coolers.

Now for the videos...

Food Prep Part One - yes, I'm rocking to Xanadu in this episode.

Food Prep Part Two

The Outcome - I progressively get more ragged looking. As always I'm keeping it real. No makeup, a hat to cover my tore up hair, and barely tidied up the kitchen.

My typical daily menu this week is:

2 Cuties before morning cardio

M1: ½ cup of oats, 1 hard boiled egg, yogurt, cup of strawberries

M2: 4oz chicken breast, 4oz sweet potato

M3: 1.5 cup Quinoa Salad, ½ serving almonds, mixed veggies

M4: Protein Shake, 4oz sweet potato

M5: 4oz chicken breast, grilled veggies

M6: Big Salad, Salmon, 1 tbsp Cheese

M7: Yogurt Smoothie, frozen fruit, ¼ cup of Fiber One

There you have it. A day in the prep day of Corinne.

Mammy's First 5K!

Woot woot for Mammy! She walked her first 5K today.

We woke up worried about the weather. It was raining and there was news of possible thunderstorms in the area. The temperature was right around 55-60 degrees so that was near perfect.

As we drove to the Runnin' To Beat the Blues 5K, there was a slight drizzle. By the time we got to our start line NO RAIN! As one of the ladies at the finish line said, "Looks like someone wanted to make sure you did this race today." Amen is all I got to say.

Mammy has come so far in the last five to six weeks. It's really inspiring to watch her make her menus, talk about walking, getting more active, and focusing on a healthy lifestyle.

She made a funny comment to me right before we started today. I could tell she was nervous and feeling a little bewildered. After all, she didn't know what to think as we watched people run 2-3 miles to warm-up for a 3 mile race. LOL.

My mom looked at me and said, "I just don't want you to be bored walking with me. It's going to take me a long time to finish and you aren't used to coming in last place." LOL. Last place? First, I told her that boring was when she called me and I got to listen to her watch TV and yell at her dog. THAT is boring. Second, I guess she hasn't read the blogs because only in the last year I quit being the last place girl in my age group. I've moved up to bottom third!

You can definitely tell she's my mom when she thinks I've been out here near smoking Kenyans or something. Anyway, I told her that it had nothing to do with where you place. It's being out there that counts. Then I recounted my nearly-famous statement...Last place is the girl sitting on her couch.

Here's a video of Mammy's First AND DEFINITELY NOT LAST 5K. And, the picture is her crossing the finish line. Hold onto that pride Mammy. Look at your face. You can see just how proud you are; you have come a long way and you are quickly going forward...one step at a time :) .

 

Four Ways to Stay Accountable with Your Eating

Several of my girls have creative ways to stay accountable with their eating. I tell you, the one part of losing weight you HAVE TO BE consistent with is knowing what is going into your mouth. If you don't have a record or a plan for what you are eating you are not going to lose weight...or you probably won't do it healthfully.

I'm going to list a few tips and I would love to hear things YOU do to make staying on a food plan easier.

When they see it, they believe it.
A new strategy PNP Girl April is trying is having her daily food plan right in front of her. As she eats her meals she crosses them off the list. She is only eating off this plan. This is a great tool to help you and those around you know how important your menu is.

Keep measuring tools in the box.
I have several girls, including myself, that keep the proper measuring tool in things like oats, cereal, etc. You often don't measure stuff because you don't have the tool in front of you.

Bag up your portions.
It's quite easy to cook all your meat on the weekend and then put in a big container. Wrong. Get out your Ziploc, measure, and bag. This way you have easy protein to eat all day, everyday for salads and wraps.

Online tools.
Our favorites are Sparkpeople.com and Weight Watchers Online. Both have easy journaling tools. Sparkpeople.com is free and is a great site with supports. Weight Watchers Online is cheap and has the famous points system for those who don't like counting calories.

Do you plan your family's meals? Do you make menus? Do you have tips and ways to make sticking to a food plan easy? If so, drop a comment and let us know what you do to get Phit-N-Phat.

A Child Sees Everything

I just saw this in an email from Sparkpeople.com (a site I recommend my girls use to track their food).

"According to a recent study by researchers at the University of Oxford, being overweight can take years off your life, and in some cases may be as dangerous as smoking.

Researchers determined those with a body-mass index (BMI) of more than 40 lost approximately 10 years off their life span—about the same amount of time you'll lose by smoking. Those with a BMI of 30 to 35 shaved about 3 years off their lives."

Wow. You know, for some reason, people know it's bad to smoke. I mean tell me the last person smoking said, "Hey, this ain't bad for me." Everyone knows it is and if you have kids you think, "I AM NOT going to smoke around my kids. It's bad enough I do it but they shouldn't." I'm sure most smokers also tell their kids they shouldn't smoke.

Think about how much smoking and obesity really have in common.

1. Both will kill you.

2. Both give you cancer.

3. Both are expensive. A dang coke is $1.25 these days and a value meal will set you back $5.

4. Both are filled with shame. Smokers are banned from society because their habit kills. Being overweight makes you so self-conscious as if you were lighting up in the middle of the room.

5. Both set a bad example for your kids. Think your kids don't notice you lay around instead of enjoy going outside to do things? Think their diet isn't going to be modeled right after your diet? Think your kids won't have a weight problem in their thirties? Let's say you were always thin as a kid and then as you got older you gained weight. Just because you children don't have a weight problem now doesn't mean that steady diet of Cocoa Puffs, Pop Tarts, and Nuggets won't catch up.

I want to share an inspirational story with you straight from one of my moderators. Dawn ran the Little Rock Marathon with me. Her story says it all in the type of message we should all be sending our friends, family, and especially our kids.

"...Also note that you DO NOT have to train and run a marathon to make an impact on your children or others around you.  Family and friends seeing you make good food choices and getting up off the couch and exercising is VERY POWERFUL!! They most likely don't comment to you on it BUT THEY SEE YOU DOING IT I PROMISE!

You won't believe this. 

On Monday after we got home Chloe said, "Mom, I made this for you." She handed me this thing she made out of paper. It has a strip up the side, across the top, and down the other side . In the center of it is a string connecting both sides.

She just handed it to me and didn't say anything more about it.  So, I put it on the fridge because I could tell she was really proud of it.

Well, yesterday on the ride home from my parents she said,

"Mom, how did you like your finish line?"

Tears came to my eyes immediately and I said, "That is what that was". She smiled and said, "I wanted you to remember your friends and your race".

WOW!!!!  I asked her if she had help with it at school and she said, "No". She said she remembered seeing what the finish line looked like so she made it out of some stuff the teachers had put out. 

WOW WOW WOW!! Can you believe this? 

I thought to myself it was already worth it but now it is REALLY WORTH IT!! Look at the impact I made on my daughter and how she was taking it all in and remembered it ALL.

THEN...(yes I have more to share).  My dearest Maggie (another PNP Moderator) sent me the sweetest note and the movie Sprit of the Marathon. YES, I started crying when I opened and read the note with that too.  This marathon is making me a cry baby. HA 

Anyway, Chloe asked what that movie was. I told her it was about people running a marathon. She said she wanted to watch it and it could show her what to do when she ran a race with Momma.

OH MY, this just makes my heart melt and makes those five months of training, mental blocks and breakthroughs truly worth it! I would do it all over again.

Dawn

It's the Execution Silly!

This week on my private subscriber site we've been discussing a very hot topic. I asked everyone a simple series of questions. Who would you like to look like? When you think about goal who is it that you want to resemble? What are you doing to get there and what are you doing to NOT get there?

This sparked a lot of immediate response. We've had Jaime Eason, Lisha Dean, Dara Torres, Scary Spice, Michelle Obama, and Denise Austin to name a few. Those are some pretty tight bodies on the most part ranging from fitness competitors, models, dancers, and an Olympian.

What really jumped out to me is that people often want to look one way and live their life completely different. It's great to have such wonderful and fit role models, but be realistic. They work HARD. They work HARD EVERY DAY EVERY MEAL. They are at goal and WORK HARD.

When you need to get to that goal you have to get your head in the game. You have to be willing to live, breathe, EAT, and WORK your goal. You have not EARNED your way into taking it easy. You are still working towards your goal.

The other thing that jumped out is a lot of the girls will ask me, "I workout hard and eat very well. If I would just not BLT or fall off on weekends and get in that last workout each week I would do great. BUT, do you think I should do XYZ?"
Then comes a laundry list of every type of workout scheme and eating pattern known to man.

Girls, it's not the plan if you aren't following the plan! You have to execute the plan.

Execute, execute, execute.

Before you ever think about doing something different, look at your journal for the week.

Did you get in all your workouts?

Did you workout with max intensity?

Did you make progress?

Did you eat like a figure competitor, fitness model, aerobics video queen, or olympian?

Heck, did you just avoid going out to eat, pizza, booze, BLT's, and the candy dish at work?

So, I did some reading and came across this information from Josh Hill. He has a great blog. Here's what he has to say about workouts and eating.

"...But I think a lot of people are doing the workouts and food at 50%, and envying and watching the people who are doing the workouts and food at 90-100%.

I grade food logs on 3 different levels:

Level One: Read Eat This, Not That.  Follow it 90% of the time.  Drink diet beverages instead of sugary beverages.

This gets you off the bench and into the game.  If this is a step up from where you are at now, you'll see results just from this.

Level Two: Cut out fast food, sugary junk food, and other processed junk food completely.  Eat protein with every meal.  Follow that 90% of the time.

Level 2 food + good workouts will be enough to get rid of the muffin top, flatten your stomach, and make you lean and hot enough that you'll be stoked about summertime coming and the clothes coming off.

Level Three: Read Eating Clean by Tosca Reno.  Eat just food you can get in the meat market, fish market, produce section (vegetables and fruit), brown rice, quinoa etc.  Eat small amounts of good fats like Fish Oil and Avocado.  Drink water, and only water.  Follow that 90% of the time.

This is where we start to get rockstar.  Combine Level 3 eating with really kick ass workouts and you can create a body that turns heads. 

Where Are You At?

If you find that you are at Level Three, but only 50% of the time... You'd actually be better off eating Level Two 90% of the time. Food is a game. I'd rather have you win the Level Two game than fail the Level Three game. The discipline of sticking to one of the games 90% of the time is the most important thing.

Your Current Habits Have Earned You the Body You've Got Now

If you're doing Level Two at 60-70%, that's great.  You're healthier, leaner, hotter and fitter off than most of America. But to get to the next level, you're going to have to take it up a notch. Try going from Level Two 60-70% to Level Two 80%.   (PNP GIRLS USE THE COMPLIANCY WORKSHEET FROM THE SITE!!!!)

It's not that big a jump.  It's a small jump.  But it will add up to better results every week. The trick is, to commit yourself to it - body and soul. Say you are going to do it, say what level, and say what percentage of the time.

Which ever level you are at - get a good grade.  Seriously, you'll get better results sticking to Level One for real than half-assing Level Two or Three."

What Motivates YOU to be HEALTHY and FIT?

Today I have spent 90% of my time talking about motivation. So many people want motivation to do better, to make a change, to have the lightbulb come on, etc. They look all around them for motivation and spend countless hours and time trying to muster up the desire to do better.

When I started my journey to finally lose 110lbs., it was my son that motivated me. I wanted a different life for him. Thankfully I did because my healthy life helped him with his autism.

(Please see our blog for info on a special April fundraiser we are doing for Autism Awareness Month.)  

Let me share a quote with you by Jim Ryun...

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

Motivation isn't what gets you to your goals. Motivations like my blog, a picture of someone with a great body, a story of achievement, those are things that plant the seed you need to change.

What gets you there is your HABITS. If you are serious about losing weight and fitness, you would have done these things this weekend:

1. You planned your workouts this week based on your schedule. You don't expect life to be less busy so you made sure to find time to do your exercise so YOU CAN LOSE WEIGHT.

2. You have a menu in place for the week. People who just grab and go all week aren't serious about what they are doing in terms of their body.

3. You cooked up rice, lean proteins, and veggies, and your fridge is stocked with prepped fruits and such. Yep, if you don't have REAL food ready to go you aren't going to be healthy and fit.

4. You don't intend on eating out this week unless it is an unavoidable commitment.

5. You are setting goals that keep you on track: races, smaller pants, scale weight, or measurements.

Yes girls, habits are what built my body and changed my life. Not a picture of someone. Not sitting around hoping to be inspired. And definitely not going through the week hoping things all work out for the best.

Now, find something that motivates you and THEN BUILD SOME HABITS TO GET THERE.

Another Big Change for Mammy

My mom is doing so good! She's even wondering now what and when I will blog about her. LOL.

She's not a weigher or measurer so we don't have numbers to share. I can tell you this though, her pants are getting SILLY big, she's eating healthier than she has in a long, long time, and drum roll please...

WE ARE GOING TO WALK HER FIRST 5K NEXT SATURDAY!

My mom has a long history of terrible arthritis in several joints on her body, lupus (the external version), and last year had double knee replacements. All of this led to weight gain because she couldn't move comfortably and she can't be outside much without a load of sunscreen, a hat, and long sleeves.

I hope to get some pictures and maybe a little video of it, too, and then share it with all of you.

This week Mammy made a really good tenderloin. Here's her recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Rub:

1 tsp dry sage

1 tsp  dry thyme

1 tsp dry rosemary

coarse black pepper

Coarse salt to taste

Mix the herbs together.

Take out your tenderloin and rub all sides with the herb mixture.  Cook 30-40 minutes, uncovered, in shallow baking dish.  Take out of the oven and cover with foil.  Let rest for 10 minutes. Slice it up and serve.

This week my mom is always branching out and having weekly variety. She's taken her whole week and placed all of the different items on each day - preplanned what she will eat. We've built the habit of eating clean consistently, gotten used to prepping and portioning, and now she's appreciating how cheap and easy it really is to eat healthy.

A lot of people give up after a couple of weeks because they think it's hard. Well, duh! It is HARD at first just like anything else. Once you get past stocking the basics, learn a few recipes, and get your body detoxed of your processed crap suddenly it's doable. The problem is most people never give it a chance to work.

I tell you, give it a solid 3-4 weeks and you will not be disappointed. You'll drop weight, feel better, have more energy, and learn how to cut pennies fast. Amazingly, you'll discover how much money you were dumping in restaurants and machines when you stop.

Here's her menu for this week:

Breakfast
Egg white scramble
Cream of rice with 1 slice 2% cheese
1 Slice of pork tenderloin
Coffee

Snack
Dry roasted Peanuts
carrots

Lunch - Option 1
Shrimp stir fry with onion, broccoli, peppers
Brown Rice

Lunch - Option 2
Strawberries
Shredded wheat
Skim milk

Snack - Option 1
Homemade Chicken salad
Mixed with broccoli slaw
banana

Snack - Option 2
Peanut butter
Slice of WW bread
banana

Dinner
BBQ Pork
Hot Slaw
Gumbo for my veggies
Strawberry soup for dessert

OR

Chicken Gumbo
Mini Saltines
Strawberry soup for dessert

OR

Tenderloin
Brown Rice
Milk

Celebrating PNP Style

Chris and I went out for St. Patrick's Day and shot a funny little video where I discussed several topics in the car.

• Overcompensating for being fat
• Fitness has made a big impact on my life
• Accomplishment feels so good

Overcompensating
Recently I was featured in FIRST magazine for women where I talked about overcompensation in the bedroom. Actually the article was a lot about our sex life post weightloss, but when the writer interviewed me we focused somewhat on the idea that overweight women have a need to please to "make up" for the fact they are large.

I went through this a lot back in the day. I would eat extra with my grandparents because they worked so hard to make things I loved. When I went out with girlfriends I felt the need to eat and drink what everyone was doing versus what I wanted for fear my personality and charm wasn't enough. The list goes on and on of the ways I would live in excess.

If any of this sounds like you, stop and examine your life, your family, and friends. You need to realize this isn't "your life". This isn't even living normal. This is you walking, eating, and talking an imaginary game. Don't you think it's about time you start living "your life" the way you want to?

Fitness Impact
Some days I take for granted how fit I am. I still see the fat Corinne in the mirror way more often than I should because I see the loose skin just hanging out on my legs. Seeing this fat Corinne makes me think I AM her. Believe me, the old Corinne only ran to the grocery store, the bathroom, or to the car when it was raining. The only marathons were called "Real World" on MTV.

Ya'll probably get tired of the belly aching but it can be defeating to work so hard and know you aren't going to wear skirts, shorts, and such because the legs are as good as they will ever get. The difference these days is that I am owning it more. I've noticed lately it's not bothering me as much. I'm not as self-conscious of it around Chris (which is the only person who matters anyway), I sort of accepted it for what it is, and in my gut if I had to choose between loose skin and being able to lift heavy, run a marathon, and have kicking arms - I'll take the loose skin over my 100lb fat suit.

After all, I can hide my thighs in some killer jeans but I can't hide trying to squeeze into an airline seat without needing the extender. Yep, been there before.

Accomplishment
Girls, I know for me a key to my weightloss has been accomplishment. We all want to feel good about ourselves. Racing has been it. It has been one of those things that got me to the next step in my development. Each time I do some kind of event I change a little. When I competed in Figure I built a muscle structure that I am still proud of today.

You don't have to run but I would encourage most of you to find a way that you can push yourself beyond what you "think" you can do. When you go past that point it opens up doors for you that you never thought were possible.

What I Learned About Me Through the Marathon Journey

I still can't believe I have done this. All day I have put together video, blogged, journaled, thanked, etc. It's funny how you want it to end so bad and then you are shocked it went by so fast.

So many lessons about the person I am today came out of this journey.

I never once thought I couldn't run it.
The 250lb. Corinne was full of doubt. She rarely tried anything because she expected to fail.

Now, I do things with the expectation I can do it and if I don't it's better to go down fighting that to never fight at all.

Just take my weightloss journey as an example of how many failures led to today's success.

• I made plenty of mistakes with my eating. Yep, I didn't always eat clean but I did try to eat better.
• I had moments of fast food, ice cream, too much peanut butter, and days where I didn't care what I put in my mouth.
• I did workouts I look back now and think how did I lose weight doing that.

The reason I am here has nothing to do with me being perfect, but it has EVERYTHING to do with looking at the failures and figuring out what I knew I could do better.

• Maybe I wasn't ready to give up fast food but I could damn well eat at Subway versus McDonalds.
• Days that I wanted to eat ice cream I wasn't ready to cut it out but one or YES TWO cones from Mc Donald's was a hell of a lot better than a Cheesecake Blizzard. Yep, I have driven to two different Micky D's in the past when the first cone didn't do it. 

Is that perfect? No way. It's better than what is was and now a days I don't even want that stuff when I'm stressed. It just took a lot of stopping, thinking, tweaking, compromising, and focusing on what I wanted.

I am SO LUCKY to be healthy and able to do these things.
Yesterday I caught myself just smiling and giggling while driving home. Chris said, "What are you laughing about?" I simply said, "I am so proud of myself."

I am not the type of person who likes to focus on what they do right. FGT still gets me constantly. Even though I put out a lot of positivity on the web, in person you see the Corinne who still feels like the fat girl, the girl who is the slowest, last picked, and the girl that people see as sloppy and unfit.

But, I tell you, yesterday in the car I FELT the pride for real. I thought about all the things I do. I may not "look" like an athlete, I may not be fast and have natural ability, but I have done so much that most people won't try. I give my all and I am never ever going to sit on the sidelines because of what anyone might think. It just amazes me to know I have done a marathon, competed in a figure competition, and done triathlons. How many people can say that? Not many and I hope to inspire many other girls to do one or all these things.

If I can do it ANYONE CAN.
Please, never doubt yourself. Just don't. Quit blaming, looking for excuses to fail, giving power to your struggles and whatever it is you do to deny yourself dreams. If you catch yourself seeing the negative, think of what is positive too. I can't promise you can turn off the negative, BUT I CAN PROMISE if you give yourself the chance to think of the positives you will be more likely to succeed. You won't get weighed down by the bad.

I LIVED a life of dreaming of being thin and expecting to fail. Please learn from me and realize that you don't have to do this. I AM the model of what a fat girl thinks and lives. I WAS that girl. Read my story and please look at all the great things I do now and make your life as special as mine is.