My success this week has been due to several things:

1. I go to the gym at LEAST 6 times per week. We do alot of toning as a team and then i do at least 1 hour of cardio per week. One important fact that I have learned about excercise is that you need to workout over 30 minutes because the first 30 minutes is getting you prepared for burning fat. If you keep your heart rate in the right level for your body, you burn fat after that 30 minutes. (360 Burn at Spectrum helps tremendously with this!) Toning your body using your own weight has been very effective for me because the more muscles you have the easier it is to burn the weight. REMEMBER: When you exercise, do it even after you feel that burn because eventually it will become easier..then push harder and longer!

2. I get in the dry sauna once a week for at least 30 minutes. It not only relaxes me, but i sweat out that water weight and soften my muscles.

3. Most importanly, I try to follow a healthy diet. I use www.calorieking.com because it rocks! It calculates EVERYTHING for you and tells you how much exercise it takes to burn your calorie intake! I highly suggest ALL at home losers to utilize that website! Im lucky since I have Heather and Simon too!

4. SMOKING- ugh! You know, to be honest with you, I think I was just ready. I have tried 102 times to quit I am sure! But, I made a promise to God that if He got me in this competition that I would quit smoking not only for Him but for myself! He held up his end of the bargain so I had to also! It was SOOO hard. Gum and hard sugar-free candy have gotten me through it. I thought to myself, if I am going to work my tushy of losing weight, now is the BEST time to quit since my #1 excuse was that i'd gain weight! My mother is an RN and she told me something that I marinated and permantly burned in my brain...it takes 3 days to get the nicotine out of your body and 21 days to officially kick a habit. It is 10% body and 90% psychological. So you really need to focus on something else. Like Mickey said....instead of smoking a cig, go for a walk, do housework, or find something to pre-occupy yourself. I play the SIMS 2 game on my PC or do housework or hang out with my kiddo or I do something productive. I also used some psych 101 on myself....every cig I smoked, I told myself was another day of my life that I lost and couldnt be with my family. So do the math...20 cigs/day is 7300 cigs/year. So I am losing 20 years of life per year of smoking!!!!!!! Not to mention I am saving almost $1500.00/ year! My life is worth giving up a white tube of tobacco that could kill me! The final thing that got me, was my son Hunter. He asked me to quit and I wanted to for him.

Now, I know this is a competition and I shouldnt be giving out my secrets, however, I want to help you and all of SA just as SA Living and Spectrum have helped me. They were a blessing! You keep up the good work, I have faith in you and all online losers! You can lose the weight just like I have! STAY STRONG and ya cant keep a good woman/man down! GOOD LUCK!

Love, Michelle XOXOXO