Side by side, Maria’s transformation on her weight lost over the past 2 years. Photo contributed by: Maria Ortiz
Being healthy is a really important part of a person’s life. A healthy lifestyle will lead to a longer life. There are certain things one has to do in order to maintain a healthy life, and they are very simple things.
Maria Ortiz, a sophomore at Plymouth High School, was struggling with her weight. She started realizing it when she was in 8th grade. She said;“It started affecting my health because I couldn’t really do any physical exercise.” During the summer of that year she started exercising. She said;“Once I first started it was hard because I wasn’t use to exercising.” Ortiz decided that the best thing to do was to set a goal for herself in order to accomplish something productive for herself.
She began to exercise five days a week. When she first started, she wore an extra large in her clothes. Maria said, “I stopped drinking soda, but I never really went on a diet. I still eat everything I used to eat, but now I eat smaller portions. I also started eating more vegetables and I love them.”
Ortiz’s biggest supporter was her loving family. Her parents and her sisters were always there for her, motivating and helping her. “The greatest thing about me losing weight was that I had the support of my family and my mom taught me how to cook healthy food. My mom also changed her style of cooking which also helped me continue on my new healthy lifestyle.”
One of the things that really motivated Ortiz was a show on television called “Losing it with Jillian Michael’s.” This show was life changing for her, as she noticed the dramatic changes in weight in each of the contestants and it inspired her to begin a new life. Ortiz realized that she could reach her goal without doing anything she would later regret. She really enjoyed the way these people met their goals in such a healthy way.
Now Maria wears a size medium in her clothes. She could tell that she was losing weight because of her clothes that she would wear. She has made so much progress in these past two years. She said,“I would like to help people that want to lose weight, because I know how difficult it is.” Maria now lives a healthy life with her healthy eating style.