WinterPerkins.com

I started my weight loss journey on May 10th, 2010 (Mother’s Day), and here I am two months later, 20 pounds lighter! My belt has a couple of newly acquired holes, my pants slide off and on without unbuttoning or unzipping, my shirts fit like moo moos, and my shoes don’t fit my feet anymore. I am most definitely not complaining, and have never been happier to say that I have nothing to wear!

My decision to lose weight started out as a vain one. We took some pictures and created a short video, and used them to put together a virtual Happy Mother’s day page for my own mother. She lives about 700 miles away, and we don’t see each other that often unfortunately. The page turned out awesome, she loved it, and I was so happy to have made her Mother’s Day special. Out of all those positive things, the ONLY thought stuck in my mind on that day was, “Jesus! Look at me! I can’t believe I’ve gained so much weight!” I couldn’t even enjoy what we had done because I was so horrified at how I looked. Pretty shallow right? … maybe! But it’s the 100% raw truth.

That day… those pictures and those thoughts lit a fire under my fat, jiggly butt like never before. I’ve always said to myself, “You know, I’m going to start eating right and exercising so I can get rid of this weight,” but I never really did. Easy to say, hard to do. On that particular day, something just clicked for me, and I never looked back, never wavered in my goal, never steered off my path. Looking back on Mother’s Day 2010, I realize now that I actually gave myself a present that no one else could ever give me. I’m giving myself the gift of life… a healthy life, a happy life, a more enjoyable life… and I thank myself for that.

I continue to use the tools provided free on LiveStrong.com to manage my eating habits, and am still a huge cheerleader for Jillian Michaels’ Yoga Meltdown. I do this workout about every other day, and the results are just amazing for me. It’s a workout that I have fallen in love with for so many reasons. I have really bad knees (the fact that I sit cross legged in my chair 24/7 doesn’t help my poor knees any), crunches and other related forms of exercise really put a strain on my neck and back… not good for me. The Yoga Meltdown routine helps me burn fat, build toned muscle, improve my flexibility and balance without any of the side effects most workout DVDs seem to provide as a bonus. So really, just 5 thumbs way up in the air for this workout… love it all the way around!

I told myself that it would be much to embarrassing to take more photos until I reached my weight loss goal. But more and more I’m thinking, “How will it really be inspiring to anyone if they never see my progress?” So I have decided, that while embarrassing for me, seeing my progress in pictures might be helpful enough for someone else that I can live with that fleeting moment of embarrassment. Very soon I will start including pictures of my progress along with my progress posts. No laughing please lol I am not the most photogenic person in the world… seems to run in my family.

I’d like to give a HUGE thank you to the people giving me constant encouragement. I get the most beautiful emails from this blog, Facebook, and even Skype messages congratulating me on my progress, sharing of your own personal weight loss struggles and successes, and even “Way to go!”s to keep me moving forward. This is a direct source of inspiration and motivation for me, and it helps more than you know… thank you so much for your support!

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No, no… not that kind! Get your minds out of the gutter. A hot topic anywhere I go lately seems to be the importance of building relationships with people, instead of just focusing on the sale, the lead, the signup. If you’ve been around the Internet Marketing world for long, you know that the focus has been on how to get those clicks, get those sales, signups, whatever it is you’re trying to gain from your advertising efforts. It’s been interesting for me to watch Social Networking grow and become part of our everyday life. Slowly, but surely the trend is moving towards the importance of relationships and just how much of an impact social networking can have on your internet business.

If you know me at all, you know I love to chat and network. When I first started, it was purely to get my name seen… that’s it. As I got more into it, I realized it’s partially about that, but that’s not the point of social networking. The point is to build real relationships. Sure I can add a ton of people on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, whatever… and I can shove my referral links down their throats the first chance I get. What’s the point?

If you add me as a friend on Facebook, and the very first thing you do is send me a default copy and paste email saying “Hi I’m so and so, I make tons of money with (insert any program here). Join under me and make tons of money too!”… you know what I do? I remove you just as quickly as I accepted your friend request. Nothing pisses me off more… how obnoxious and annoying can you get?! If I wanted to be bombarded by advertisements, I’d be watching TV or I’d be surfing… I wouldn’t be on Facebook and Twitter. I love new Twitter and Facebook friends, but let’s at least get to know each other before you tell me to join something. That’s all I’m saying.

In the last Affiliate Funnel Seminar, Jon Olson shared a story about attending an offline marketing event. I found it hilarious because apparently it was full of younger business professionals wanting to know what the ROI (Return On Investment) was for Social Networking. How do you calculate the ROI of building relationships with people? How do you put a value on a developing relationship. That, to me, shows the blatant lack of human connection in the Internet Marketing world. You don’t begin a relationship with the mindset of “What do I get out of it?” You begin a relationship with the purpose of getting to know another human being, connecting on a personal level, building a bond from shared interests and values.

These relationships are so important, even on a just a human level. We all crave companionship, even the “loners.” For me, it’s about knowing I have people in my corner, having people I can chat with, bounce ideas off of, give me feedback on whatever it is I’m doing. I love it! Here is a perfect example of just how important it is to focus on building the relationship for the sake of building the relationship…

The lovely Lynn M.

Yesterday I officially posted to my blog for the first time and sent it out into the world. A good friend of mine, Lynn McCutcheon of Lynn M Dot Net (and a wonderful blogger if I do say so myself) actually included a little blurb about me and my new blog in her own blog! I am subscribed to her blog via email, and yes I read it every time… because it’s just a great blog, and hilarious. I was surprised to see that she took the time to include me, even made me a quick little banner to link to my blog. How sweet right?! <3 THIS is what networking is about. The link and blurb of course… awesome, but the real value to me was that she thought about me. She supported what I’m doing without me even asking. Lynn is in my corner, and it means a lot. You can’t buy that kind of support, you can’t put a value or ROI on that type of relationship. This to me, is exactly what Social Networking is about. Building friendships and finding great people to have in your corner, behind you every step of the way. You can spend $1,000 on advertising, advertise on 100 different websites, and you still will never be able to replace that type of personal relationship.

So it’s been established I’m somewhat of a Social Networking junkie… it’s ok, not a bad vice to have.  A new site came out today called IM Faceplate. I actually wasn’t going to join, but then I found out that it’s all about social networking, so I folded lol  That’s ok too! It’s a free service, and it has some really cool tools on the inside. It’s essentially a mashup of the best parts of other social sites, but condensed into one place. You can follow people, they can follow you, you can post articles, integrate your optin lead capture form, your RSS feed, your website links, photo… pretty much everything. So if you’re a fellow junkie, check it out by clicking the banner below, and be sure to follow me! I do follow back

Cheers to Social Networking! Get involved, get to know people, and by all means, please, PLEASE keep the link harassment to a bare minimum. Take a chance, just say hello!

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I’m keeping all my friends on Facebook up to date on my weight loss progress. Embarrassing yes? No way I don’t mind at all! One of the reasons I post my progress is because I give up on things so quickly, even if they’re working for me. So this way, ppl will go “so hows that weight loss coming along?” and if I have to say I gave up lol really embarrassing and a personal letdown, so it keeps me going

I’ve honestly tried just about everything to lose weight for years now: diet pills, eating really tiny amounts, downright almost starving myself… I guess everything except dieting and exercise because I just wanted the easy fix you know? Ugh I hate exercise about as much as I love good food. And trust me…. that’s a LOT.

I did finally reach a breaking point though, and for the past (almost) two months I’ve been trying to lose weight the RIGHT way for once, and it’s working. I do watch what I eat and exercise. I guess it’s not so much a diet as it is eating what I’m supposed to, not a bunch of junk. I eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks all that… I just eat different things.

I found this free site called www.livestrong.com and I really and truly appreciate it SO much. I added in my height, my weight, how many pounds I want to lose a week (up to 2 because anything else, we both know is unhealthy), and it tells me how many calories I can consume a day to reach that goal. You can track everything you eat and it tells you exactly how many calories, fat, protein etc is in it, so its super easy to keep track of. I personally never learned to do this so at first it was like “Holy crap! There’s that many calories in what I eat?!” LOL But I’m slowly learning healthier foods and habits and I can’t thank that creators of LiveStrong.com enough, I really cant.

I never really exercised before either. I’m tethered to this box (my lovely PC) all day long. I’ve been wanting to try Yoga, so I looked up on LiveStrong to find the best yoga routine to lose weight. Everyone highly recommended Jillian Michael’s Yoga Meltdown DVD so I found it on amazon and read all the customer reviews. It seemed like most were happy with it so I thought what the heck can’t hurt to try. It’s what I do almost every day, and oh my god was it was HARD at first. But my muscles are getting stronger, my fat is coming off, so it keeps me proud and moving along the trail ya know?

If you want to check it out you can read the reviews and stuff here: Jillian Michael’s Yoga Meltdown

And if you DO join livestrong even to check it out or whatever, please add me as a friend (winterperkins is my screenname), and you can see my whole page, my daily foods my exercise everything

I’ve lost about 16 lbs so far and still have hmm probably 50+ to go. But I can see feel the changes in my body inside and out, and I’m not giving up this time!! Wish me luck, and if you have any questions, please let me know.

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