By Wen Liu • September 23, 2019
In January, we received a Facebook message from Shelly, who excitedly showed us a set of “before” and “after” photos after she took collagen for four weeks.
After chatting a little more with Shelly and getting her permission to post, I wanted to share her story, so you can hear about her uplifting attitude and lifestyle. A lot of people don’t believe that despite what genes you are born with, you can use diet and exercise to control how you look, how you feel, how you work, and how you take care of your family. But, let me tell you a little bit more about Shelly.
She is a 44-year-old mother of three and legislative assistant for the Illinois House of Representatives.
Being a working mom is definitely hard, it consumes a tremendous amount of time and energy every day. Shelly spends a lot of time commuting, and a lot of time taking care of her three teenagers, which makes it almost impossible to live a perfectly healthy life.
Doing your best each day is all it takes to live healthily.
Shelly prepares dinner at home, tries her best to avoid fried food and squeeze 5 portions of veggies into her diet, however, she would also eat fast food, and enjoy a sundae with her kids in the local dairy queen. She finds supplements a perfect compliment on the gaps in her diet. As she often doesn’t consume enough protein from food, collagen helps her fill the gap. Shelly doesn’t believe in skincare products other than SPF 70 as she says “health for my skin comes from the inside out.”
Sometimes Shelly would forget about taking collagen when work was hectic, and she could tell from her skin that something is missing.
To make up for that, she would then take a double dose to get an extra boost.
Besides benefiting her skin, collagen has also reduced her joint pain and equipped her with more mobility. Even though she was never athletic in early years, she started to work out more when she turned 40. She would do an hour of speed walking everyday, and two weekends ago, she and her kids participated in the Big Dawg Dare. You can see her big smile after this exciting 5K mud run.
A lot of people I’ve talked to are intimidated to live a healthy lifestyle because they think they can never look like a supermodel or bodybuilder, and they don’t have the time or money to cook as nutritionists recommend.
I am sharing Shelly’s story to all of you because that is how you, and I, and everyone can live healthily and happily. We embrace a few healthy tips, but we also allow a few treats. We embed a healthy lifestyle by cooking delicious meals and attending fun activities with our family. And we use supplements to fill up the gaps where we are not doing perfectly.
Commit to doing one or two healthy tips consistently and you will see and feel changes, just like Shelly.
