Carry No Weight, Let the Weight Carry You

I've hesitated in writing this post for a while now. Actually, there are probably hundreds of posts I could have written about this topic over the last year, but I never did. I'm not sure why, but, I feel the need to rectify that now.

In the last year, well 11 months, 3 weeks and 4 days, I've lost 100 pounds. Well, actually 101 pounds. Last year, around this time, I got completely fed up with myself and I was tired of being fat. I had achieved the dubious goal of exceeding my previous heaviest weight of 235 and was tipping the scales at 238. I hated everything about the way I looked. So, I decided to do something about it.

Now, I've come to this decision before. Shortly after my 30th birthday, I set out to lose weigh and managed to jettison 50 pounds from my body before I broke my leg hiking and got derailed for a bit. When my injury healed, I never really got back into exercising and it didn't take long for old habits to take hold and the weight crept back on. Fast forward to shortly before my 36th birthday and I found myself right back where I started, in fact, worse than when I started. The hubby and I were looking to go back to Australia, and there was no way in hell I wanted to do that at my heaviest weight and have to look at those pictures for the rest of my life. I set out to lose weight and get myself healthy and try not to let my past failure deter me.

When I first started, 100 pounds wasn't even the goal. That much weight wasn't even on my radar. To me, it seemed impossible. But, with each pound gone, each time I got through a workout without passing out or dying, each time I refused to give into the temptation to jump up on my kitchen counter and eat a whole box of Samoas Girl Scout cookies, the impossible started to seem more and more possible.

Over this journey, I've done things I never thought I would. I completed a 90 workout program that kicked my ass every damn day. (Thank you, Zuzka Light!) I started learning to swim in January and am now considering doing a mile long open water swim for charity. I signed up to do the Dirty Girl Mud Run on June 22. Things I would have never considered doing even six months ago, let alone when I was dragging around 100 extra pounds.

The list of things I want to do has grown by leaps and bounds. (I'll get to that in a later post) Losing weight hasn't solved all my problems, but what it has done is opened up a world of possibilities of new things to do and accomplish. And, to me, that's the most important thing.

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The first picture on this post was taken in August of 2012 at my Fantasy Football draft. The other picture was taken last week. Nearly 90 pounds difference... same shirt. I need to do some shopping.
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