Let me clear the air

I received a comment tonight basically saying that I am contradicting myself and that I think women are only beautiful if they fit societies expectations on how a woman should look to be beautiful..WRONG.

I think everyone is beautiful, all women and men of all shapes and sizes. You don't have to be a size 0 to be beautiful you can be a size 18 and be gorgeous! Although, I may think you are beautiful and you may look in the mirror and hate everything about yourself..be in that self loathing state. A lot of us have been there. I have people tell me I am beautiful every single day but you know what? I don't feel it and that is all that matters. The entire reason why I am here is to track my weight loss and the changes I can make within my self and also on the outside of myself, but more importantly a lot of women are scared to step up and talk. Scared what people may think of them if they speak out but that's okay there is nothing wrong with that. That's why I do this, I want to touch the women that don't feel beautiful on the outside and want to fix it, the women that need support and don't know where to go to find it. Do I think that if you are completely obese and you sit on the couch and are killing yourself that I should praise you? No but I will pray for you that someday you find the strength to change yourself for the better, for health and for you to feel beautiful so you can be happy inside. I will continue to praise the women out there that realize they are overweight or obese and they want to change. There is nothing contradictory about my blog, I think societies way of pushing size 0's down everyones throat until they believe that's what they need to be to become beautiful is sick. If you are a size 18 and you want to be a size 12 I praise you! Is a size 12 societies expectations of what a female body looks like? Hell no! but you know what it makes YOU feel beautiful to be a size 12 and that is all that matters!!

Set a goal for yourself to where YOU feel beautiful and comfortable in your own skin and do it! You can and I will help you. Everyone is beautiful the way that they are but they need to believe it themselves for it to matter. Good luck on your journey's everyone! 

Motivation+Inspiration=Success!

Good afternoon All!

I'm sorry I didn't blog yesterday, it was a pretty hectic day. I did not make time for the gym and I am kicking myself in the butt for it today. Joey bummed his leg playing for the squadron football team so he didn't feel up to joining me as well. We are going tonight though, of course you will hear all about how it went.

Confession time

We went to columbia today to get some decorations for the house from Hobby Lobby. We went to McDonald's for lunch. SIGH. What do you do when you are STARVING and have an hour drive before you get home. I see fast food place after fast food place after fast food place and its so convenient to eat a McDouble while driving home. You can't exactly eat a salad while driving and when you just don't have the time to go in.

I know I know, wait until you get home and eat something healthy.

That just goes along with me learning how to curve my appetite, I will do it and you guys will help me I'll get there! That's the most important thing is telling myself I will get there. We all have hiccups in the beginning right?

Now for a special treat! You want some motivation? Well I will deliver.

Inspiration and Motivation today go by the name of Stephanie Demott. A very close friend of mine growing up. Now I have first handedly seen this girl battle her weight, and battle her life. She can tell you all about it in her incredible story and her before and after pictures are enough to make you hit the highway to a gym as soon as possible! Congratulations Stephanie you look amazing and are an inspiration to all of us!

Here is her story

A lot of people have asked me how I lost all the weight I did and I thought I would just share a small story of my journey..SO FAR. After having my second baby Allie.. I started at at 163 pounds.. So I started a weight loss competition back in January at that point I wanted to lose weight but I was in it more for the competition and the money more than anything, I got down to about 133 pounds and right after started back into my old ways with the over-eating and eating stuff that was horrible for my health. I never watched what I ate or how much I ate and went back up to 141 pounds. I wasn't happy, I looked in the mirror at my body and would cry. I would eat and eat and eat and then be mad and I would feel gross and depressed, and for what??? There were numberous times I cried and told my husband that I had a "problem" with food and eating too much. I was wrong, I was the problem, I THOUGHT that I wanted the food or HAD to have it, I just wasn't giving or putting in the work that I needed to put in. It wasn't going to come off eating chips and dip, and cookies, and 4 slices of pizza, I had NO control, I just kept eating and eating until I was miserable! I got tired of looking in the mirror and not being happy! A couple months ago I was going through my closet and and picked up my size 4 pants and I looked at my husband and said "Was I reallllly THAT small? I said there is NO WAY I will ever be this small again and threw them in the back of my closet and put away what I called all my "skinny clothes".. A local competition started in Fulton once again and I said this time I'm just going to do what I have to do to lose SOME weight..I thought okay well I will just lose enough to get to pre-baby weight and I will be happy, well once I started I felt great, and as more and more weight came off.. I just kept going and giving more. Last competition it was about winning money for me, this one it's about life and looking in the mirror and being proud of who I am! I've so far lost 26 pounds..getting down to 115 and I'm going to keep going from here..and let me tell you, once I hit that size 4 again, I said I was never going to go back, and I won't! It was an amazing victory for me. That feeling of happiness and how proud I felt will never leave me.  It is hard, it takes discipline, motivation.. and fighting yourself when you don't "feel" like working out. One of the worst things I've learned to say, is I will start in a couple days or next week.. The best time is always NOW! I know it's not easy sometimes and food can be sooooo good, my problem was always portion control. Learning that you can still have things you love in moderation is important, it's not called a diet, it's a lifestyle. You can still enjoy yourself and not be unhappy! I've had cheat days, I just didn't sit there and eat until I hurt, I had small portions, and enjoyed it, and I never eat the leftovers! I give myself a day ONCE in awhile, I used to eat soo much and then the next day ate all the leftovers and SO much more! Having a "cheat day" is okay, and it's something you can look forward to, you learn to appreciate it so much more when you work for it. Working out has to be a part of your lifestyle, it's important for your health, to keep your body feeling great and yourself motivated to keep going and being the YOU that you want to be. There are seriously no secrets, I haven't starved myself, I HAVE breastfed, but that has only been a small part of my weight loss, I have put a lot of work and determination into the weight I've lost. I actually had some lady say at my last competition, say "You're breastfeeding??" That's cheating!!!! WHAT?? I know it helps, but when I was not losing weight or trying, I was breastfeeding and gaining weight, it takes a lot more than just breastfeeding, at least for me it does. I haven't done anything "special" except believe in myself, and stopped waiting to be ready to lose weight. It makes me feel good that people have told me that I inspire them to lose weight, and I will always be supportive and motivating toward your weight loss goals. Message me, call me, text me anytime. I know it feels good to have support and people help push you through and tell you that you CAN do it, and the best thing to hear, is that "YOU LOOK GREAT!!"

Remember, saying I will start tomorrow or next week or next month won't help you lose weight. The best time is always NOW and I promise you will feel great reaching your goals. You CAN do it.

Get out there and tell yourself you CAN everyone!

Back for more? Yes I am!

Hey guys! I know it's been only a few short hours since I blogged you last but I just had to share my evening as well as some awesome news I found from back home in New York! 

First and Foremost, can I just say that I am extremely proud of myself. Today is the second day in a row that I have MADE myself go to the gym, and when I say made well I mean forced! Now I'm going to the small gym that my apartment complex offers. They have 2 treadmills, 2 ellipticals, a bike and some weights. Not very much to offer but I can work with it being a beginner and all. I did 2 miles on the treadmill yesterday I started out walking and worked myself up to a 3 level incline and power walking at about 3.3 mph. I attempted to run and could only do it for about .05 miles before collapsing of oxygen withdrawl. Today I did another 2 miles except I did almost the whole last mile without stopping to breath or slow down at a comfortable pace for me 4.8 mph.

That may be extremely slow for some of you super runners out there but let me tell you something, finding that comfortable pace and being able to go and go and go and oh did I mention go? without stopping, AMAZING feeling! I think I will start myself out at that comfortable pace and push myself to do better. I'm feeling really good tonight! Even better I turned on the TV at the gym and it was already on MTV playing "True Life, I'm addicted to junk food"! Motivation while working out or what?! DEFINITELY!!

NOW.... DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!

Just browsing the internet tonight being nosey, I decided to go online to my old towns news channel site and I find an extremely inspirational man who gave me some more motivation and even better he lives in the town I went to high school in. Has tonight been a motivation night for me or what? I think so! I would love to share for all you bloggers out there that are doing what I'm doing and feel how I feel. Let this mans story motivate you to get out there and lose weight, feel good, and get in shape! 

Meet Jay Wornick from Fulton New York!

And this is his INCREDIBLE story!

Incredible weight loss lands CNY man a spot on GMA

Ready for this Journey!

Brittany is the name and OH BOY am I a complicated one. Everything I do is complicated I can take something so simple and turn it into a giant equation it's just me! I know what I want and trust me I want it BAD. As of now I hate to look in the mirror I look at all of my flaws which in my eyes is pretty much everything. The ONLY things that I like about myself are my hair, eyes, and the beauty that I hold within. 

Right now I weigh 180 pounds and maybe if I was taller it wouldn't be so bad but I'm short so it just makes me look like a frumpalump. I know that it could be worse but that doesn't excuse how I feel about myself. My whole life I've been the fat girl, always the biggest one out of all of my friends, always the biggest one at the party. It's just not fair. I want to go to the beach and wear a bikini and feel GOOD. The thought of me going to the beach in a bikini now gives me the jitters. 

Now don't get me wrong I'm not trying to put myself down or have some big pitty party for myself where everyone is invited, this is just the God's honest truth about how I feel. This is a spot for honesty right? 

Now my problem is, I can't get myself to the gym I make up every excuse in the book not to go and its ridiculous! People say "if you want it bad enough you will go". That's not the case because trust me I want it. I'm sure a lot of you have been here in this spot, "am I going to be the biggest girl at the gym?" "am I going to be able to keep up with the instructor at classes?" Is the person next to me going to hear me dying of being out of breath when I attempt to run?" I just hate all of these insecurities that I am battling every single day. 

On top of that Hi my Name is Brittany Pennington and I'm addicted to Junk Food. You are talking to a Drive through regular, chip bag popping, cookie eating fool! 

SO! Please join me in my journey to melt off of this fat and feel sexy for my husband whom by the way is the most amazing man I have ever met and thinks i'm perfect the way I am, whom also tells me I'm beautiful on a daily basis. Once again it's not what he thinks or anyone else thinks it's what I think and feel about myself. 


My goal set date is my 23rd Birthday, April 28th 2012. I want to be 50 pounds lighter. Between today and that date I'm hoping to see a complete transformation in my outer beauty, my confidence, and my over all attitude. I want to look back to this exact post and not be able to believe I felt this way. 

Now you will probably see me battle myself and argue with myself and just flat out break down. Join me, help me, support me. Any advice? I WANT IT! any tips, PASS EM ALONG! Lets get this fat off of my body and get me where I've always dreamed of being..a whopping 130 pounds! Here we go!