Master Motivation!

Hey Taralynn! I have been thinking about writing you for a while now. I know you probably get this all the time but i just wanted to thank you for being such an inspiration to me! This is my senior year in high school and until last summer I was gaining weight every year and it really started hurting my self esteem. Well, I decided it was time for a change and in May I found your blog. I used a lot of your ideas for recipes, and I told myself i was an athletic person. Every day after or before work i went to the gym no matter how tired I was. I stopped eating Ice cream and for desert all the time and instead I had frozen yogurt once in a while. By the end of the summer i went from 155lbs to 130lbs and now I am staying around 125-128 which is perfect for me. It feels so good to try on clothes at the mall and thinking “wow i look really good!”. Well it changed me so much i decided to write my college essay about it! I just thought i should show you, Its titled “Twenty Five to Life”.

The sound of the metal spoon sliding across my teeth was harmonious with the studio audience’s laughter on the rerun of Full House. I finished dessert just in time for my Dad to tell me he printed the pictures from my junior prom. As the remnants of melted vanilla slop circled the kitchen drain, I reminisced. I expected to see my fond memories of prom mirrored in the pictures. To my parents, my boyfriend, or any stranger, my pictures looked unmarred. My hair was cooperating and my smile was real, but still I couldn’t believe I was looking at a picture of myself.

They say the camera adds ten pounds, but this time the pounds were real. I overlooked the fact that I needed to buy bigger pants every year since eighth grade. My brain attributed the annual ten pound weight gain to me being a ‘healthy growing girl’, but honestly, the only thing growing was my waist. The future irked me. I knew I was not in danger of obesity, but if I continued on this path what would I look like in five years? Ten years? Every diet I tried failed after a week, every effort I put forth would crumble at an offer of an ice cream cone. My long-avoided disregard for my body caught up with me, and I realized it was now or never. At first, I was weak. I was convinced that the sole solution was having somebody with me at all times to pry the sweets out of my desperate hands, and force me to eat vegetables.

Then reality hit. There was no way I could find someone to be my personal food police, chastising me at every waking hour of my life. Changing my lifestyle was something I needed to do on my own. I set my goal high; lose twenty pounds by my seventeenth birthday. My family pledged their help, but continued to buy unhealthy snacks and offer me cookies and cake. The internet was my savior. By learning how to make healthy delicious snacks out of food I already had, seeing pictures of other teenagers who lost weight, and reading their success stories, my inspiration tripled and my resources were limitless. By switching from regular soda to diet and substituting greek yogurt for ice cream, I improved my eating habits. I started taking walks, and wrote a promise which I taped to the wall to remind myself of my commitment. The pounds fell off.

This year, I bought new pants again, this time in a smaller size. Now I can take a three mile walk and come back energized rather than exhausted. I know more ways to eat eggs than I ever thought possible. Who knew twenty five pounds could inspire my friends, turn my life around, and prove that I am capable of doing anything I put my mind to? I lost twenty five pounds, but I gained twenty five reasons to keep living a healthy life.

I attached the prom picture I was looking at to this email and a picture of what I look like now, I follow you on tumblr and twitter and I am always interested in seeing the new things you post. Im am so proud of myself and I don’t know If i ever would have been so successful without your words of wisdom. Soooo thankyou!

With care,

Nicole Robitaille

@robivennas

Finding support from family and friends can be the most important step in living a healthier life! Read how these four girls worked together reach their goals! They are truly fabulous and inspiring!

Hey Taralynn,
I’v been meaning to email you for a while now but just haven’t had the time to get around it. But I think it is super important my friends and I tell you our story and how much you have been a huge influence to our weight loss journey. So here I go.
There’s 4 of us. In the picture of 4 girls wearing pink, navy blue, black and striped black, from left to right, starting with the Pink is me (leneath), Sheena, Jillian and Molly. We are all around the same age; 18 and 19. We all have been friends for 5 years or so, some for more than others with each other (i hope you get that). We all attended the same high school and were very very active. Molly was a swimmer for years, she quit at the end of grade 11, Jill, Sheena and I all played High school sports and was on the same team for both volleyball and basketball. We come from a small small town, Whitehorse, Yukon. Near Alaska, Its very Unknown. So our competitiveness and talent in most sports lack, don’t get me wrong ppl from here have left and have done great things with athletics but for the 4 of us, high school was our glory days. Molly won ton of metals, Sheena was a basketball All star, Jill and I traveled to play volleyball and In our Senior Year, Sheena, Jill and I won Champs of the season. So I hope your getting the fact that we were active adolescence. Some of us, maybe just Jill and myself always wanted to lose more weight, we both weren’t the skinniest children but it wasn’t a huge worry back then.
We graduated in 2010, All together! We all went our separate ways and left the Yukon for bigger better things, which was University/Collage. I went to Vancouver Island, Molly went there too but 2 hours away in another town and Sheena and Jill moved to Lethbridge. As we all now fist year students are known to bring back the Freshmen 15 when everyone reunites around Christmas. I think for the most part we all brought that back home during Christmas (the photo of 4 of us and a boy in the middle, our other best friend was taken during that time). We drank too much in school, molly was on a meal plan and didn’t have the luxury of cooking her own meals, I stopped exercising and playing volleyball and drank way too much, Jill and Sheena partied! It all got to us! We didnt realize how much weight we all gained till the 1st year ended. I went from 120lbs in high school to 144lbs all fat. Jill was over 200 and Sheena was over 150. Its hard coming out of high school being active, healthy weight teenagers, to gaining all over 20lbs in 6 months.
When we came back at the end of our first semester all of us had the same goal. To lose weight and live a healthy life style. We all went to the gym together to begin our weight loss journey. Then we started eating healthy, after that we started tracking our food and calories. That is when we found you. Jillian and I logged our food in MyFitness Pal. It was a great site for us, not only could we log our food but also read blogs and other peoples stories and what inspired them. One day at work i was reading this one girls profile who lost the same amount of weight I wanted to lose and on her profile said This was my biggest inspiration! I clicked on the link and popped up your tumblr. Your story inspired me! I showed the girls the next day and instantly they were inspired. We started reading your blog in more detail. We all tried your recipes. We would have girls night where we would cook your desserts or make your drinks. We would go to parties keeping your ideas in mind (tea and diet coke), we would have dinners and we would all bring in one of your recipes (we had a Justin Bieber movie night and Jill and I brought your fruit Sundays as dessert and we had turkey sliders and fruit kabobs). Your blog kept us motivated to keep losing weight and to live a healthy life style. By the end of the summer the 4 of us completed half marathons, a relay marathon (the picture of molly, Jill, tom and I in running gear is the relay) and have lost over 70 lbs all together and we still keep going. We would like to say if it wasn’t for you our weight loss and eating healthy would of been a huge struggle. We wouldn’t of been inspired nor motivated! You helped us lose the weight and more importantly starting living a HEALTHY, HAPPY BEAUTIFUL life style! You really helped us steer our healthy living in the right direction.
Your a TRUE TRUE Inspiration!
P.S Your Beautiful! and Congratulations on all your life accomplishments!

Attached we have pictures of us.

The first one is one of all four of us when we first got back from University, Begging of Summer 2011. From Left to Right, starting with me in the pink: Leneath (144lbs), Sheena (157 lbs), Jillian (197 lbs ) and Molly (155 lbs).

The next couple are of us in high school. The second one where we all look rough and are with a bunch of other ppl (besties7) was a few month before graduation and Jill, Molly and I travelled to the Dominican Republic. The third one is Sheena, Jill and I at a Volleyball tournament during Halloween. The 4th one is our team :)

The next one is Christmas time, Were we gained all almost 15lbs each minus tom, the boy in the middle.

These last ones are of us after our relay marathon, after losing over 70 lbs together and feeling good and getting all prettied up :)
Anyways You are the best and Thank you!!!!

Celebrate

If youve reached a goal or have lost weight, go out and celebrate. By a new outfit or something you like. You deserve it!

Display your “I want to wear” clothes

Buy clothes you want to see ourself in! If you buy a smaller size your goal may be easier to reach if you try it on everyday!

Sign a Contract with Yourself

Write yourself a long letter of all your goals and how you are going to go about achieving them. Write reward ideas and consequences. Hang it up somewhere you look the most.