A New Beginning!

Yes, I know .. I already had a new beginning when I joined SparkPeople, but I'm going to have another one. Winter is over, spring is here and once again I am feeling motivated and excited to get back on the road to better health and greater happiness.

As I sit here munching on Kashi (it's 4:30 am. I'm having breakfast REALLY early!) and admiring the moon that makes it look like day outside; I'm thanking my lucky stars that I'm here.

It has been nearly 5 months since I joined on November 3rd last fall. I've lost a total of 32 pounds counting the 5 pounds I lost before I joined. (Ok, just a couple more Kashi and then I have to put the box away. Yum!) I get up eagerly in the morning (well, MOST of them), I still have energy in the afternoon (usually) Hey, we ALL have our days! and I choose healthy over non healthy 90% of the time. The last, of course, being the reason I DO feel so much better.

No telling where I'd be if I hadn't joined and it's best not to wonder ... I was on the road to disaster .. eating because I was depressed, or depressed because I was eating, not sure, doesn't matter anymore.

My daughter, Ashley, said to me the other day "Mom, I know why I got so discouraged" She was thinking about the 30 pounds she wants to lose, instead of thinking about the 5 she knows she CAN lose. 5 pounds at a time and before you know it 30 pounds are gone.

I wanted to be below 180 by now, but looking back, hey! 32 pounds in less than 6 months isn't all that bad. So life is good. I'm going to reevaluate my goals, think more positively about myself and what I'm capable of and just DO IT!

I think we all go through spurts of being on top of it all, feeling like we are going to stick to this like glue and then life hits us. As long as we don't let the glue get old and dried up we'll be ok, we can pull ourselves back up "by the bootstraps" as my grampy use to say and give it another whole hearted shot until that day we can once again look in the mirror and see that person looking back that we knew was there the whole time. That "skinny" person we hid in our "fear" and "self loathing".

Well, I say "Skinny person come forth!" I'm waiting for you, and summer is almost here!