BELIEVE

Hi ladies...So this is the article I read at my sisters this weekend that I found REALLY inspiring!!!! I hope you will too!!! we don't have anything close to 100lbs to lose so if they can do it, WE can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PEOPLE MAGAZINE MAY 2007

100 lbs. Lighter: Ready For The Beach!

With a lot of dieting and determination, these women each lost 100 lbs. – and can't wait to show off the results this summer


What woman in her right mind actually likes trying on bathing suits? And yet when these six arrived at a downtown Manhattan studio to be photographed for our cover story, they were astonishingly comfortable as they ditched their street clothes and – while cheering each other on – slipped into suits that ranged from skimpy to skimpier. "It really takes a woman who has been big before and lost weight to understand that feeling good in a bathing suit is a wonderful, special thing," says Monica King. "It was a very powerful moment." And a bonding one too as the group assured Kate Smith she looked great in boy shorts and encouraged Isabel Curadeau to show off her cleavage with a sweetheart neckline. By the time they all lined up for this group shot, they were ready to work it. "It made all the difference in the world to have the other women there, knowing we all felt the same way about ourselves," explains Smith. "We're still not quite able to believe that we look as good as we feel!"

Isabel Curadeu

2001: 232 lbs. Now: 120 lbs. "The best thing is being strong. I feel like I'm in control of my body"

TURNING POINT: As a plus-size model in her native Canada, Curadeau says she knew "I was very heavy." But she didn't know just how heavy until she stepped on the scale at a friend's house in April 2002 and saw it hit 232 lbs. "I sat back down at the table and didn't finish the doughnuts in front of me."

HOW SHE DID IT: "I'm French and Italian, so [before] it was bread, pastas and sauce all the time," she says. But after one meeting with a nutritionist and countless hours spent researching healthy eating tips on the Internet (foodnetwork.com was a favorite), the 5'4" Curadeau began eating whole wheat toast at breakfast, grilled meat and vegetables for lunch, and a bowl of soup or salad for dinner. "I was starving," she admits. "But I was very motivated." She also began walking up to 45 minutes a day, six days a week.

100-LB. MOMENT: After losing 72 lbs., Curadeau, 24, plateaued for more than a year. But she was driven to reach the 100-lb. milestone, and so she stepped up her workouts, sometimes running as much as 10 miles a day to reach her goal. "Now it feels," she says, "like I can do whatever I want."

Kate Smith

2005: 250 lbs. Now: 150 lbs. "It's like my life has started over, and it's hard to remember the way I was"

TURNING POINT: By the time she was 25, years of drinking a 12-pack of soda a day and frequenting the drive-through at McDonald's left Smith "tired and miserable," she recalls. But it wasn't until nearly five years later – after giving birth to Elena, now 4, and divorcing her husband – that Smith felt ready to make a change. "I wanted to be healthy and feel good about myself," she says.

HOW SHE DID IT: The 5'9" Foster City, Calif., resident joined Weight Watchers and "swore off french fries and Alfredo sauce." But after losing 80 lbs., "I got sidelined," she says. "I got remarried, we were buying a house – I just stopped eating right." Then she discovered PEERtrainer.com, an online service that allows dieters to blog about their progress and encourages them to track all food intake and exercise. "If I have to write things down, I own up to them," says Smith, 32, a middle school English teacher, who hit her goal weight in August 2005 and later had a breast lift to remove excess skin left behind by her weight loss. "It couldn't be corrected by working out," she says.

100-LB. MOMENT: "When I had lost 100 lbs. I ran to my computer and posted it on my blog," says Smith. "You can't even describe that feeling."

Melissa Hill

2003: 283 lbs. Now: 135 lbs. "I usually bring my meals to work and rarely eat out. I'm a veggie burgers fan"

TURNING POINT: Frustrated by "a combination of finding everyday tasks increasingly difficult, not finding any clothing that would fit anymore and feeling like I was going nowhere," Hill, 28, took action in 2003. "I did not want to see that scale go over 300 lbs."

HOW SHE DID IT: One year after enrolling in Weight Watchers' online program, which she used both for food guidance and social support via message boards, the 5'9" Hill had lost 100 lbs., then dropped another 40 lbs. over the next six months by following an online running program [coolrunning.com's "Couch to 5K" program]. "That got me to my first race in 2004," says Hill, a legal analyst and grad student at Capella University in Minneapolis. "I was hooked on it after that first 5K." How hooked? Last year she ran a marathon in Antarctica.

READY FOR SUMMER: "It's great to be comfortable in the humid weather!" says Hill, who runs three to 10 miles three to five times a week.



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At the end of the article it gives a list of what all these ladies ate. I only posted 3 girls of the 6, sorry..too much work and the girls are calling.
So here's some ideas:
( the numbers match up, so No.1 is the same girl etc)

Breakfast:
options:
1. 2 pc whole wheat toast, 1tbs low fat cream cheese, skim milk
2.1.5C multi grain cereal, skim milk
3.4 egg whites, 1 C steamed veggies
4. a fruit smoothie made with 8ox of skim milk, splenda packet, 10 strawberries, 3 ice cubes
5. 1 C oatmeal, 1/2 banana, 1/2 C pumpkin, 1C skim milk
6. 2 or 3 C of fresh fruit, 8oz water


Lunch options:
1. 3 oz steak, 4 grille asparagus, 10baby carrots, 8oz skim milk
2. leans cuisine barbeque chick pizza, 1 apple, 8oz water
3.large grn salad w/ 6oz chick and low fat dressing
4.6oz grilled talapia, 1/2 c rice, 1 C steamed broccoli
5. salad with fresh veggies, 1/2 C Beans, 1/4C low fat cheese and 2 tbs low fat dressing
6.a salad loaded with veggies and toped with fat free dressing, 8oz water

dinner options:
1.2C homemade veggie soup, 1/2 oz cheese, 16oz water
2.chinese grilled chick salad with veggies, wontons and cabbage, diet coke!(woohoo!!!) LOL
3.8ox chicken or fish, 2 C steamed veggies
4. chicken fajitas with 6oz chicken, green peppers, onions an d1 flour tortilla, diet coke-woohoo again!!
5.1C whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce, 2tsps olive oil, vegetables and a sprinkle of cheese, 1 glass skim milk
6.1 pc of grilled chicken, 1 C rice a roni teriyaki flavor, 1 C green beans, 8oz water

SNACKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1 Banana, 10pretzels and 1 orange, chai tea with splenda, 1 orange and 9 pecans, baby carrots with 1-2tbs hummus, chips ahoy~ 100 calorie snack pack! *(that's my favorite snack idea!)



I hope this helps!!
Love you all!!!