Before, During, and always In Progress

I spent a couple of days at my parents house over the holiday break.  On an insomnia attack, I was going through old photos of my moms on the computer, and was absolutely friggin stunned at what I saw.

I have been on this fitness journey for most of this year, I started and fell off many times last year, but in March when I hit the 1 year cancer free mark I went balls out and have worked to get and stay fit.

Well what I found on the computer was depressing.  I don't know, how I didn't see it before, but my Lord how did I let myself get like that?

That unhealthy life had to be a contributing factor to getting cancer, along with the genetic factors I had working against me.   But the cancer was really what scared me into getting fit.  Not skinny, not looking better, but actually BEING better.  A better person, mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend.  I had no other choice to be around for my kids and care for them.  So I bit the bullet, and started walking, committed to exercising 20 minutes a day, and slowly changed my nutrition.

I did not join a gym or give any fitness guru a dollar.  I had been there and done that a million times.  I watched Biggest Loser, and thought if those chubettes could run, then my fat ass could run.  So off I went, and I just completed my first 10K and am training for my first 1/2 marathon.  I am a damn runner, it happened.  I really am a runner, I don't know how it happened.  I don't love running, but I NEED to do it.  I need to get on the tready or the road many times a week.

Before I started to notice the weight loss, I noticed the mental part.  I was on anti-depressants thinking that was a cure all for everything that had happened in a year.  Cancer, Autism diagnosis, husband in rehab,  craptastic economy, just crappy life circumstances.

July 2011 In Progress

But as a ran, I craved better food, I craved exercise and sweating, and getting out of drama and strife.  I don't want those things around me they made me fat, and I don't want to go back to this BEFORE, I want to stay "in progress",  I don't think I want to be an "after" ever, because that might tell my feeble mind that I don't have to work anymore and that I can stop.  I am choosing "Before" and "In Progress" - hopefully for always.  I am no expert, no guru, no genius, I just found something that is working for me and was able to tap into some online resources, and this is the most successful I have ever been at a fitness goal. 

If you are sitting there, just wanting to be different, you can, if I can you can.

Rebecca

October 2011 84 lbs off and happy and getting healthy

Before Cancer

November 2009 Before Cancer