It's story time, kids!

So, I thought I'd kick this blog off with telling you all a lil' story about how I got to my low point, and started clawing my way back out of it.

I'd started doing light exercise and changed my eating habits back in 2004-05, and had dropped a decent amount of weight at that point.  I was probably only about 10 lbs heavier than I am currently.  It was around that time that I moved up to Flagstaff.  Ended up going through an intense emotional upheaval when I lost a very close friend to me.  I stopped pretty much all exercise, and started eating like crap again.  I didn't pack on the weight too quickly because I was still in a very physically demanding job.  It wasn't until I left that job for one where I wasn't mobile AT ALL, that my poor life decisions (eating fast food, not exercising, smoking cigarettes regularly) caught up with me .. and FAST.  Top that off with a visit to my gynecologist for my routine well woman, only to have my labs come back with abnormal pre-cancerous cell growth.  As if that weren't the cherry on top of the shit sundae that was everything that was happening in mid-late 2006, let's just throw in a terrible relationship, to add insult to injury.  It wasn't then that I began to change things, though.  I went about another 3 years being overweight, unhappy, insecure, and having to visit the doc every 6 months because my labs were constantly abnormal.

This cycle definitely took its toll on me, even though I don't think I really realized it at the time.  Does anybody, though?  We never know what's going on when we're right in the middle of it all.  One day, though, in April of 2009, a friend invited me to her boot camp class at one of our local gyms. I had to do a little bit of digging, but I found my old blog post from the first day I went to that class:


"also .... that boot camp mentioned from my previous post? totally kicked my ass. i think i may sign up. My throat was burning so bad i thought it would bleed. I could swear i tasted blood in my throat i was pushing so hard with the workout.

shit, man. I mean ... I have never done 75 pushups before in my life, but the music he played kept me wanting to push further and harder."

From that point on, I went almost religiously, until I moved away from Flagstaff, to the Grand Canyon.   My life seemed to start looking up.  I was feeling better physically, and emotionally.  My labs finally started coming back normal, and have been that way for the last couple of years.  

Since I've been here at the Grand Canyon, my routine had changed to more cardio intensive interval training, coupled with weight lifting.  I've since run a half marathon, and have hopes to eventually compete in a full, if not triathlon, some time in the near future.  

I didn't realize the kind of weight I was losing until I'd already lost that first 40 lbs.  I could finally shop in a store and not burst into tears because the pants I feel like should fit, are too tight on me.  Shopping for clothes is no longer an anxiety inducing, self esteem crushing, experience.  I feel good about my body, and how far I've come.  Hell, I'm excited to try on pants now!  That does tend to get me into trouble though, if I don't watch it.   I've come a long way, and I didn't truly realize it until recently, when I stumbled across a couple of old photos with the creepy ex and a friend I happened to be visiting.  I couldn't believe that was me in those photos!

I didn't realize how big I'd gotten, now that I look back at those photos.  Nobody ever stops to tell you that you've gained a significant amount of weight.  Understandably so, I suppose.  I keep these pictures around as a remind of how far I've come.  

this is me about 7 months ago.  I've since dropped another 10 lbs:

This one is about 2-3 months old.  I don't quite remember:

What a difference eating right and exercise does for a person.  I'm still not exactly where I want to be, but I'm well on my to getting there.  Here's to keeping motivated and kicking ass!