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I never had a weight problem in my early life. All through
my twenties, I ate pretty much what I wanted, but I was
active enough to maintain a fairly stable weight of around
130 pounds. My parents were both overweight-they are
both deceased. My father died of a heart attack, and this
is rampant in our family tree, so I’m well aware of the
importance of maintaining good health. I have two
sisters, and they are both overweight, and have been for
all of their adult lives.

When I got into my thirties, I went through a lot of life
changes. I had my son. I took in my two nieces as foster
children, and I got divorced, all within 3 years. All of a
sudden I was taking care of a house and family on my
own. These life changes were accompanied by lifestyle
changes. These lifestyle changes were unfortunately not
for the better.

I began to smoke again. I had quit before I became
pregnant with my son. I started drinking more….a glass
of wine now and then for “stress relief” became a daily
occurrence, and eventually became more than one glass.
My eating habits took a turn for the worse. I always had
junk food on hand for the kids, so I started eating it too.
Potato chips, cookies, cake, candy, popcorn, cheese
doodles, ice cream-you name it, I ate it. Eventually the
weight began to accumulate. If I started getting too fat, I
would “cut back” and lose a few pounds. As far as
exercise, that stopped altogether by the time I was 35.
With the combination of the tobacco, alcohol, junk food,
and lack of exercise, I was a surefire candidate for the
inevitable heart attack. But I rationalized it all by telling
myself that since I was an adult, I had the right to do
anything I wanted! Besides, nothing “bad” would happen
to me until I was “older.”

At 37, after a failed relationship, I slowly began to start
looking at my life, and where I was going. I knew I had to
start making changes. I decided that alcohol had to be
eliminated from my life. Drug and alcohol addiction is
also rampant in my family tree, and I knew if I didn’t stop,
that it would probably kill me. That was easy enough to
do. I just stopped one day and have not touched it since.
It helped to get involved with a new guy who didn’t touch
the stuff, either. (He’s now my hubby) One potential killer
out of my life, three to go!

Well, it took another couple of years, but my next
realization was that cigarettes had to go next. My son had
begged me to stop many times, and I knew I had to do it
for him. I used the same approach here-I just stopped,
and that was it. Second potential killer out of my life, two
more to go! These next two were not so “easy.”

After quitting smoking, I faced the same problem many
do…I ate constantly. This combined with the fact that I
was extremely content in my new relationship, and felt no
need to continually “diet” to try to impress him caused me
to slowly pack on the pounds. Over the next three years, I
gradually got up to 168 pounds. I was not a pretty sight!
During one medical check up, my doctor informed me
that I was now falling into the “obese” section of the chart!
What an eye opener that is!!! Me??? OBESE???? She
put me on a diet recommended by the American Diabetic
Association. (She also recommended that I exercise-I
ignored that part!!!!) It was the first time I started to try to
eat a “balanced” diet as an adult. Here I was, 40 years
old, and just starting to learn “how to eat.”

After 3 months I was able to get down to about 145
pounds. I don’t know why, but I stopped at that point. I
think it was because once I hit that weight, on the chart I
was using I was now in the “healthy” range. Of course I
was right on the line, but I told myself that was ok, too. I
ate pretty good for a while, but old habits die hard, and
the weight slowly crept back. After this past Christmas, I
was back up to over 150 pounds.
I convinced myself that it was all because I was over 40,
and I should just give up any thoughts of ever catching
the eye of any males (other than stray dogs) ever again.
But a little voice kept nagging at me…..maybe you can do
it. Maybe you can.

Then one Saturday morning, while laying on the living
room floor, I saw the Power 90 infomercial. I was
mesmerized by all the success stories. Stories of real
people like me, and miracle of miracles….some of them
were even my age …. Or EVEN OLDER!!! And they
looked GOOD!!! I started to listen to the little voice….I
wanted to look good again! And I wanted to learn how to
stay healthy forever! As soon as the infomercial was
over, I was on the internet looking at all the photo threads.
Madmack, jamess, aztlgrl, taylore, tonym and
Christine2bfit had me captivated for hours. Now I was
hooked. I called and ordered the program. Of course,
when I told my husband, the response was less than
overwhelming-why was I ordering an exercise program
from an infomercial???? But I knew I needed this, and I
knew I could succeed.

I combined Power 90 with The Formula. I ate exclusively
from the fat flush menus, with 99% of what I ate being
from the top two tiers of Michi’s Ladder. I learned to eat
healthy nutritious food that TASTED GOOD!!!! And my
family liked it, too! With this combination of Power 90 and
The Formula, I feel that I have conquered the last two of
my demons (junk food and sloth!!!), and that I have found
the secret to good health for the rest of my life.

I’m now doing a second round of Power 90, and will be
mixing in Power Half Hour and The Slim Series. I am so
grateful to Tony Horton and Beachbody, and I look
forward to working out with Debbie, too!

I’m here to tell you that just because you are over 40, it
does not mean you can’t look HOT and be healthy again!
We CAN be whatever we choose to be.

UPDATE-I continued with Power 90 until July 20, 2003. I
took a few days off, and started Slim in 6