New Beginning

Hello M.M.,

Today is May 11, 2009 and I have taken my first final to end off my sophomore year. I'm very excited to be finally accomplishing something in college. These past two years have been rough for me health-wise;school work was never a challenge for me until I hit college so with all of these obstacles my school work has suffered but we will get into that another time. Right now I would like to talk about my transformation. I have been a tom-boy since around the 3rd grade .I had a traumatic experience when I was wearing a dress another third grader looked up it lol, from that day I swore to myself I would never wear girly clothing again. I got over that but when I got around 12 I started gaining weight and I used the baggy non appealing look to draw attention away from myself. My confidence as far as my looks suffered tremendously and I was convince I would end up and old woman with 26cats and a turtle. I played basketball in highschool and that kept me in shape but still on the thicker side. My last year of highschool I couldn't play ball because of an injury and by the time i started college my weight had gone from the 160's to the high 180's. I have since lost all of that weight and now weigh around 130. I hate when people say you shouldn't focus on stuff like that to make you happy but your body is your temple and it is important to take responsibility for its up keeping. If you wanna live a long happy life it does first start from the inside because you must have the motivation and drive to keep yourself health but it takes your physical body to put these thoughts into action. When you look good you feel good, although thats not a good mind set to have, we can not ignore human nature. My papa always says " I want all my children to out live me but you cant do that if you dont take care of yourself" and thats what im trying to do now. My diet is not a strict one but I eat 5-6 times a day and drink plenty of water. For my main meals I only have lean meats and vegetables and in between meals may consist of yogurt or a pbj sandwich.

But here are the before and after pictures:

Before: Before: After:


If you don't like something about yourself, do something to change it and learn to love yourself in the process.

Signed.

L.P. Barnes