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Diane’s weight loss journey started when she realized that 320 pounds wasn’t what she wanted!

Her weight loss journey is filled with many road blocks. Diane’s biggest inspiration as come from a combination of family, friends, her daughter and the show The Biggest Loser! Being a single mother of a three year old has been tough, but very rewarding for Diane.

Diane’s sister pushed her to start going to the gym four years ago, and continued to push her harder on the treadmill. Running started to take over Diane’s life, and sister was able to convince her to sign up for her first half marathon! While training she has done two 5ks and has had much success doing so.

Diane was originally nervous running outdoors, missing the comforts of the indoor treadmill experience. But now she is growing more accustomed to running out doors, and enjoying her new lifestyle! Diane has also had to deal with the mental aspect of working out in front of others. Through all of that, she has managed to stay focused on the positive things instead of the negative which has helped push her forward on the path of her weight loss journey.

I grew up with Diane, she sat behind me in all of my home room classes from seventh grade till graduation. I am so proud of her to make this transformation for herself. I also want to say that I am very happy that it has allowed us to reconnect after nearly 10 years of not seeing each other. It is great to see how far she has come on her weight loss journey! Keep up the great work Diane!

I can’t say enough great things about how this show has opened doors for me to communicate with people and reconnect with people from my past. As always, thank you all for the support!

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Episode 34

Transcription

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this is the dreamers podcast where
dreamers shared their stories to inspire

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you

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now join host Joe Pardo as he interviews
a dreamer who is living their dreams

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yeah

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welcome to the dreamers podcast I’m your
host Joe Pardo and today I’m

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interviewing Diane park who is living
her dream by getting stronger and

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healthier

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welcome to the show Diane thanks for
having me Joe thanks for being here in

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the studio while we get started by
giving some background about yourself

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sure I am 20 I’m a single mom i recently
lost 200 pounds you speak 220 pounds and

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now i’m currently down to 220 I work out
a lot and probably focus on what i do be

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healthier and stronger

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there’s an awful lot of weight to lose
how long did it take you to lose a lot

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we probably about four years while 70
pounds in the first year i tried and had

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a few snags over the next few years I
lost the remaining 30 still have a few

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more pounds to go but I’m working on it

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it’s always a work in progress only so
what would you say inspires you

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I’m let’s a little different things
inspire me when I first started the

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Biggest Loser the TV show that was a
really big inspiration to watch like

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just about every episode seeing all the
people lose weight so why can’t I do

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that I used to watch this show for
motivation and the jillian michaels and

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Bob Harper they always pushed me through
my heart x now recently my four-year-old

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daughter she inspires me she helps a lot

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keeps me running do you think that she
understands the struggle that you went

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through

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ah no I don’t really think she never
really saw me at my heaviest so she

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doesn’t I don’t think she really
understands what I go through that she

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sees that I try so how does your dream
come about I basically just got tired of

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being overweight and being unhappy with
myself that I started making a change in

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my sister was a big help in that she got
me signed up with the gym and cheese to

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go with me all the time and should push
me when I was on the treadmill and told

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me when I can go harder and she helped
me a lot and my family’s a baked big

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help and they’re always very supportive
of what I do of my decisions so you have

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already answered the question of how
your dream was received by your family

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was there any pushback at all the only
push back against would be

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how addicted i got to the gym I
sometimes get blinded by the need to be

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a beginning that I let other things go
and my family puts me in my place every

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once in awhile so what steps did you
take to get started

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small steps really basically just
started with the gym and you know

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focused on moving regularly and first I
walked the nice increase my speed and I

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start running then I started taking
classes where I lifted weights and some

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spinning classes which are horrible but
worth it at the end then I focus on what

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i ate and no just portion control and
measure just about everything I eat make

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sure I count my calories even though I
hate doing it so you recently read your

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first 5k and you’re planning on running
a half marathon soon could you talk

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about the experience that you had
leading up to the 5k sure previously

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before i even thought about paying
people to run money can’t believe i’m

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still doing that my sister for some
reason convinced me to run a half

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marathon with her which i never thought
i would do because it’s 13.1 miles which

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seems crazy to me but for some reason
after you know through the bases are

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they do all this half marathons
marathons all the time so i can do that

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sure

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so I was training for it at the gym just
reach three miles when this girl I know

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from the gym approached me and she’s
like so why you runnin I’m like oh you

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know training for a half marathon it’s
just like really only yeah my sister

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talked me into it she going should do
this 5k i’m organizing like okay

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oh really nervous about that because I
don’t really enjoy running outside but

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like a lot of be good practice so two
weeks later the 5k was supposed to be so

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I was like I really gotta focus running
at the gym nail so when the 5k started I

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was extremely nervous only make sure if
I’d be able to finish it because I’ve

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never run outside for any . length of
time but i was able to do it push myself

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through it i ran in 3143 so that was
pretty impressive

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there’s only about a group of 50 people
there and so but I was first in my

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age trick site about that so now that
that’s over now you really got to focus

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on reading this kind of half marathon
and i have c finally went up to four

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miles only got nine to go

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oh but small steps and push myself i try
to run a mile extra each we try to build

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my strength up well with half marathons
I mean once you get to about 10 miles

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you’re you’re fine

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he’s look at the lecture 3 miles
together oh that’s basically I thought

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about it when I was doing the 5k seems
like it happened there are almost done

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just got to keep pushing myself but it’s
pretty exciting

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my mom actually brought my little one to
see me raise my first 5k and she was

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there at the end which is really
exciting

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she’s apparently saw me way before my
mom didn’t like it comes movie if I was

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running toward it just made it so much
better than those people to see here at

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the end that’s great do you plan on
running anymore 5 case between them

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yeah well we’re doing the Color Run
which is the another 5k but i don’t

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really we’re doing in a big groups that
we’re never gonna be running the whole

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thing so i won’t really don’t like a
really count as running a 5k key because

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those hold most people walk in any way
other than that now i’m probably gonna

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save up and just focus on the
half-marathon yeah races can definitely

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expensive and like I said it could never
imagine myself paying someone to let me

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run

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yeah yeah i mean i pay for disney run
this they got my number ok so when you

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got started running and working out and
trying to live a healthier lifestyle

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what roblox did you hit a lot of mental
blocks mostly lot of negativity in my

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own head telling myself that I couldn’t
do it

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that wasn’t strong enough that I was
being judged at the gym cuz im so heavy

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you know in my head I was thinking you
know people called her she’s so heavy

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and she’s trying to run on the Cardinal
i still have that thought sometimes

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using a nice skinny girl but you know
you just gotta focus on this is for me

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and not for anybody else and I really
care what other people say or think it’s

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a very mental thing

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trying to lose weight you have to be
able to focus on you and tell yourself

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that you’re stronger and that you’re
capable of doing it and it’s just in

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your head that that you can I battle
every time i’m running on the treadmill

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I battle and like I can’t do this I
can’t do this and I’m like I can you

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think two things later like why am i
doing the key to this isn’t this like

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yes you can you’re stronger you can do
this and music actually helps me a lot

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and have to focus on the music otherwise
I’m just a loss for everything i know a

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couple times when I’ve left my ipod home
I’m like I’m screw cuz now I can’t focus

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on anything but running and there’s just
wasn’t able to pull it through but it’s

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very mental I know when I run I i have
to have music generally because i don’t

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like to hear myself breathe which is
very bad for my ear but what music do

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you listen to when you run to help focus
my music case actually varies quite a

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bit especially when i’m running couple
of things like christina aguilera

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fighter that’s a very big motivator for
me some Britney Spears has some good

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beats that I like to run to three days
grace I like to run to breaking benjamin

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has a good song like 210 Ryan I’m gonna
it’s all very very out-there disturbed

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at least mr. to as long as it has a good
beat and I can it makes me feel like I

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need to run faster all Metallica fuel as
a really good one that helps me going

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yeah yes very very well having a big
music palette helps i’ve heard that from

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other people that they’ll listen to
music that they would normally listen to

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a neighbor on they would normally listen
to it when they do anything else in

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their life

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so how did you overcome a lot of these
roadblocks mental robots you said that

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you you would know you tell yourself
that you can do it and that’s awesome

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could you go deeper into how you
overcome these types of problems I had

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to focus on what i felt was worth it for
me as soon as I start losing the weight

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and how fault i looked in the mirror
with how trying on clothes and being

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soon . soon soon soon as I start
dropping sizes and i was able to go into

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stores that didn’t have plus size
clothes because all throughout my life

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you know especially growing up in high
school I was always in the plus-size

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stores you know 20-plus and that always
was a big struggle for me especially

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clothes shopping

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I always hated it so you soon as i
started dropping the sizes and getting

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into the smaller sizes that was really
great feeling and looking into the

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mirror finally was like okay I’m
starting to like how I feel how I look

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focusing on that instead of the negative
things has really helped me push forward

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through my hard times i stumble like
their many days were I have trouble

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focusing on my healthy eating but you
only truly feel if you give up so my

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goal is to never give up and to keep
pushing board so if I have one bad day I

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can’t let myself be beat up over it i
just like okay I had a bad day i have to

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have a better day tomorrow so i get back
to the gym and focus on measuring and

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portioning and all the things you’re
supposed to just making sure i feel good

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on the inside because that’s what
matters

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so what kind of problems did you have
with the mental image of yourself when

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you would look in the mirror and you are
no longer the 300-pound person recently

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happened to me back in September when I
was at the gym I was have a class with

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the mirror and lifting weights and I
looked at myself and like who is that

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look again we are crap that’s me but
they can’t be me and like yeah it is and

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I’m just so used to seeing that 300-plus
person that you have in your mind that

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what you already supposed to look like
in the mirror you can’t take time to

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actually look at yourself and evaluating
we go

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it really is me now and issues with such
a big difference that even when I look

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back at pictures i’m like ‘who inside
you don’t realize how big you get when

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you’re 300 pounds

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most people like wonder how does a
person

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become that big how they let themselves
get that way and like you don’t realize

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it you don’t see yourself as that big it
just it sneaks up on you really does

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because you keep seeing yourself as a
person you saw before even if it was

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from some big to little little baked you
always see yourself as that one person

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until you actually do that big change
and you see yourself for the first time

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and you’re no longer that 300-plus
person you don’t realize how big you got

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your head guy is a big struggle even now
there are days where I feel like I still

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look through 220 pounds there are days
where I can’t see my pass my work

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constantly living in my past and I have
to refocus and have to tell myself

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you’re not there anymore and you’re not
the same person you are stronger better

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and you are healthier the hardest
decision I mean let’s lose the weight

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that’s for sure still hard while the
great things don’t come easy and this is

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what definitely one of them

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that’s for sure great things take time
and definitely have to work for them so

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speaking of working on them

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is there any parts of your dream that
haven’t quite worked out yet definitely

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haven’t reached my goal yet which is
something i’m still working on but

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hopefully I’ll have it done in a year
trying to get myself refocused on losing

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the weight there was a period of time
where I wasn’t as focused on it i’m

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still going to gym that I wasn’t really
s careful about what I was eating you

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think yourself

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oh I just worked out so I can have a
little bit here and but you really can’t

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because then you just kind of wiped away
everything you just work for at the gym

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I worked out and then have a good day

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so having that mental thing to look
forward to is what I had to refocus on

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so soon as i hit my goal then I’ll be so
if you were stranded on a deserted

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island with your family with three
things would you want to have with you

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tools so i can make a boat food so I
wouldn’t starve and music so when get

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bored not a bad list and not available
at all very practical list

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ok so what are your dreams for the
future look like

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definitely hit my goal with my weight
loss

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to get stronger every day and to finish
college which was recently just went

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back to and to maybe one day open my own
bakery stop to stay fit and healthy when

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you have a career he is one of my
favorite things to do is to bake and it

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does not coincide with trying to be fit
but something I love to do so i had to

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make it all work

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so do you have any last thoughts you’d
like to share it doesn’t matter where

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you are in life what you are in like if
you believe in yourself that’s all that

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really matters doesn’t matter what
anybody else says or what they do what

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you need to focus on you and do what
makes you happy as long as you’re happy

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that’s all that matters

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very well put well thank you very much
for coming on the show Diane I really

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appreciate it thanks for having me

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definitely to have you back and in the
next six months to a year and see how

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you’re doing

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that’s what or how about you come back
on the show it after your half marathon

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that sounds like a deal

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great thank you very much doubt thank
you for joining us for this episode of

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the dreamers podcast

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follow us on twitter and dreamers
podcast join us on facebook at

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facebook.com slash dreamers podcast

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if you or someone you know would like to
be a guest on the dreamers podcast

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please send an email to j and j parr .
co this podcast is copyright 2014 by j

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parr . cone

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yeah