Weight lost, confidence gained

This new year and new lifestyle has brought new positivity to my life. I began working at Best Western cleaning rooms in the morning and working desk at night. Working here also comes with benefits such as employee use of the pools, hot tub and fitness room. With physical labor in my life as well as complete use to the fitness room, I decided this was the year. The year I would finally reach my weight goal: 120 pounds, what I weighed when I first started college.

Lent helped as well. This year I decided to make things hard and give up two of my favorite snacks: Doritos and popcorn. Last year I gave up Doritos and I lost a few pounds so I decided to take things up a notch and eliminate popcorn from my diet as well. Since the beginning of the year, I have lost 14 pounds, a couple more pounds less than my goal.

Because of this weight loss, I feel more comfortable in my body. I feel happier. Healthier. Because of my improved body, I have adopted a riskier sense of style as well. Still conservative however. Sexy, not slutty. In this photo, I model my new favorite outfit. I wore this during my town's celebration.

However, also because of this weight loss, I have inherited a new rumor as well, or reputation. One morning, cleaning rooms in 100º heat plus, I became extremely light-headed. I felt as if I would faint at any moment. My manager sent me home and I didn't work my desk shift that night either. A couple days later, I tried cleaning rooms again but couldn't do it. I made the decision to quit housekeeping until the weather cools down.

Due to my light-headedness, my co-workers automatically assumed I must have an eating problem. They know and see I have lost a lot of weight and figured I am not eating enough. I want to let everyone know that I still eat regularly. The only changes in my diet are not as much snacking and late-night eating. And I'm still eating the same amount of meals, just not as big proportions because ... my stomach has shrunk! I understand they're just worried about me, and that makes me happy, but don't take something like heat exhaustion and turn it into an eating disorder. I just felt so embarrassed!

I did weigh myself and I do weigh two pounds under my ideal weight for my height, but I know that I'm healthy. I feel the healthiest than ever before. Start to worry when my bones stick through my skin and my face sinks in.