Cookie Miller was overweight for most of her life. She graduated high school at over 200 pounds and when she went off to college she gained another 30 pounds her first year. Once her friends were unable to recognize her because of the amount of weight she gained, she knew she had to do something.
So she did like many of us would do and saw all the commercials and social media posts for every weight loss plan out there: P90X, diet pills, weight loss teas and shakes, fitness programs. But nothing worked, until a friend invited her to go on a run with a local running group. It was the fact the she couldn’t keep up and the thought of “losing” that made something in her mind click.
From that point forward, Cookie pushed her self in running and ended up loving it. She completed her first 5K race and competed in 10 different races the next year! There was no stopping her! She knew losing the weight wouldn’t be easy, but it was possible.
“Before I made my lifestyle change, I was the Queen of drive-thrus; McDonald’s particularly,” admits Cookie. “I would order a ton of the $1 sandwiches, nuggets and a large Sprite with no ice. What can I say? I was in college and it was cheap and easy so I went with it.”
“I am also a New Orleans girl so I love my po-boys, gumbo, jambalaya, etc. I would cook those types of meals for myself once I moved out of my dorm and had an apartment with a kitchen. I mean red beans and rice with fried pork chops randomly during the week was the norm for me growing up, so when I got my own place, I followed suit.”
After her first year she lost over 70 pounds! She posted her picture on social media and got questions from everyone about how she did it. That was inspiration enough to take a leap of faith and she became a personal trainer!
“Once I stopped complaining every time I had to work out or meal prep, it got better. In the beginning, I spent way too much time focusing on how much I did NOT want to do it instead of just sucking it up.”
Preach sista, preach!
On her Instagram, Cookie has a great lesson for all of us moving into the holiday season:
“At one point everytime ‘life’ happened, I put my weight loss on hold. Holidays were coming up? Ok I’ll just start back in the new year. Stressed about finals? I’ll start after finals. Miss ONE day of workouts? I’ll start over on Monday. Going out of town? Definitely starting when I get back.”
“I did this for weeks that turned into months that turned into YEARS of a vicious cycle. It was not until I stopped using every and anything as an EXCUSE that I not only saw results, but maintained them. The difference between me then and now is not that life stopped happening, it’s that I changed my lifestyle.”
For more information on Cookie, click here.
To reach her via social media, click here.
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