www.size10chronicles.com

I was looking at a picture of Big Koncrete and was wondering…can a girl have a vaccuum too? I have been thinking about a vaccuum for me for days? It seems possible (in theory) but is it?

I am so SICK of looking like a before picture! But the good thing about looking like a before picture now, is I actually do look like a before picture instead of an "as if, I don’t think so" picture as I did a year ago. I’ve done a lot and actually look good now…in clothes. Now it is time to look good OUT of clothes (or at least in a bikini) which is why I’m posting my 12 week transformation pictures here. Starting now!  Go Alissa, you can get ‘er done!

Although I’ve seen them in my videos today was the first time I looked down and saw my top 4 abs. I kept looking at my belly in the shower and was confused. What’s those lines? And then it dawned on me…those are your abs darling! You can see the definition with your own eyes. Wow!

March 10, 2009, 9:11 am      

The Day: Waist Reduction

Setha Sean Alissa Gardenhire-Crooks today.

Christopher Crooks Alissa Gardenhire-Crooks, about a year ago — before she dieted and exercised her way into a size 10.

Update | 3:50 p.m. We couldn’t let the day end without showing you what Alissa Gardenhire-Crooks looks like today. See photo at right. Here’s what we wrote about her this morning:

Since long before launch day, we have been watching with admiration a blog called The Size 10 Chronicles, by Maplewood resident Alissa Gardenhire-Crooks. For the last 11 months she has been exercising and eating better, trying to get into and zip up a pair of size 10 jeans.

A year ago, in size 20 pants, she was trying to qualify for bariatric surgery. Then she began working with Dwayne McDaniel, a trainer who owns the Diamond Gym in Maplewood, and taking a monthly video of herself trying to squeeze into the pants. There are episodes in her video-log entitled Risking Humiliation, Passive Butt Development, Hot Sauce Saved Me From A Reece’s Cup, and Steam Your Cauliflower. And there are pictures of cottage cheese and dinner salads and Dr. Gardenhire-Crooks’ growing grins as she wore increasingly svelte workout clothes.

We were back and forth on e-mail hoping to include her on the Local, (make that Lo-Cal?) so we could follow her in detail, but yesterday we got an e-mail with “finally” in the subject line, and it read, “The March Jeans Try On is out and the jeans are up and closed!”

Voila. She had met her goal.

Dr.  Gardenhire-Crooks, who has a Ph.D in urban planning and is a researcher at MDRC, a social policy research organization, later wrote of her shock at her accomplishment, and mentioned her new goal: “8s now for me so I can rock that bikini properly at the Maplewood pool this summer!”

On her latest video she mentioned how she will be working with her trainer at a fitness boot camp, and is now consulting with teenagers, in “a Size Teen Chronicles” program.

Throughout, her young son has been watching her progress. He helps (?) narrate her video, and when she finally gets into those size 10 pants, he can be seen running onscreen to pull off the sales tag.

“My son took the label off,” she said. “It must really be true.”

Congratulations!

And speaking of trimming fat — the budgetary kind — the meeting last night of the South Orange Board of Trustees, where the actual budget was not actually on the agenda, was rescheduled for next Monday in a larger location, to be determined. Trustee Michael Goldberg said in an e-mail this morning that about 100 people had turned out.

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Locals,             Alissa Gardenhire-Crooks, South Orange

Am I done? No!