From the ashes!

I went back to my meeting, like I said I would, and imagine my happy surprise to learn that even though I had missed three months worth of meetings I had lost a little over 1lb! That's means I succeeded at maintaining my weight loss for an extended period of time even when I was barely on plan. My mind set has truly changed. I really do find myself thinking in points and calculating in my head how many points things will be. That means that I am remaining aware of my food choices and not mindlessly eating.  And even when I know I am WAY off plan and am going to eat/drink something anyway I'm still counting in my head. That is something I never thought possible and I'm excited to know I'm living this reality.

So on the day of my return to the meeting I was asked to come and participate on a panel for WW and discuss my success.  Imagine my surprise.  Ever since I went to that panel discussion for people who had over 75lbs to lose it has been my ambition to be on one of those panels.  It was so inspirational to me.  (I wonder why I never blogged it?)  So anyway I was super nervous but excited as well.  And, I, rocked, it!! My friend was there to support me and she told me I was the best speaker and I was funny which put everyone at ease.  I showed pictures of before and I even showed a picture of myself in a shirt I bought a year and a half ago to go to dinner with friends and which I wore this past new year as a dress.  I made it a point to tell people that for me all I wanted was to make it from one week to the next.   I was both inspirational and inspired and it was great to tell people that I had lost 69 lbs up to this point.  The next day at my meeting my leader thanked me again and even highlighted some of what I said and mentioned that his favorite part was me showing the shirt that I then wore as a dress.  He complimented me on my clothes that day too, saying the outfit I picked was perfect. I found this rather humorous but thanked him as graciously as I could.

Now Sunday's meeting had me on the brink of tears.  My weigh-in had me at a 75lbs loss.  OMG!!! I still say it and its like what?! I can still remember trying to lose the first 5 let alone 75.  I feel so rewarded, so wonderfully blessed to have made it this far.  And the thing is, that looking back it doesn't seem like much time has gone by, but going through it, it seems like its taken forever!  And I still have more to go.  That was one idea I wanted to impart that day.  I was not at my goal.  I still have 40 or so pounds to go, and there are some people who only have 40 or less pounds in total.  But this is a life journey for all of us, one that I must be on for the rest of my life, if I want to be successful.  But I can do that.  More importantly I WANT to do that, I want this success to be permanent. It is an ambition now and that is what I want forever.  So here's to rising from the ashes, to falling down and picking myself up, to walking on cloud 9 and staying with the fight:)