It’s All About Food
The clean stuff, that is. Forget the freshman 15 — try the freshman 35!
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Name: Sheridan Sikes | Hometown: Bentonville, Arkansas | Age: 22 | Height: 5’2” |
Old weight: 185 lb | Current weight: 130 lb | Occupation: Personal trainer | Fave bodyparts to train: Legs and booty. “I used to hate my muscular legs, but now I love my curves and do lots of squats to maintain them.”
Sheridan Sikes, a former high school gymnast and cheerleader, had a hard reality check when she tried out for her collegiate cheering squad: She failed to make the cut because of her weight. A typical teen newly free of her parents’ rules, Sikes drank lots of soda, ate a lot of fast food and sweets, and partied like nobody’s business. But it soon caught up to her, and she grew weary of her weight. “I was the friend who never had dates, never had guys buying me drinks and never got attention,” she says. “Even though I was always the jokester and people liked me, I was sick of being who I was.”
She decided to make a change, so she went to the gym and did the elliptical for an hour every day. Weeks later, the scale hadn’t moved. Puzzled, she went twice a day for a total of two hours. The scale still didn’t move. After a month, Sikes decided to do something crazy. “I cut out bread, pasta, soda, alcohol, fast food and fried food — and I was devastated!” she admits. “This was totally the hardest part for me, but once I gave up things like Dr. Pepper and began eating fruit, vegetables, chicken and fish, the weight began to melt off my body.”
Her transformation also had a domino effect on her family. “My brothers always had trouble gaining weight, but they started lifting recently and have made huge gains,” she says. “And my mom is down almost 20 pounds! I am so proud of my family for wanting to make a lifestyle change and get healthier and fitter like I did.”
Sikes recently graduated from college with a degree in kinesiology and has become a personal trainer. “This career is so rewarding,” she says. “I hope one day I can take my training online so I can reach people around the world. My transformation has not only changed me on the outside but on the inside, as well. It is amazing to wake up every morning feeling healthy and so alive.”