The big weigh down!

Well folks, I know that I haven't talked much about it lately, but I have been getting healthy. I am so excited because today was my weigh in morning and I hit the 20 lb mark today. It has taken me 6 months and I am officially at a loss of 21.5 lbs! The past 4 months or so were the movers and I had one funk during it of about 2 weeks long, but I finally did it! I am looking forward to my continued downward trend!

I would like to give God all the glory! He has given me the strength, the courage and the will power to do it. When I run, I always praise Him for giving me the energy to just do it!
I would also like to thank my Sisters In Sweat. If it wasn't for their encouragement and prayers and continued support, I don't know that I would have kept going. Thank you Sisters for lifting me up and keeping me going. It has been a wild roller coaster! I look forward to riding it some more with you! The ups and downs may be different for all of us because of where we are on the ride, but at least we are all on it together!
I, of course, would also like to thank my husband. He has been getting in shape too and it sure makes it easier for me to do this, as I watch him. We can show united front of being healthy for our girls and that makes us that much more stronger together, as a team!

I have some good news. I fought through a fear last night. A year or so ago, I took my girls to Bartlett park with me to ride their bikes around the jogging track. I brought my roller blades since I don't have bike, so I could keep up. Now imagine remember, I was 20 lbs heavier and I was on roller blades. I usually don't do that in public for fear of being made fun of. Little did I know that shortly after I started, it would come true. There was a car load of boys driving by and I heard them yelling at me out the window. I don't remember exactly what was said, but I acted like I didn't hear them. I was crushed inside. I don't know if the girls even knew what happened. If they did, they didn't say anything. I kept going. We did one lap and they were ready to go and so was I. That was the last time I did that. The last couple of months, I was running in the mornings there. I figured most of the crude boys would not be driving around at 8 in the morning. Since the girls have gotten out of school, I have not been able to run. Catie had All-Stars practice last night at the same park, so I thought that James would keep the little ones while Catie was practicing, I would go run. I figured that it would just be Catie's team there and as awkward as that would be I would put one foot in front of the other and just go. I kept looking for a way out and I so insecure that I asked Catie if it would embarass her if I ran. She was like, "No, go ahead!" Ok, now I can't back out. When we get there, the park was PACKED full of boys playing games! My heart started to choke me. Here I am all dressed and ready to run and the park is full of the young teenage boys. I would look silly if I didn't. All dressed up and too scared to go. You think God had anything to do with that? I would like to say though that I did it. I swallowed my pride and got out and did 3 miles. I didn't get to run the whole thing because I had eaten dinner before running and wanted to throw up, but I fast walked and pumped my arms, in spite of all the people who were "looking" at me. Were they really looking at me? I don't know, but I was so excited. I don't think that it is something that is going to go away overnight, but I had the courage to do it once and I believe, with God's help, I can do it again!

Here's to looking at getting and staying healthy, in spite of everyone "looking" at me. Praise to God!

Until we read again...