A place to watch me melt away :)
***Please!!! If you're here, stop by and sign my Guest Book! I'd love to hear from you!****
A quick note for everyone: Thank you SO much for the comments you've left. You have no idea how they make my heart smile. I love to hear that people are making changes and doing positive things for themselves. We're WORTH IT, you guys. We *really* are!! KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON!!!
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Hello. My name is Brook. I'm a newly wed 34 year old mother of 3 kids aged 16, 11, and 7 and new stepmom to an 8 year old as well. We make our home in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is my weight loss journey and story. It's full of ups and downs as well as some failures and lots of successes!
I had put on 19lbs between May 2006 and September 2007 and started a 3rd picture diary to document taking it off. Well.....IT'S OFF- AND THEN SOME!!! 
I haven't hit 139lbs yet, but I will 
Maintaining the loss has really become much easier for me and that's great news.
UPDATE
I've been working really hard for the last couple of months towards certifying as a Jazzercise instructor!! Please, cross your fingers. My testing and audition are on April 10-12th!! I'll update this page with pictures and probably a face lift after I certify.
I started the Atkins way of eating ("diets" are the way that we eat- not a weight loss endeavor! "Diets" don't work!) and became a non-smoker on May 4th, 2002. I'm 5 foot 5.5 inches tall and my highest weight was 244lbs, but the day I started this way of eating and stopped smoking I weighed in at 229lbs and wore a size 22. I started this web page then to mark my progress and to use as a picture diary of sorts. I reached my goal of 81lbs removed in June 2004. Yep. Just over 2 years. At 149lbs I called goal wearing a size 6 dress and size 8/10 pants. It was incredible!
I wrote an essay during that time that I called "No Excuses", and it was my truth and my reality while I removed the weight from my body and got myself in shape. I also wrote a page called Random Thoughts that is full of exactly that - random thoughts- about weight loss, exercise, and I included some of my favorite inspirational quotes. Please, if you're here, take the time to read through them. Hopefully you'll find something that grabs you!
Thanks for sticking with me this far, everyone. The support the online community has given me has been humbling to say the very least.
Peace, love and light.
~Brook
My favorite Atkins Support chat/boards are : 
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| This was taken 8/11/07. I've been avoiding cameras again, so this is my "before". 168.8lbs |
Taken 10/06/07. It's going slow but it's going. This is me at 160.2lbs |
Taken 11/07/07. GOAL!!!!!!! It all whooshed right off! 149.4lbs! |
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| Here I am at 169.4lbs on August 14th, 2005. | August 20th, 2005 164.4lbs |
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| October 18th, 2005 163.4lbs | GOAL!!! December 6, 2005 149.6lbs Size 6 dress/Size 8 pants (hehehe-The leathers are now baggy!!) |
I maintained my weight loss from June 2004 until March of 2005. At that time, I guess you could say the "ship hit the sand" in a lot of different areas of my life. I put on 20lbs and started smoking again. Ugh. It's amazing how life can really bite us in the butt sometimes. It's entirely too easy to get derailed, and although I swore it would never happen to me, it absolutely did.
During the first 4 months I stopped working out regularly. This was made much easier by my smoking again. Ugh. I started eating garbage again - at first because it was cheap and then because I'm a food addict from jump. Once I got my feet under me a bit, I found I was so busy between working full time and doing the single mom thing for awhile I was surprised I wasn't running into myself coming and going. You all know the drill well, I'm sure.
1000 excuses and only one true reason: I stopped taking care of ME.
Life is still pretty crazy and no magic windows of time have opened up, but I have learned to incorporate exercise back into my life again. I've been a pretty good girl in the exercise department since the beginning of August. It took me a bit again, but I got the food under control as well.
This time I didn't have 80+lbs to remove, I had about 20lbs to remove to get back to where I was. The odd thing? The majority of my clothes still fit me. The things that didn't fit were things I could get into - but I'm pretty sure if those items could have talked, they'd have been screeeeeeaming from the stretch workout they got! LOL
The start picture is the one I took in August 2005 at the top weight I got to (169.4lbs) and the following two are the ones I took again as I removed those 20lbs. I'm calling goal again at 149.6lbs. Close enough! I'm back into my size 6 dresses and size 8 pants comfortably :) My aim is to lose another 5-10lbs, but I'm not going to kill myself to do it. I'll continue to update this page with pictures as time goes on. If/when I get those next 5-10lbs off, you can bet I'll be posting a picture here!!
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| Starting picture taken May 4th. |
Taken June 4th, 2002 I'm done a total of 23.2lbs! |
Taken June 14th, 2002 I deserve a new do! |
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| Taken July 4th, 2002 I'm down another 5.8lbs! |
Taken August 14th, 2002 I'm down a total of 33.4lbs! |
Taken September 6th, 2002 I'm down a total of 36lbs :) |
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| Taken October 4, 2002 I'm down a total of 41lbs! | Taken November 9,2002 I'm down a total of 45lbs! | Taken December 14,2002 I'm down a total of 48lbs! |
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| Taken January 20, 2003 I'm down a total of 52lbs! | Taken March 9, 2003 I'm down a total of 58lbs! | Taken May 23, 2003 I'm down a total of 66lbs! |
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| Taken July 18, 2003 Still at -66lbs | Taken Sept 22, 2003 I'm down a total of 73.6lbs!! | Taken Oct 25, 2003 Still at -73.6, but the inches are still going! |
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| Taken December 18, 2003 I'm down a total of 77lbs! (and wearing the leathers Santa brought!) | Taken March 1, 2004 I'm down 80lbs as of today! | Taken March 20, 2004 I'm still at -80lbs! |
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| Taken June 2004. I'm down a total of 81lbs and calling it! GOAL!!! | Taken Jan 1 2005 Me & a couple of friends & no, -those jello shots weren't sugar free! | Taken February 2005 This is me, Dano, and Shelly - from Low Carb Friends. Still maintaining! |
People ask me what I use for exercise, and the answer is this: A TON of stuff! Here's a list of programs I have used, had great results/success with and really enjoy!
I used the Couch to 5K running program to learn to run, and have used The Sun Run's Training Program to train for a 10K.
When I started, I used Walk Away The Pounds and it's something I strongly recommend for beginners of any age/size!!
Another quick mention for Collage Video. It's an incredible resource for exercise videos and information. It even has clips from the workouts so that you can preview a little of them. It's fantastic! It offers workouts of every kind/style at any level, and lets you search accordingly. No - I'm not affliated with them, I'm just a big fan!
See how easy I tried to make this for you? I linked everything for you to check out - so get to clickin'! ;)