January-ish 1999
Holy moly mama. Check out that sweet double chin I am rocking....and the whale necklace (irony?) I was certainly in style my freshman year of high school. But, my dream was to look smokin' for prom. Every girl's dream. So, I made a chart. A thermometer like the one you see to the right of this blog and I hung it on my bedroom door. I think I wanted to lose 50 pounds. I have no idea how much I weighed in this picture, but I got moving. I'd go to school all day -- then have band and/or Key Club -- then working at the family restaurant. On weekends I'd waitress or cook all day, come home, change and go out for a run. Mom would always say, "What are you doing? You just ran your butt off all day at work!" But I knew I had a goal. I knew I was an awesome chick on the inside and I wanted that to show on the outside -- obviously not just for looks and to have the guys turn their heads my way, but I knew my family history and wanted to be healthy. Plus, college was right around the corner and I was ready to start a brand new life outside of Naples, Florida.
I remember literally skipping through the halls when the weight started going away. I couldn't stop smiling. I was obsessed with the scale, getting on it every morning before going to school and I swear I was dropping a pound a day. I remember my friend Maria saying one day how if I lost anything else I'd be down to nothing lol. Man, did that sound awesome. I went to work and picked up the oil for the fryer. I think it was 20 pounds? And I had lost 30 or so at this point. I remember picking it up and couldn't believe how much 20 pounds (or whatever it was) felt like. It was so heavy! Just blew my mind that I had melted that off my body.
Working out was like a drug. I would start doing Tae Bo while cooking. Kicking and punching the air waiting for my orders to come up. I'd go home and do sit ups and jumping jacks before going to sleep because I heard you actually burn calories while sleeping so I thought that would help speed it up even more. Not sure if that helped...but what's the saying.. "An object in rest stays at rest. An object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction." -- Newton.
It was time to go dress shopping. Ooohhh the beautiful choices out there! I found the perfect dress. Lavender. It was a littttttle on the tight side but I was more than determined to fit my butt in it. My friend Whitney and I practiced doing our hair one day and went to try on our dresses again.
April 2001
Oh hey, I have a neck....ANNNND dimples -- I get them from my mamaaaaa.
I was in love. I found a dress I loved and fit in it. My hard work had paid off. I even scored a date...which, long story short, did not work out and had to take my sister instead lol. (I laugh now, but that was the downfall on when I started to put on the weight again.)
Me, Uncle Jerry, Heather
There we are on prom day. Too bad Uncle Jerry was a little too old to go to prom because he was ready to boogie on down.
So here I am. The pictures are back on the fridge. Spring is here and I can enjoy the outdoors. Last weekend I went on a three hour walk. It was fabulous. I planned on going on my normal 2.3 mile walk around the block but just kept going and going and going...for three hours instead of the 45 minutes. Walked a lot this weekend, too. Feeling those love handles go down again. Things are moving in the right direction. Scale isn't moving but I "don't care." I'm feeling SO MUCH BETTER than I did a few weeks ago which is the most important factor in this journey.
"Your body is the baggage you must carry through life. The more excess the baggage, the shorter the trip." -- Arnold H. Glasgow
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