Happy One Year Healthy Anniversary and 100 Pounds Gone To Me

 On July 15, 2019 I decided to get healthy. I wanted to turn 50 in 2020 and wanted to look and feel fabulous. I really didnt know how much weight I could lose in a year but thought anything was better than nothing. I even shocked myself losing 100 pounds in a year. I may gave lost a lot of weight but I have gained so much more. 

I would not have been able to do as well as I have had I not had an amazing hubby who supports everything I do, remember he didnt want bees but did it for me and he gets stung all the time and still doesnt mind having them. I have supportive children who may roll their eyes but dont even mind when mom goes to the Mexican place to eat and pulls out her own low carb tortillas or chips to eat instead of the ones they bring you. I have my momma who is on her own get healthy journey and she nailed it too. She also will fix recipes in the microwave that I send her and let me know how they turn out since I dont have a microwave. I have an amazing sister who loves me no matter how hangry I may be on the phone. Then there are the too many friends to count. I even had a neighbor check on me because they were making sure I wasnt losing weight because I was sick and another told me to keep doing what I am doing and that I looked great. Talk about making a girl feel loved. 

This picture is hard to look at. I do not have a lot of pictures of me because I never wanted to be reminded of how I looked. Luckily in the past few years I had gotten comfortable in my skin and size 24/26 and knew my worth and that I was so much more than what that scale said. 

This picture makes me look like a ghost. Every 10 pounds I lost I rewarded myself with a new outfit. I hadnt decided what I was going to get for 100 pounds but this morning when I was trying t figure out how to get a full body shot of myself and had to go outside and use my reflection in the back door I decided a mirror is what I needed. Whenever I need to see how an outfit looks I have to go out my backdoor. 

The biggest difference in the before and after pics is the things that the healthier me can do. I can hike miles and not pray for death. I can jog if I want. I dont have to look that the weight limit on folding chairs and I can wrap a regular sized bath towel around me. That last one really excited me when it happened. 

I have felt guilty over the past year because I have really learned to focus on myself more. Maybe had I learned to do that earlier as an adult I would have been healthier sooner and longer. I still have a few more pounds to lose to reach my goal weight and  will get there even though the weight loss has slowed down. I have started putting my focus on maintaining my health and thats a new avenue for me as well. 

Just as I learned that my worth is not determined by what the scales say it works for how low the scale goes as well. I am a wife, a mother of adult children, a daughter, sister, friend, dog mom, chicken mom, guinea pig mom, urban farming, bee keeping, garden growing, soap making child of God.This morning as I woke up early to read my bible and pray I started singing that old hymn Have Thine Own Way. 

	Have Thine own way, Lord,   Have Thine own way; Thou art the Potter,   I am the clay. Mould me and make me   After Thy will, While I am waiting,   Yielded and still.

As I got to the last part of the first verse thats when it all made sense. I havent been selfish focusing on my health the past year. I have been waiting yielded and still while I am being molded. Maybe thats what this pandemic is meant to do as well. Make us think about whats important. Make us make time for things we werent in the past. To be better people and learn to love our neighbors. 

Bascially I am telling you to expect more blog posts. We have so many new things going on and are so excited how things are going. Tomorrow you will learn about raising quail and maybe I will find a mirror.