Friday, November 21, 2014

Rachel's Journey

This is a friend of mine that I used to work with.  I like to talk but I think she can tell her story better than I can:




Ok so people have asked me my story a few times. And I've skirted around this issues and left information out because it was still something I hadn't fully dealt with. So here's the whole raw story of me up til now

When I was a kid, I was a little chubbier than the other kids, no big deal. By second grade though, I wasn't just chubby, I was the fat kid. The years of teasing and being picked on sucked, at first I would come home and cry a lot with my mum, then I began to internalize it a bit more and just dealt with it on my own. Lets fast forward to middle school, I HATED LIFE, teen age girls are mean but the guys were even worse. It was then I developed an eating disorder. Now mind you, I tried everything to lose weigh, I was in dance, horseback riding, swim team, I did not just sit around and do nothing. I began to binge and purge, regularly, it allowed me to have some form of control in a world where I felt like i didn't have control over anything else. Middle school was the most miserable time of my life. So much so, I transferred to a magnet high school so I wouldn't have to be around those people anymore. By my freshman year in high school I was already in a size 18. I went through the motions of high school, but never fully enjoyed it. I still was picked on and made fun of for my size. After I graduated high school, I went on to college, packed on the freshmen 15, which was more like 35 lets be real. I was still binging and purging regularly, like everything I ate. My cousin finally confronted me about it, and I broke down and cried with her for hours. I got married at 20, he was my world. So I lost about 20 pounds for the wedding and I was so happy. I had controlled my urges some to stop binging and purging everything, I still dealt with the voices that tell you 'oh you ate to much you really should get rid of it'. Between my cousin and my then husband I had a good support system. Then I decided to try a new diet, medifast and it worked great! I was seeing results and working out. My husband left for basic training, which pushed me to work even harder. He didn't even recognize me at his graduation. But then I moved over seas, stopped medifast, I kept up my workouts, but the weight slowly crept back on. After seeing my doctor, he attributed a lot of my weight gain to my medications for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which I had suffered with my whole life. I became very depressed. But then a miracle happened, I became pregnant.

Let me tell ya, I took full advantage of being pregnant, yes I worked out, but man I ate EVERYTHING. By the time I gave birth I weighed a whopping 289 lbs, and that is a lot on my little 5'3 frame. When my son was almost 2 we moved back to Florida for a year, and I began to go thru a lot of personal issues with my marriage and myself, I stopped working out as much. In 2011 I moved to WA state after my husband came home from Korea. It was clear that we both had changed, and we were fighting to stay together for our son, but there was nothing left between us. After 11 months of being utterly miserable and depressed, I finally told him I wanted to go home and that I wanted a divorce, we sat and cried together but we both knew it was what was best for all of us. In January of 2012 I move back home with my son to my family's house. I spent a lot of time pitying myself and just eating to ease the pain. By the summer of 2012 I finally had it, I had gone thru the process with my insurance to have the gastric sleeve surgery and 2 weeks before my surgery they changed their mind. I was crushed. My mum then said she would pay for me to go to Mexico and do it like my cousin had. Within 4 weeks I had my date for the surgery and was starting my pre-op diet.

On July 19th 2012, my world changed. I had the gastric sleeve surgery. My starting weight was 268 before all of my pre-op diets. As soon as I got back home I went thru my 3 weeks of liquid only diet, then soft foods, then slowly learning to eat again. But the weight was coming off fast. The first 50 pounds was gone in a month. As soon as I was cleared by my doctors, I began working out. It was intimidating at first because I had no idea what I was doing, so I enlisted the help of a trainer for 6 months, and my body transformed a lot. I took a break from training and tried it on my own for a bit. But now I am back with a different trainer since my original one moved, and it has been a tool that is so beneficial to me. He pushes me and challenges me every session, and even in the last 6 months I have leaned out more and gained way more upper body strength, most importantly I gained someone to continue and motivate me on my journey. I currently weight 161 now, I gained back some of what I lost initially after my mum passed but then regained my motivation as I know she is watching down on me and helping me thru this journey. From a size 22 to a size 5, I gained my life back, my son gained his mom back



Go to www.asharpphoto.biz and contact me so that I can tell your story for you.



Monday, November 17, 2014

Just call me Macgyver

So, when I shoot, I use wireless triggers.  That way, I can mount my flash (speedlite) onto a light stand, control it remotely and be more creative with the light.  Well, in the middle of a headshot session for @detourentertainment, my triggers stopped working.  You really don't want to shoot with your flash on your camera (or with your pop up flash); its just not pretty.

I didn't get frustrated or upset, I put my flash on my camera pointed it into the umbrella I was using to photograph my subject and bounced it off of the umbrella (to get @asharpphoto).  Yeah, doesn't sound that exciting but I felt like Superman (well, technically I'm a Spiderman guy but you know what I mean).  Its great when you have everything you need to do your job but the real test of your ability is when things go wrong.  When things don't work the way they are supposed to, can you adapt and still get the job done?  This takes time and practice.  In my acting class at +Truthful Acting Studios  the other day we talked about how so many people want shortcuts to success.  When you have a shortcut, you will only ever know how to do it exactly that way.  When monkey wrenches are tossed into the works, you will fall apart.  Keep working, keep learning, keep growing; not for the good times but for when everything goes left, you will know the right thing to do.



Here's the shot I got with technical difficulties: