What a Difference 10 Years Makes!

I’ve been waiting for the right time to tell my story…I guess it’s now!  I’m hoping it will touch at least one person out there who wants to make a change in their life.  It can happen.  It took me a while to figure out who I wanted to be and where I wanted to go.  Once I got to the bottom of the barrel, there was no place to go but up.  So, up I went…and I’m still rising!

My “Before” picture is about 10 years old.  I was retiring from my job as a preschool teacher assistant.  I weighed 250 pounds.  I had many physical aches & pains, but the most important reason for leaving was that I felt I could no longer do my job with confidence and competence.  I could no longer get down on the floor with the children; I had to sit in a chair.  Even bending over to help them with projects or playing with them on the playground was very difficult for me. The kids at the preschool were my primary concern, and I felt that I was letting them down, as well as the school, by not being 100% there for them.  Leaving the preschool was a tremendous tug at my heart.  I loved my job and I loved all of my co-workers. 

I took a secretarial job a few months later with a middle school close to home.  Being sedentary didn’t help me too much with my aches and pains, but I no longer was expected to be as physically involved as I was at the preschool.  I enjoyed my job, and most of the people with whom I worked, but there was still something missing.  I was miserable with my weight and the fact that I was unable to do anything about it. I had been on a plethora of diets throughout my life with either short-lived or no results.  I hated myself and felt like a failure!  I remembered a support group that that I belonged to years earlier that gave me results and hope for the future. I realized that hope was still deep inside of me.    

Two years ago I joined a similar group in my area and began a journey of healthy eating and self-discovery.  I gave up refined sugar and white flour; ate only three meals a day with nothing between the meals; increased fruits, vegetables and water consumption; and started reading…really reading…labels of everything that wasn’t a direct product of nature.   I already walked about a mile a day with my job, but I added extra walks with the dog.  Exercising at the gym wasn’t going to work for me, so I would put on exercise tapes that had been buried in dust in the basement.  Slowly, the pounds started to fall off.  

My support group has been instrumental in solidifying my self-esteem, my desire to become healthy, and teaching me very fundamental principles of life.  I’ve learned to NEVER give up hope, to have patience, and to give back at every possible opportunity.  I’ve lost 120 pounds (a little person) and have maintained this weight for eight months.  I have discontinued half of the medications I used to take.  My aches and pains have almost completely disappeared.  

I like myself…no, wait…I love myself! 

Thanks to Mama Kat's Pretty Much World Famous Writer's Workshop for today's prompt.  Please stop by and see some really, really talented writers who have joined in this week!  Just click on the logo below!





Thanks for stopping by today!

Patience is Not a Virtue of Mine!

Okay friends! With regard to "Eerie Coincidence" from bizzyliz I think I'm getting tired of waiting for "Journal Boy" (JB for short) to 1) read his classmates message; and 2) respond or not respond. It's been almost a month, and little bits and pieces of a story are making their way in and out of my brain. Just so I don't forget them altogether, I believe I will put them down in some sort of organized manner. I would really love to just say hi to this wonderful young man, but I will have to do so through a story.

There is also a story in my head about kids and cancer. I have an outline for a story that relates to a personal experience, the stories of a few cancer kids who have passed on, together with the courageous fights of the warrior moms and the fictional accounts of events that might have been. I've never written a book; I only write short stories. There is so much I want to say and so many tributes that I feel are necessary to bring to light some of these very amazing people. I guess that's why the dog keeps waking me up at 3:00am every night! "You have to write, mommy, write! Get out of that warm bed and get your butt over to the computer!"

So this is what I am working on right now. It has taken me over a week to get this far with my thoughts. I've been blasted at work (you know, the place I go to escape my family) with registrations for the next school year. At the same time, I have been trying to put together a clever flyer for a Girl Scout event coming up at the end of the month. I'm also going through old photo albums of my parents to collect pictures of my brothers and me to put into a scrapbook at the Celebration of Life for my brother, which is scheduled for the end of this month. My all-time favorite picture of us is shown at the beginning of this post. The quality is not that great, but it was taken in 1955! Hey, I can hear the snickering...cut it out!

St. Louis has managed to escape the big snow showers, but we have had enough to keep this fraidy cat indoors for the weekend. I hope to have something to show by next week. Thanks for stopping by!

Oh, and another three pounds have gone by the wayside (or backside) in case anyone is interested!

R & R for Mom

I took the day off today to soothe my battered body and psyche. (Whatever that means!) Instead of laundry, errands and cleaning, I went to an event called "The Big Read." Initially, I wanted to go meet Mary Engelbreit, buy her book, and get her autograph. Then I realized all of the other interesting things that were going on. Today was a day that I was sad that my kids were grown up. There was a ton of activities, storytelling, entertainment and sales geared to kiddos betweeen the ages of two and 14.

Instead of my fantasy meeting with ME, I attended two writing workshops. They were both awesome! The first was about how to get published, and the second was how to pitch an idea. I really enjoyed both of them and I came away feeling very motivated...(did I say motivated?) - one of my objectives of this post. Driving home, I thought about redrafting some of my stories. Then, I saw Dairy Queen....the one where Edwina and Katya work. Let's see...I have two bucks...what can I get with their discount? (Another improvement I want to make...I guess that today is not the day for this one.)

Oh, by the way, the owner of the phone came in to the office the next morning to claim it! He is now back in favor with his mom and dad.