My Two Year Anniversary!!!

I can not believe I ever let myself get this big.



At our nephew's wedding- 7/17/09- exactly one month before I made the decision to start living.




Actually, I have been heavier, especially at the end of my first pregnancy with my son. I only gained 17 pounds, but it brought me up to a whopping 251 pounds. The only reason why I didn't gain more was because he was born five weeks early!!

This is probably the only item of clothing I have left- it is not the biggest size I ever wore. When I was pregant with my son, I bought a dress for my girlfriend's wedding shower- it was a 26/28W.





I missed out on a lot of great experiences in the past because of my size. My size always made me fearful of going on amusement park rides- I never thought the restraint systems would hold. One specific adventure I held myself back from going on was when my husband went parasailing on that trip to Florida in July of '09. You had to tell the guys your weight and then you were put into this strap-contraption and slowly suspended 100's of feet in the air. I can't imagine what my fat ass was going to look like spilling through those straps! I hope I have the opportunity again. Next time I'll do it!



I never thought when I was that size that I'd ever be running! One month from today (on my 16th wedding anniversary!) I'm running in my first 10k! 6.2 miles! And in less than a month I will be 40! Just now, I did my mid-week check-in to make sure I'm on course, and the scale said 150.2 lbs, not once, but twice!!! I will definitely hit my original goal of 150 pounds before my 40th birthday. But I don't think that is my ultimate goal. I am 5' tall, mind you, and I feel I do have more fat on my body that can vacate the premises. I would like to see what I look and feel like at 140 pounds. Right now I fit into size 8 pants, so maybe I'll get to a size 6. I do know that maintaining this weight will be work, A LOT of work. But I am willing to do it because I will not go back.

77 pounds gone (official weigh-ins are Saturdays). At first I started eating better and exercising because my 20th high school reunion was on 10/17/09 and I didn't want to go being the fat one. How much weight did I think I was going to drop in two months? Well, I didn't go anyway. My biggest inspiration and encouragement, though, came from my husband. I thank him for igniting the fire inside me to achieve this. While watching the Biggest Loser marathon (the season with kick-ass Tara) he asked me if I ever thought about running a marathon. I knew in my present condition I wouldn't be able to do it, but I always thought that crossing the finish line after 26.2 miles would be a MAJOR accomplishment and something to check off the "bucket list." We started walking together and adding some S L O W jogging every lap. The Couch to 5k also gets some credit here. I picked it up at about week 4 or 5 of the 9 week program. I highly recommend it to anyone contemplating running!

So, now I can run a 5k, no sweat! I ran 6 miles this past Saturday, but on the treadmill. I have to get outside and do it on regular land to make sure I'm ready on 9/17. I'll be thinking about a lot of stuff while running that race, especially since there are no headphones allowed. I'll be thinking about how hard it was to run that first time, barely getting myself around half of the lap. I'll remember when I ran my first mile and I asked my husband if he was proud of me and he said "I was proud of you from the moment you first started." I'll think back to my first 5k on 6/5/10 when I couldn't run the entire thing and finished in 42:42. So, in a rematch on 6/4/11, I ran the entire thing with my husband and finished in 34:25. So many accomplishments to be proud of, so many milestones I hit. Most importantly, I am proud of MYSELF for all of this. I did it.