A Moment of Reflection

Spring has just begun, and the weather has not yet received the memo.  Therefore, I decided to take a moment to think and write about my journey over the last year.  Last winter, I realized that I had slowly been changing.  I had been an active young girl, I always had energy for "one more horse" or "one more hay wagon," or even something more conventionally "fun." I had deteriorated into a homebody that barely had the energy to get through a workday, let alone ride my one horse, and I could generally manage to make something for dinner every night.  That's it.  I had gained weight, and on top of it I was miserably unhappy and couldn't figure out why.  My fiancee (then-boyfriend) was sometimes annoyed because he could tell my whole personality had changed - the person he had met and fallen in love with was missing.

When I came to this realization, I knew that something had to change.  I wasn't happy with how I looked, or felt, and I knew I didn't want to feel like this anymore.  So I took a good, hard look at what the two of us were eating, and slowly started adjusting.  I started using my Wii Fit (though I quickly realized this was not a viable option when our poor 110 year old home's living room floors were flexing under all my bouncing, hopping, running in place.  Believe me, it doesn't make you feel good when your home struggles under your weight).  So instead, I joined a gym.  Slowly, diligently, I worked at helping myself get better.  More and more veggies worked their way into mealtimes.  I felt myself getting physically stronger. It was great!

At least, I thought it would be great.  I still had a muffin top - partially exaggerated by today's clothing styles (why do jeans these days exacerbate the muffin top?).  I had lost a little weight, and I had a little more energy than before, and I continued struggling on.

In the meantime, I kept seeing posts on Facebook, from a friend I had known since childhood.  She had a very optimistic outlook on her adventure.  She had some AMAZING posts.  She had been posting little comments about how her life was improving, the exercises she had accomplished, and the goals she kept accomplishing.  What finally made the decision for me was when she posted pictures of herself over a two month period and you could actually SEE the amazing changes she had experienced.  I wanted to experience it for myself!

I committed to 30 days in August and lost several pounds and inches (though at the time, I thought I could maintain on my own so I didn't keep track of the actual numbers).  I just got back on the bandwagon a little over a month ago, and I will be sure to keep you updated as to my progress!