Hi there. Wow, where to begin? The last 10 years have been a whirlwind of life events. I am a single mom of three young children. With the split of my ex-husband we are just starting out our life as a foursome. The last several months have been stressful and draining. I am 35, but feel like I have aged 10 years in this past one!! My kids are 6, 4 and 20 months. They are wonderful children, but with little to no time away from them, I am feeling drained. As this is a new chapter in my life, and theirs, I would love to regain some confidence and lead them confidently. This would be a huge step, in making myself a priority and feel deserving of such a wonderful gift. To combine physical and mental rejuvenation would be amazing.

There have been many moves leading me across the country from Toronto, to Winnipeg then Vancouver and eventually ending up in beautiful Brentwood Bay!! With those moves came career changes, from an airline pilot, to a business owner, to retail leasing and now a work from home bookkeeper.

Of course there is no bigger life changing event then the birth of a new baby. And in 5 years I had 3!!  They are wonderful children and keep me laughing every day, and we are really finding our stride together as a foursome. I won’t lie; it has been an exhausting few years. With the addition of each child came stress, fatigue and postpartum depression. Added to that we were first time home buyers in a crazy real estate market, in an unfamiliar town. What a recipe for disaster!! Lol!!

Last year my ex-husband and I separated under stressful circumstances. It was a tumultuous time in our family. I struggled day to day. I could see my kids were so lost and I couldn’t help them because I was lost too. It was heart wrenching.

What I’ve learned through past life struggles and the lives and deaths of my dearest family and friends; is when things are at their worst… you must not give up. And in this past year, I have had so many people reach out to me. Some I had not heard from in years. Some I had only just met. My oldest and most special friends, sent me kids clothing, came from out of town to visit, and even helped me house hunt. A constant barrage of e-mail, text messages, and phone calls kept me going. I will forever be grateful for my wonderful friends new and old. Week by week I feel stronger. Week by week I see my children settling and opening up. They are becoming the children I’ve always known they were. I am becoming the mother I always wanted to be. With the stress of an unhealthy marriage gone, my children and I are bonding in a way that wasn’t possible before. They are gaining confidence. And so I’m I. We are entering a new life stage. And it’s a great life stage.

I pour my heart and soul into my children. And I realize the best gift I can give them, is a really great mom. I would love this opportunity to repair myself physically and emotionally. To fully embrace this life change with a new and improved me, would be absolutely wonderful. Thank you to all the sponsors for the great prizes and opportunities. Thank you so much for your consideration.

As of this date, March 25, 2012. at the age of 53, I have lost 134 lbs. I am less than 25 lbs away from my goal weight and I can say with 100% certainty that I will reach that goal this year.

A few months after turning 50 I weighed myself.  I knew it wouldn’t be good. I’d been wearing size 22 for several years. Even more importantly, I had reached a point where I was honestly concerned when I went to sleep at night that I might not wake up. But back to the scale – I was nervous in case I’d reached the dreaded 300 lbs, but I figured that I might have. Well, the number was 319 (not 320 – though who am I fooling – if I’d had a glass of water prior to the weigh in, it would have been). I had a serious 50 year old talk with myself.  I decided that I either had to accept that this was me and learn to like myself or do something about it. I waffled a bit, but ultimately I started making changes. Most of my adult life I had weighed around 200 lbs, a size 18 or so, but in my 40s I had become morbidly obese.

When I started this journey almost 3 years ago, all I wanted was to be ‘normal’ so that I wouldn’t  be noticed when I walked in a room because usually that wasn’t a positive thing. But as I grow more confident I want to be the best that I can be. I hid behind weight for a long time, but I don’t want to hide myself anymore – I want to be bold and put myself out there!

I have had a lot of help and support in my journey and I am still a work in progress when it comes believing that I deserve good things and to treat myself well. I know that many women have similar feelings – but this is another area that I am committed changing so the next part of my life is all that it can be.

Looking over what the lucky winner will be rewarded with in the Look Amazing contest I would be so grateful to be considered. I would enjoy sharing my story and I am not shy to do so.
Whiter teeth can take years off. I’ve tried those strips and whitening toothpaste but haven’t really seen results! I feel much younger than 53 – while I haven’t been a smoker for over 25 years, I have to admit to enjoying my coffee and red wine. I tried to be daring recently with a little red lipstick, but I swear it only made my teeth look yellow. Professional teeth whitening would be a terrific boost to my appearance.

When I look at pictures of myself over the last 15 years or so, I see that I’ve worn variations of the mid-length bob for that long. While I think it’s a great look, I would be thrilled to ‘change it up’ and try something new. I’m lucky that what grey that I have seems to disappear and I just call them ‘highlights’. I’ve never played around much with colour but would love to have the fun of trying something exciting out!

I’ve lost a great deal of weight and one of the big changes I made was a regular fitness regime, working with a personal trainer and have built muscles but still have bulges and baggy areas on my body. I’d love a chance to see what non-surgical body contouring treatment add to the changes I’ve made under my skin.

When I look in the mirror these days I’m a little surprised that I seemed to have aged more in the last couple of years. My face has gotten thinner like the rest of me – those lines and wrinkles are sure more noticeable now that it’s not as ‘plump’. Sometimes I just think my face looks a little tired – but I don’t feel tired and it would be so wonderful to look as great as I feel with a customized skin rejuvenation package.

I’ve always taken care of my skin, but I would certainly benefit from professional advice on skin care products that I should be using. I haven’t really made a lot of changes to the products I’ve been using for years, but I know that my skin is changing as I get older. I’d also really appreciate tips that I could learn from a professional make-up application. I know I should be updating my methods, which consist of using the same colours, shades and products I’ve used for years.

I am still struggling with accepting what I look like now. I’m so much more confident, but still carry baggage that I want to shed. In my professional life I have confidence, but I really want to make strides in my personal life and relationships. I measure the last time I had a date not in years, but in decades! What a great opportunity it would be for me to be accepted to win a life coaching package. It would be an amazing experience to open my mind to endless possibilities.
It’s been exciting for me to go from a size 22 to a size 14 and through the transition I’ve relied on friends’ hand me down cloths, consignment stores and good sales. My goal is to where a size 10, but I do need to shop smartly and watch my budget. It could be very expensive to replace all my clothes and to keep from going overboard and buying everything that I want. Not only would it be amazing to win a $250.00 gift certificate for some new clothes – but in would be invaluable to be able to consult with a fashion stylist to learn how to build an efficient wardrobe that looks great.

A custom made bathing suit to fit your body type would be awesome! Bathing suits are one of those things that women find hard to shop for even when they have a great body. I know that I don’t have the body of a teenager – but I’ve worked very hard for the body that I have now and I’m pretty proud.

What can I say about winning two nights complimentary stay with breakfast for 2 in Herons West Coast Kitchen & Bar….I can either have a great girls weekend – or dare I hope that maybe I could even have a chance for a romantic getaway in the next year or so!

I haven’t had a professional picture taken of myself since my high school reunion in 1976! I’ve never been married so I don’t even have any of those crazy wedding pictures from the ’80s that so many of my friends have to laugh at! A professional photo shoot would be a great way to culminate the goals that I’ve achieved.

Thank you for reading my story, I hope I have a chance to be part of the 2012 Look Amazing Contest. Even just going through the process would be a growth experience for me. But ultimately the future just looks happy and bright!

At 15 I was a single mother….I spent my youth (happily ) raising 4 kids (I had 4 by the time I was 22) but there wasn’t a lot of “me” time….I have no regrets, I have 4 amazing children (and 4 amazing grandchildren)!! For the last 8 years I have been the Manager of the Victoria Branch of the BC SPCA. It is an amazing job and I love it, but it is also a very stressful and emotional job. We take animals out of horrible neglect and abusive situations and try so hard to rehabilitate them and find them new homes. Many of them have never known any kindness in their lives and sometimes just getting them to let us hold them takes weeks….they come to us so scared and confused and we try and teach them what it is like to be safe and know kindness and love…. We cry a lot at my workplace….sometimes because of the unbelievable neglect and cruelty we see…sometimes from the pain we see the animals suffering in….and we even cry happy tears…when an animal we have cared for, worked with, and loved, finally finds their new “forever home” with people who will love them…..

When I first started to work for the SPCA, my husband said I needed to quit because I always came home crying…..I told him when I stopped crying and feeling for these poor souls, when it stopped affecting me so deeply, that then I should quit…and I hope I never become immune to the suffering I see on a daily basis…. My home has been the foster home to many, many animals over the years…at one time I had 53 ringworm kittens in my basement suite because we couldn’t keep them at the shelter…eventually they all recovered and were adopted out…..I have had many, many litters of puppies and pregnant moms giving birth at my home….and have bottle fed through the night newborns with no moms….all this has taken a toll on me emotionally and physically and you can see the lines and aging in my face!

In my position I do a lot of Fundraising and Public Speaking Engagements..I deal with the Media often and I feel very self conscious and embarrassed when I see myself in the paper or on TV. I think it would wonderful to have a MakeOver and be able to attend all these media functions with a new confidence ! My father was diagnosed with cancer 11 years ago and was in hospice this last year…sadly he passed away in February….helping to care for him and watching him in the last year was certainly hard emotionally and physically on me…..travelling to Vancouver every week to spend time with him was a honor, but also exhausted me and added years to my looks….it would be wonderful to have some pampering now and have a Professional Makeover! Thank you for considering my application.

I am 36 years old, a mother of a 12 week old boy named Jagger, and have been lucky enough to have found  a 7 year partner in Joe. How my beautiful son came into this world has been quite the journey…

I grew up on Vancouver Island and was living in Victoria when I decided to move to Banff, Alberta to enjoy the mountain life. This is where I met Joe and we moved to Calgary so I could study to become a resident care aide. When I started working on an Acquired Aggressive Brain Injury Unit, life seemed to be coming together better than ever before. I was in love with a truly wonderful and caring guy, I had finally chosen a career and we were ready to start a family! Joe was coming home from work one night when he crossed a street a couple of blocks from our house and a car hit Joe. An ambulance came and took him to the local hospital as he had been thrown in the air over the car and it did not look good. This put life in full perspective for us and more than ever we wanted a child before something tragic could take it all away from us, but financially the accident had set us back at least a year.

When we went to Mexico for my sister’s wedding the following year, romance had been in the air and we found out we were pregnant a few weeks after getting back home! After 8 weeks I lost the baby. It devastated me into depression and I put on 20lbs. I let myself believe my only chance had past me by after that but five months later I found out I was pregnant again. I was grateful to have been given a second chance but what if it happened again!? At 16 weeks I started having the same feelings as I had with the first pregnancy. We quickly booked an ultrasound. At the appointment they discovered that the baby had enlarged kidneys. I was grateful that I had not lost the baby but I was terrified that my child would not be healthy.

During my pregnancy I was closely monitored by a radiologist and I received all the standard tests that you receive during a pregnancy and everything was normal, including the test for gestational diabetes, which I will come back to later… Our plan had been to move to Victoria in June after our child was to be born. We were saving every penny we could to make the move. Well when it rains it pours and last August Joe lost his job. The move to Victoria would be happening sooner than we thought.

At the beginning of December we flew to the Island and moved into our apartment in Victoria. I was so happy to be home. Before we left Calgary the radiologist had given our child the green light on his kidneys. Even though I had been gaining more weight than was expected and my pregnancy was becoming difficult I was happy that soon I would be meeting my baby boy!
Standards for gestational diabetes are different in Alberta than in BC. When I met with my delivery doctor here in Victoria and she went over my charts she realized that I was dealing with Gestational diabetes. I was now 33 weeks and if I had known I would have been testing my blood to keep my sugar levels. When I gave birth, I had an emergency C-section as Jagger’s blood sugar levels were critically low. We were in the hospital for 6 days before he finally stabilized. Seeing my baby with tubes and IV’s was the most sobering moment of my life. I have never been so scared.  We prayed the whole week until we were allowed to take our baby home.
Jagger is happy and healthy and after 12 weeks of colic we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. We find joy every day that he is here! I gained 65 pounds on top of the 20 I was already over weight. I’ve lost the 65lbs and am working on the rest. The pregnancy was incredibly hard on my skin and body but I am ready to be an active and inspiring mother. I want Jagger to have the best role model he can have in me. This contest would truly help me to move forward and feel great in my own skin. I will do the work but I could use the extra help. Thank you so much for listening to my story and considering me for the contest.