WHERE I AM TODAY...

Thought I would give you guys a current picture of me & my family. This was taken in September 2007. As you can see, the kids have gotten HUGE, Sam is going to be THIRTEEN on Wednesday. Yikes!! As you can also see, I haven't gotten huge. :o) I definitely have a ways to go & I'm still up from my lowest... more than I wish I was, but I haven't gained it ALL back (& then some, as we tend to do).

It's been an especially rough year for my weight as I've been hyper-focused on melting glass. :o) I did pretty well maintaining my weight-loss for quite a bit, not moving forward, but not stepping backwards too much... but I lost my focus on health & nutrition & my body only held out for a little bit w/out proper care & feeding. :o) I started going to meetings only about once a month & of course each weigh-in resulted in a little bit more weight-gain... so it added up.

Over the holidays, I didn't go to a meeting the entire month of December. I was afraid to see what the scale said this past Saturday... my clothes are tight, so I knew I was up... I was expecting something like 10 lbs, because I'm really hard on myself when I'm not being REALLY good, but amazingly, I was only up 2 lbs! It was a BIG relief, I was dreading having to deal w/ undoing additional damage on top of what I had slowly gained over the summer.

I've definitely held onto the majority of my good eating habits, although it's been forever since I journaled, so I know I'm not getting in those daily basic foods like fruits & veggies, oil, enough water, etc. My biggest issue is that I haven't exercised in over a year! Yikes!! Hard to keep the weight off if you're not moving & not being 100% perfect w/ your nutrition.

Anyway...I'm up to 222 lbs. Ugh. At my lowest, in August 2004, I was at 185 lbs. BUT, I know where I COULD be right now if I just completely let go. I'd be over 300 by now, easily.

So...that's where I am. I'm trying to find balance between life & this journey. I HAVE to... I don't want to have to deal w/ any more damage if I continue keeping those blinders on.

Time to get to work (on me!)

Thanks for listening.

Julie