Motivated Monday

Nine months ago I competed in my first triathlon, never in my life would I have imagined I would do something like that. At that point, I was in the best physical shape I've ever been in my life. A 30 year old mother of two, not at my goal weight, but very fit (which just goes to show thin does not equal fit). Less than 2 wks after that day, my body began to fall apart. I'm not going to go into the details, if you are curious about it you can read here, although even that blog doesn't tell the whole story, someday I will share all the events of this summer, a lot happened after that blog but now is not that time.

What this is about is where I am now, after the events of the past nine months. I lost about 12 pounds over the course of all of the "stuff", finally reaching my goal weight-the number I had been longing to see on my scale for a decade (my weight loss journey is also blogged about here). That number didn't stick around long after my recovery and discovery of many foods (ok a few lol) that met my allergy criteria but could still be considered "junk" (although corn, soy & wheat free junk is better than most of it's counterparts). Long story short I am now back to being a solid 15 pounds overweight and have lost nearly every last ounce of my hard-earned fitness. It's frustrating to feel like I'm all the way back at the beginning but if I'm totally honest (& stop the pity party:), 15 pounds is a far cry from the 60 pounds overweight I used to be. Having lost all my fitness is hard to come to terms with, but there was a lot of good emotional fitness that came out of the past 9 months, which is much more valuable. So, using my new favorite phrase "it is what it is", I say I can't change what happened I can only pick myself up, dust the dirt off and start again. Attitude is everything my friends!

Whew! Sorry, that was long and I promise not every week will I be so long winded...I think :). This will be a weekly post, chronicling my return to fitness. I "stole" the idea from my friend Karey, who saw it on a blog and is journeying with me (she and I have been on many a weight loss journey together and we find we are more successful together:) with her own weekly posts. Every week I will note my progress, struggles, successes and failures. I am hoping accountability to a gaggle of people will help keep me focused. I am not going to give you a scale number, though I really don't care that you know, I just think it's more important to focus on the fitness. I know my goal weight is a bit high for the world's standards but I know my body and I am confident that in shape, I'll look just fine at my goal.

The plan I am using is from livestrong.com, it is really just about counting calories and working out. I am not too worried about learning to make good food choices, my allergies limit my options and my head is already full of that knowledge, I just need to remember to use it lol...

SO...here were go....

Week 1: +15

PS. That picture is not of me, it's actually from a poster (allposters.com) on perseverance, the quote that goes with it is "What lies behind us and what lies before us are small compared to what lies within us" ~Ralph Waldo Emmerson. I find this quote even cooler when I consider what lies within me is Jesus, he makes me able to walk on mountains