It’s Monday …

Are you ready to work your hardest to become the healthy happy loveable person you can be? I am. I’ve been working at this for 1.5 years now and I have achieved a good chunk of what I’ve wanted to do. My first goal was to be 200 lbs. I was that when my son was born and for a good 15 years around that. Then I got lazy and the scale crept up and soon it read 230. I know it went higher then that but I refused to see that and it then hit me I was fat. Not just a tiny bit, I was FAT, HUGE, very uncomfortable and FAT!!! No one said a thing, it was just me and they loved me no matter my size. I had come to hate looking in the mirror, cameras where a no-no, going out wasn’t fun anymore…unless it was to dinner, I was all about eating. Now, things are a bit different. I’m still chubby, not fat any more. I am not uncomfortable in anything I do. I can touch my toes, I can tie my shoes, I can reach places that were difficult to reach. I can go to any scouting event because I’m under their maximum weight chart. I can kayak, canoe, climb rocks, climb the climbing tower at camp, I can run (this still surprises me), I can get up at 5 am and still be going at 9 pm (not after 10 though, I’m dead to the world then). I hit my second goal, that was to fit into a size 16. No more plus sizes for me. No more having to skip the cute outfits and go for the tents, except I am not a shopper I have yet to go and buy an out fit because I want to lose more and because I haven’t a clue what an outfit is. I can now wear size 14 jeans and they don’t have to be the stretchy kind either. I still like my shirts at least a size bigger then I wear but mainly because I still have a spare tire around my middle, it’s not a semi tire any more but it’s still a bicycle size but still there. I’m working on that.

I do sit ups on this…at my gym. When I left this spring I was doing 12-15. When I came back in September I couldn’t do 5. Now I’m back up to about 25 with a 6 lb medicine ball. I also use a machine sorta like this…and have added side exercise too. There’s my running either the trails or the treadmill… There’s the elliptical… that I hated so much 6 months ago but now am rocketing along on that. 30 minutes with a level of 6-12 and miles up to 3. There’s other machines that help plus I have started the ball and fee weights. I so wish I had a trainer to teach me a bit of this and that but I research a lot, I watch a lot and since I was in physical therapy for many years I know the positions to save on the body. So I’m working on that spare tire and my bat wings. It’s not easy but it’s also not hateful any more. I look forward to needing that shower when I’m done.

Now I’m not telling you these things to brag or anything like that, I’m telling you these things because you too can do them. No matter your size you have to start out, just with a simple walk down the road, around the block, to the mail box and back. One sit-up to today, another tomorrow another the next day and repeat. 3 minutes on the elliptical killed me, I hated that machine but I was not going to let it win. It still kicks my butt but now because I’m asking it too not because I’m letting it. I do what I call bathroom exercises. Each time I go potty I will stand by the sink and do 20 squats or 20 counter top push ups, a few bend over's, twists…. just something extra. They add up, especially if you’re a water drinking like I am. I know, I’m a WAHM and can do these things, sorta hard to do them in an office. But there is break time, take a walk up and down those stairs, no hurry, just do it. You will be glad once you start doing them, you’ll see, you’ll feel or want more. But you have to start. So today is Monday, a great beginning day. A great day to walk an extra 500 steps. A day to do a few extra squats. A day to show yourself your worth it.

Today I go and drive bus. Do you know that I never in a million years would of left my house to go out in the world to drive bus at the weight I was. Allan was my cheerleader you know, he said if I can get my act together and lose my weight, enjoy my life then I can get my butt out there and try something new. So I am. I can. I WILL!!!

Take care my friends and have a blessed and awesome day.