A close friend of my family, Vaden Earle, recently posted an article on his site about my Aunt Kathy and her inspiring story of how she became healthy again after years of being overweight and miserable.

Excerpts of the story follow:

Kathy left an early impression on me in the fall of 2009. She had heard from a coworker that I was experiencing some personal struggles. She immediately got on the phone with me and made sure I knew who to call if I needed anything. Since that day, I can’t think of any person in my life that has been more supportive to me in every imaginable way.

In speaking with Kathy extensively, she shared that she had been having some serious struggles with her weight. She stands about 5’2″ and, at that time weighed 197 lbs. This is where Kathy’s story gets interesting for me.

She admitted that her weight issue had all but decimated any fragment of self esteem that she may have had. “I had no confidence, my self esteem didnt exist,” she says. “It was a horrible struggle for me. I had this outgoing and bubbly personality that was being overrun by the fact that I basically hated myself. It is hard to love yourself when you hate what you see in the mirror.”

I have always been all about chasing your dreams, but even I was challenged by Kathy. I have to be honest, when someone who is 5’2″ and nearly 200 pounds talks of running marathons, it tends to grab your attention. She set her dreams BIG and started pursuing them.

Let’s Fast Forward one year……

This morning this was Kathy’s Facebook status….

Off for a run! I have and obstacle run and 5 half marathons in the next 6 weeks! I better get moving!!! And all of them are dedicated to the people who laughed when I said I wanted to be a runner when I was 197 pounds…whos laughing now! 69 pounds down and feeling great!

Here is Kathy today

“My confidence has never been higher. Now I walk into a room and get attention instead of those awkward stares,” Kathy says with a beaming smile. “Doing this has given me the body that I wanted, the confidence that I needed and the freedom to really be myself again!”

I meet so many people that are not happy with their appearance, weight or some aspect of who they are. Kathy is an inspiration to all of us. She is living proof that you can accomplish your dreams if you are willing to make that first step. Did I mention that Kathy is a mother of 4 and a grandmother of 4?

This blog is not meant to be an advertisement but I have to mention that Kathy attributes her success to participating in the Body By Vi 90 Day Challenge. When I first got involved with this program, Kathy was the first person that I called. She had the determination, self discipline and work ethic to do it. All that she was lacking was a good system to follow.

“The 90 day challenge made it so easy for me to reach my goals… now there is no turning back.”

Kathy is now a promoter for the Challenge and has recently decided it make her full time job.

If you want to see more, contact me directly or Kathy at  irishmom13@hotmail.com.

Seeing my Aunt Kathy during this entire process has be an inspiration to my family. She lost nearly 70lbs in the first 90 days of her ViSalus program.

Recently My wife and I have decided to start this program as well, My wife because she wants to trim down the baby fat she got after giving birth to our now 4 year old son Bryan, and I have decided to start the program to simply get healthier and actually get in real athletic shape for the fist time in my life.

Waking Ideas has never been about selling you anything, although we have a store on our site, we feel we would rather inform you of something worthwhile than to spam the masses with nonsense.

But, if you are interested in this program, we do have a link to it on the top right hand corner.

You can also check out Visalus at my personal Visalus promotion site @ http://taylorlandine.myvi.net/ or Vaden Earle's @ http://vadenearle.bodybyvi.com/

Watching that 5 minute video might be that first step for you. You can also read about Vaden's personal Vi Challenge here.