My boyfriend takes the most beautiful photos of me. I tease him all the time saying "you truly missed your calling in life".
He is not a photographer nor has he trained as a photographer. The photos began where we feel in love, at his home in Mexico. There hasn't been a day that goes by where I don't catch him sneaking a picture of me. He is my rock! The strongest hardest working smartest rock I have ever known!
When I first met William I was forty-five pounds heavier than I am now. Forty-five pounds may not seem like a lot to many of you or, it may seem like an absorbanant amount. For me, it felt like a slow death of who I really was.
I had a tough two and a half years. Prior to meeting my love I had went through a miserable few years. It's been six years since I relocated from my small home town of Dayton Ohio to Southern California. I had major success immediately "coming off the boat" so to speak!
Within two months of arriving I had scored a Tony award winning client, several spots on the local news both in San Diego and LA and was given the green light to run my detox retreats at the #one health spa in the Country! It looked like my move had paid off! Or did it?
It wasn't long before I got caught up in the glitz and glamour of what many refer to as SoCals "socialite circuit". Only I was the new girl in town! No children, never married and prime meat so to speak. Although I refrained from dating for the first three years I was here, I did meet someone who "sought out my chef services" via social media. I began dating this man not knowing that I was in for a whirlwind of emotional ups & downs, highs & lows along with several sleepless nights. This would take place over a course of just a few short months. I knew my money was getting low. I had spent a big part of my savings and before I knew it, I had went from having two million in the bank down to $50,000. It was scary considering little was coming in.
I really didn't care, after all, I was four months into a "great" relationship and he had asked me to marry him! We found a home on a golf course that was lovely and moved in right away. I was scared, I knew something wasn't right but I was more scared of loosing what I thought I wanted.
After just one month living in that home I got a call from my "finance's ex" saying he had been calling her and texting her A LOT! I didn't believe a word of it. She was a single mom of three kids, older and as my fiancé referred to her "crazy"! I was over looking a lot of things, one of them being an almost constant pot smoking habit of his. Being a green juicing health nut I was watching a pattern that was almost crippling for me to see. Without sharing too much, I'll just say this, I didn't know how to become vulnerable enough to share how much this habit bothered me. Who was I to speak up?
We split about a month later when he confirmed that he had seen her for "lunch". My heart was broken and my raw food diet became a smorgasbord of cooked heavy fat foods that I would eat late at night by myself in this huge home I had been left in to pay for. Let me just say~I'm truly grateful for the experience now~I learned so much about what I truly wanted!
Two weeks after my ex fiancé was gone I was on one of my morning runs when suddenly I was on the ground! I was behind our home running with my little Lhasa Apso Louis deep into the golf course at 5am on a Sunday. No one heard me scream for close to two and a half hours. I didn't know then but I had broken my foot in two different places. I would be unable to walk for the next seven months.
There I was with no family in Southern California. In fact, I have no family in California! I had been cheated on, my engagement was over, I was paying $5000 per month in rent for a home I didn't want to live in and all my personal items were in storage back in Ohio.
Before long my money had ran out. I decided to put my last 30,000 grand into my websites being revamped. I hired a local girl that came recommended. Although she was coming in "hung over", she somehow decided she would change her career into EXACTLY what I was doing. It was amusing to say the least! It also made me feel very betrayed. She was the one person I placed my trust into and she too had let me down.
After a while I realized that I needed to do something and do it fast. Thinking at what a San Diego news caster had said about my ability to captivate an audience through my video presence and looks, I started my YouTube channel. Here is where I found my sanity again.:)
The channel came alive before my eyes and my beloved friend who shot my videos suggested I shoot something one day that instantly went viral! I was beginning to find my mojo again. Unfortunately my weight kept going up due to my financial worries. Having been a former pin up and fitness model, this was devastating to me. In turn, I isolated myself, sometimes for days at a time.
I remember speaking to a friend of mine on the phone about a year ago who told me someone wanted to meet me. I remembered looking at the persons social media and saying "no way ~ he's not for me"! My male friend continued saying "he is such a success Andrea, he's buying a railroad, he loves yoga, he's such a great guy"! I peaked again and there I saw a photo of William doing yoga, with no shirt on! I was smitten! He had the most chiseled tricep and back muscles I had ever seen on a man! I was so taken with that photo that I screen saved it:)!
I decided to reach out with a message~ it was so incredibly lame now that I look back to see what I said..."Hi there, I see you are following me on my page, wanna become friends"? He responded quickly "sure". Then he followed it with "for some reason I cannot friend request you"? "Dam those 20,000 Facebook followers" I said and I gave him my number. The next day I get a rather long text from him with a description that read like it was a personal ad. Bewildered and loathing text I simply replied "I prefer ear to ear or face to face conversations". He called that night.
Our phone conversation lasted about twenty minutes. William was walking to a drugstore because he had a cold. "Why in the hell would you be picking up a prescription" I asked? Should I not? OF COURSE NOT! I went on a health banter and before long he dismissed my endless need to play doctor with a sexually inappropriate remark. We got off the phone and I placed him in my contacts under the name "DON'T PICK UP"! Again, he was not for me!
The next night he called again and the next night and the next. Our conversations became longer but I didn't want to meet him in person. I had all of these financial issues I was trying to repair by working my ass off. Just three months prior I had been dropped by the #1 TV network for a reality show I was chosen to be on and they were spreading lies that had been all over the national news! Paparazzi and all! It had truly been the worst year of my life and I was petrified to invite anyone into my devastated little World! Then there was the weight! The grueling "why can't I shine my light" heavy weight that was weighing me down emotionally as well as physically!
Then it happened. William showed up again and again. He kept taking me to social situations that I had been shying away from due to my weight gain. Within three months, he loved the forty-five pounds right off of me. Then the confidence began to came back. My light began to come back. My truth began to come back. I loved the way I felt every time he looked at me and I love him more today than ever!
Thank you William! Thank you, Thank you Thank you for loving me back to health! For loving me back to happiness and for loving me back to the woman I always knew I could be.
What he did that boosted my self esteem & helped me release the weight
- He reminded me of how beautiful I was daily. Even though I was holding onto 54 pounds I had never seen in my entire 35 years on this Earth, William saw through the weight and into my heart. He would tell me I looked like an angel when he would wake next to me.
- He smothered me with flowers! I cannot remember a time during the first four months of our relationship that I didn't get flowers every time he showed up at my home. My favorite arrangement was one he hand picked and made the card himself!
- He took care of my worries by fixing problems the moment they came up. It didn't matter what the problem was, William was there to solve it, hands on! From a carpet stain to cleaning the garage, I soon discovered I had a "Mr. Fix it" on my hands!
- He believed in me! William opened his ocean front home so that I could hold private retreats for my VIP clients! He knew this would help me get back onto my feet and it did.
- He was proud to be seen with me & made me a part of his family. It wasn't long before I had the blessing of meeting Williams son and the rest of his family. He always included me in family events from the beginning.
Please enjoy the photos William has taken of me and of us over the past year. My rock~my love~my renewed confidence....I love this man!
Morning juice after the first night we ever spent in Mexico:) I was SO incredibly self conscious in this photo that I had three layers of clothing on! William saw me drinking my juice and said "stop, I want to capture this moment".
Our first trip to laguna! The first ten pounds was already gone!
Our Easter Sunday in Mexico!
Loving me before a romantic dinner at his home that same night.
Our first San Francisco trip!
