I received a two line email this morning from one of my best friends down the block. We kid swap/do coffee etc.

Just to give you a little background. One of our mutual friends posted a Facebook update dissing cottage cheese. She finds it just so foul even though she knows its so good for her.

In reply, I sent her a link to Krista's site with ..what..like a hundred different ways to prepare cottage cheese? Seriously, a friend of mine can't go through this world without knowing the pleasures of this awesome source of protein right?

Anyway, here's a link from friend number 1's email

"I didn't get a chance to talk to you this morning, I felt ADD.

I ate cottage cheese and applesauce with walnuts for breakfast and thought of you. "

This totally made my day ladies. It's the beginning of a ripple effect. I'm sure of it. Cottage cheese today, protein powder tomorrow and who knows, maybe all my girlfriends from the "coffee club" will be posing at the Arnold in three years. Better be careful of what I wish for though, if they take to clean eating, who will I enjoy illicit bagels with every once in a while.

Anyone else have a "ripple" effect story they want to add. I've got another one to share but I'll wait till all of you post.

Ripple effect?

Hmm....most of you all know I started working out at a little private gym with a trainer just over 2 years ago. Since then, 12 coworkers (including 2 spouses) have signed up to work out there.

Heh, heh.

Maybe this is a ripple effect?

After watching me become a daily exerciser and healthy eater, DD asked me to help her lose weight. She's lost 55 pounds, which she's kept off for more than five years. Then it was DS's turn and he's lost about 70 pounds.

So our total family weight loss is 257 pounds.

LOVE IT! One of my friends (she is in law school and I don't see her very often) met me for a drink a couple of months ago. About a month ago she contacted me to say she had dropped 20 pounds and that I had inspired her! I LOVED IT! What a wonderful thing to say to me. She called me just last week to ask if I would join her in the Chicago Marathon in October! WOW! Now, SHE is inspiring me!

My future DIL is trying really hard to adhere to clean eating, but being a student with high stress and caf food it's proving very difficult for her... But she now prepares her lunch and snacks to bring to school and she eats with us daily at supper so she eats what we eat... A lot of time she asks what I eat for breakie, lunch and dinner and tries to do the same...Baby steps, baby steps she's trying very hard...

Midwife: Aw! You are the type of client that personal trainers LOVE! A walking billboard of a success story. Twelve of your coworkers joining is fantastic. And that's only of the people you know or who think of off the top of your head. I'm sure there are more and the coworkers will continue the ripple onto others that originally started from you.

Meg: What can I say but that you are one of the best motivators I know. Not only could you write a book about your personal experience, but a second book about how you have guided the journey for others as well. Congrats to your DD and DS! I didn't know this.

Thighs: So are you running the marathon with her? That's awesome.

Ilene: It is about babysteps. Every time I tried and "failed" I learned something new that served me for the next time I tried. Bottom line, there are a lot of little things that have to be incorporated and it takes practice and persistence. I had twelve years of babysteps but finally it did happen. It all seemed so easy once I had the right information. And yet, it took that long...and it's something that continues to be easy/hard every day.

I have found that once the weight is gone and the NSV's have been experienced there is yet another layer to all of this. For me it's been how my experience and habits impact and motivate others to seek their own change and self improvements either in weightloss or some other personal goal or demon they have been chasing.

Over the course of this winter I had noticed a woman at my son's school who appeared to have lost weight. Recalling all the of the attention I received during my own weight loss I hesitated to congratulate her. Sometimes the messages I received were mixed and I didn't want to do that to her.

One afternoon I saw her in the hall and it was unmistakable. She looked amazing. Seriously. So I tentatively approached her and told her she looked beautiful but was everything okay. (Not all weight loss is the result of intentional effort, i.e stress, loss, illness)

She smiled and chatted with me a while. It was an intentional loss and she enjoyed the compliment of course. Best part was, she confided that I was her source of inspiration. Wow. That really hit me.

So, it's really not just about keeping myself in those white pants for the summer, or the blissful way it feels when I can run outside full steam for Oh about 60 seconds. or how much weight I can pull in my deadlift. It's also about how we serve as example to our peers about what is possible in living a full and healthy life beyond our youthful twenties.

Thanks for sharing! Now I need to get back in the basement to pack more boxes. Uhg.

I have a little brag of mine:
One of my ex-coworkers transferred to another department so we don't see each other often; mostly we send each other a joke by email, etc. or fleetingly pass each other somewhere in the building.
He has an 11 year son who is a budding golf champion. I emailed him (the co-worker) that I saw another article on his son in the local paper, and he replied.
Among other things, he said that he had lost 27 lbs and is going for 50; and that I am one of his inspirations.

He totally made my day!

I'm new on the boards and still poking around, so this may be common knowledge, but...

What is Krista's site and where can I find the list of ways to fix cottage cheese?

Thanks!

Krista's site is www.stumptuous.com - love it. At least I think that is the one Lydia was referring to in her post. Don't know of another Krista. Sadly, I don't know anything about cottage cheese.

I've been lurking... here's the site http://www.stumptuous.com/the-cottage-cheese-page

Yep. That's the site and that's the link. Thanks for filling in the gaps for me ladies.

Tomato: See these are the things going on around us that we have no idea about. (coworker inspired by our own efforts) Totally love it.

Beaka: No need to lurk. Come on in and join us. I'm kind of on sabatical from the forum until I get "my house in order" literally. I'm in the process of moving from Columbus, Ohio to Fairfax, Va. Good Times.