A New Attitude for Life

As most of you know, inspiring others to take charge of their health is what I absolutely love to do! I love hearing people talk about how making small changes have really had a positive impact on their life. Well, today’s post is very near and dear to my heart. I am featuring one of my BFF’s Miss Janice Hicks! Janice and I have known each other since college and I consider her to be one of my very best friends! Janice or JANET as I like to call her, started on a journey to a healthy lifestyle…a little over a year ago, I would say. I say a little over year ago because before she was committed to working out (even at 5:00 in the am), but for the last year I have really noticed a change in her. She is excited about living a healthier lifestyle…holistically, which is what we should all strive for. She has communicated with me the benefits that she is experiencing…with her “new attitude.”

About a month ago, I received an email from Janice with some before and after pictures and I must say…she looks ABSOLUTLEY AMAZING! Don’t get me wrong…she is one of the most beautiful women that I know (both inside and out), but just from looking at her pictures I can tell she has a “New Attitude for Life.” She has always been the happy go lucky type, but there’s a little extra twinkle in her eyes now…and I’m happy about that!

I know she won’t mind me sharing, so here are a few highlights from the email she sent me! I was so excited that I had to call her instead of emailing her back!

Janice has referred to me as her “long distance personal trainer,” but I give her 110% of the credit for her hard work and dedication to a healthier lifestyle.

From June 2009-October 2010 Janet has lost a total off 44 pounds with only 9 pounds to go before she reaches her goal weight!!!!

BEFORE

“I know focus is the key ......I feel great and am in good shape right now. I run a mile often which is something I had never done before last year this time!”

AFTER

“I have made several positive changes in my life and living a healthy lifestyle is one. The weight loss is only the physical change (and what people usually see). The mental and emotional changes are the really important changes and the reason I am able to lose weight! It’s definitely mind over matter!”

I am ecstatic about Janice’s transformation and even more excited to see what’s to come! I hope this has inspired you to get up and get active and lead a healthier lifestyle! It definitely has inspired me to keep putting the message out there!

Working for a Good Cause

I know that we are one week into November and Breast Cancer Awareness Month is over, but I had to post one last article that will inspire you to do something for a good cause.

I have known Courtney Coleman for quite some time now, we cheered together in high school and all that jazz, but her story has inspired me to do more for Breast Cancer Awareness. Courtney lost her mother to breast cancer over two years ago and she has decided to go on a year long journey for a cause in honor of her mother, Mrs. Susan Coleman. Check out her journey at http://courtneylynncoleman.blogspot.com/ and check out her story below!

I am kind of behind but October was a great month for me. Many wonderful opportunities to help with this awful disease that takes away loved ones from us each and every day. Many of you may or may not know me. I am Courtney Coleman from Corinth, Mississippi and I am currently working on my Master’s in Technology Education at Mississippi State University. I have two younger sisters, Christina, a track runner for MSU and Catherine, a junior at Corinth High School who has a passion for tennis. I lost my mother a little over two years ago to breast cancer.

My mother was first diagnosed 1996. I was a fourth grader and the news of my mom having cancer was something that I will never forget. It was like my world had come crashing down. My mom however, was such a strong and wonderful person and told the three of us that she had been dealt these cards and we were going to deal with it. My mother was such a caring person; she had a passion for helping children. Employed at that time by Fulton City Schools, she was a junior high counselor. Giving everything she had to others was just my mother’s personality. Everybody under the sun came before her and the news of the disease was no change to this.

My mother soon went into remission and this was great news to our family. For five years my family continued to live and thank God each and every day my mother was alive and well. That soon changed one November afternoon. My mother had a check up in Birmingham, Alabama. Sitting at school and getting the phone call and hearing the cancer was back was a new challenge for the family. This time it had come back as a different cancer and would require a more aggressive treatment as it was a stronger form of breast cancer. My mother went through a major operation and went to remission by the time I started college. This was great news as I was starting a new adventure in life and could leave my mom knowing she was alive and healthy.

Three years later the horrible phone call came again and this time it was the worst. By the time my mother found the cancer the third time it had already spread to her lungs and lymph nodes. Our family was in for a major ride. My mother soon began treatment however; the cancer was spreading and spreading fast. Within a short year my mother was gone. Gone to leave the family to pick up the pieces, gone to a better place, gone to have no suffering or endure the horrible battle she had spent 13 years fighting. Those that know my mother know that she wanted each and every person to live a full and complete life, to carry on, and to help and appreciate things that others do for us. That is the impact my mother had on others and I try to live each and every day for her!