When Your Hard Work Is Noticed

I have been blogging for awhile now and sometimes my friends and family ask me why I put so much time and effort into the blog.... Maybe they do not realize it is my therapy ;) I come blog when I need support and to keep myself accountable. If I am having a bad day I know I can blog and you all will offer me some words of support. When I am doing well I know I can share with you and you all get excited. I love it, it keeps me going. Well my blog has also served as a place for others to come and see how I am doing. I did not realize until a few months ago that some people would be inspired by my own journey and continue on with theirs.

I am not one to toot my own horn or anything like that, but it is an incredible feeling when someone around you catches your determination and uses it to fire up their own inside of themselves. It is such an amazing feeling! I am so so very grateful to have some awesome friends who make me feel so lucky to be their friend. I want you to go by Joanna's blog Diary of a Mad Fat Woman and help give her some words of encouragement as she embarks upon the next leg of her journey. She is an amazing mother, woman, friend all of the above, and yesterday she brought me to tears with this post. She has come a very long way and done very very well!!! She has done a 5K already and has lost 88 pounds!!!! An amazing journey!!! I am so very proud of her. She has never given up even when things around her have gotten in the way she always pushes through and this is something she has taught me. Never give up. Get back up.

Losing weight and living a healthy life style is work. It is hard work especially when you have lived unhealthy for some length of time. But I know deep inside of everyone is a healthy person just itching to climb out. We may be inspired by others around us but at the end of the day when you make changes and a conscious effort to change there is only 1 person to thank. YOU. We can all share our stories, but it is YOU that makes the change and for that you should always be grateful and appreciate ;)

That my friends is what it is all about. I went into this journey 15 months ago telling myself that if I can change the perspective of 1 person for their weight loss then it is worth it to share my story. It is worth it to take those before pictures, the ones I wanted to never look at. It is worth it to put all of my emotions out here on my little page, if it helps one person then for me it has all been worth it.

Thank you!

I am going to run a marathon!!

It all started with a dream....... And then a 5K that left me winded but hopeful...

Yep I cannot believe that girl transformed into the athlete that stands before you now......

I cannot believe it! Even as I am typing this I feel a bit jittery.... But I committed to running the Philadelphia Marathon on November 20, 2011. I am committing to run an entire 26.2 miles. Saying it out loud makes me nervous! The longest I have run is 13.1 miles. I started running back in June of 2010 and did my first 5K in August of 2010. Now only 17 months after my first race I will be completing a marathon.

This journey has been so awesome. It has been hard do not get me wrong, but with each new goal I set it gives me fire to keep going and moving forward. So after my half marathon on Sunday I will take 2 weeks off running per doctor's orders and then it is marathon training to begin!

Now to decide on a training plan and get ready! I am thinking I will be running early in the morning this summer since it will be heating up around here soon. Long runs will be on the weekends early in the morning as usual. My ultimate goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon the holy grail ;) the time must be 3:35 they have toughened up the times a bit so I definitely have my work cut out for me!

I would love to hear from my fellow runners with any advice :)

A Call for A Little Help!

As you may know I am running on Sunday as a part of the American Cancer Society's team Determination.

I started running last year to help my weight loss. Running has literally saved my life. It has made me stay on track and be successful, it has allowed me to find an inner peace and deal with my depression. Most important it has made me feel in control and like I will achieve anything I set my mind to.

When I am having a bad day I know I can go for a good long run and my head will become clear. When I need a good cry I know my running shoes and the open road will listen to me. When I want to feel amazing I know pushing for a new PR in a race will do the trick. And I hope one day my daughter will be chasing me or rather I chasing her as we race side by side. This is my dream.

So I decided that since running has been so good to me I would use it to help give back. There is 1 person in my life who will never get to physically see me run, and see how far I have come in my weight loss. That woman was taken from me way too young.

That is my grandmother and her brother both have passed away from cancer. She was taken from us at 63 years old. Her brother my Uncle David was only 60. After my mother decided not to be a mother anymore, it was my grandmother who stepped up and took me under her wings. Growing up I was always close to her, I spent many summers sleeping over her house for weeks at a time. She always said she was my best friend and made me call her aunt when we were out because she said she was too young to be a grandmother ;) She had a beautiful soul and always brought our family together.

To say I miss her would be an understatement. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think of her. It took me a long time to not cry everyday, it took a long time for me to deal with her loss. I sometimes envision her when I am running, as I am crossing into the finish line at a race. I know she would be at every single one cheering me in. I know she is proud of my healthy journey and how far I have come. I know she would adore my daughter.

So my goal is to raise money for the American Cancer Society and run every single year at least 1 long race in her memory. This year I chose a half marathon, next year I have my heart set on a full.

This year I chose the Boston Run to Remember I loved the name it seemed so fitting. My running and getting healthy has inspired some of my coworkers to start running too! So we formed a team of 4 people and we are almost at goal!! So please help me get our team goal of raising $2,000. We are almost there only $590 to go!!!

Thank you to everyone who has already donated! It really means a lot to me.

Getting To Goal!!!!!!

I traveled this week so I was unsure of how the scale would behave. Granted I traveled and did not change my normal routine, rather I have not flown in over a year so I was unsure if that would affect anything.

What do I mean about not changing my routine? I did not allow a weekend away get in the way of my life style. Remember I was most worried about this in the first place? I did not allow anything to stop me and it worked. Just as it has always worked and I am so glad I have made the changes I did. I woke up early every morning like I do when I am home and I went to workout. I stayed within my daily points plus values everyday and tracked everything I ate. I fought temptations left and right all around me and I won. It was not easy all the time but you know what? It was not all that hard either! This is my life style I have adapted over the past 16 months and I love it. I am happy, successful and I feel good. At the end of the day that is all that matters.

So when I stepped on the scale yesterday I felt I deserved to see the number before me:

Goal weight for my BMI and to be within life time goal at weight watchers is 150 pounds. Yes you see I am really really truly finally almost there!!! Like .2 away hehe!!!! Very exciting!

After giving birth to my daughter 20 months ago I weighed 272 pounds. My BMI was a 45.3. Now today it is a 25!!! I went from being morbidly obese to being healthy!!!! I can finally say I have reached a healthy weight for the first time in my adult life!!! Yes for about 14 years, half of my life I was over weight then obese after high school.... And now today I can finally feel confident to say I have over come obesity and become healthy.

Celebrations will commence soon when I get that life time membership card in my hands from Weight Watchers!!!!!!!

I have been working towards this day for 15 months I walked into my first weight watchers meeting on Feb. 24th 2010 and began making small changes over time that have led to a complete life style make over and healthy living :)

Fitbloggin In Pictures

Sorry I have not blogged in days! I was at Fitbloggin and it was such a crazy busy weekend it left me little time to come on here and share my thoughts.

There are so many thoughts running through my head and eventually I will share them all with you 1 by 1. But I just want to say I loved meeting all of my friends and getting to know them better!!!! I am glad I went to see them at Fitbloggin and hang out. The SIsterhood of the Shrinking Jeans woman are all as wonderful and amazing as they appear online!!!

And this woman Tara is just simply amazing. She keeps inspiring me more and more everyday! And meeting her was an experience I will never forget!

Attune Foods put on a Gluten free buffet for breakfast it was awesome :)

We had lots of laughs!!!

The gang hanging out!

This guy wanted to join in... random! LOL

If you have pics of us please email them to me!!! I feel like I am missing a lot I was not snapping pics I know someone has one of us in our running tutu's :)