Live Strong, Eat Well, Train Hard The quote above I read in a magazine recently and it has become my motivator and reminder. I started this journey of weight loss a long time ago... back in high school. I was successful with the quick fix of using over the counter pills and still eating poorly. I lost 40 pounds but then went to college and gained it all back and then some. In college I went on a big overseas adventure for a semester, when I came back and saw the photos of myself I was not happy! I joined Weight Watchers and was pretty successful but the stress of my mothers fight with cancer and then losing her was more then I could deal with. I went back to my old ways and gained what I had lost. But fortunately (at least in my eyes) I did not make it back to my heaviest weight. After graduating college and finding a job that made me moving away from my family and the comfort I knew, I started to see how unhappy I really was. I started the process again but still did not find a lot of success. I would lose weight and then gain it back. Finally in January 2009 I made some serious changes. I really started focusing on working out and getting in shape. I also started making goals -- crazy goals like climbing a mountain! When you weigh 250lbs the idea of climbing a mountain is insane. But I committed to doing it and really started training hard. Before I knew it the weight was melting off and by June I had lost 50 pounds! It was the second half of the year that became a challenge. Over the summer I did not really lose any weight ... I would gain some and then lose it. I had kind of lost my focus. I also realized that I could accomplish my goals and that scared me. On August 1, 2009 I climbed to the summit of Mount Saint Helens. I accomplished what seemed like impossible - I had climbed a mountain. Then the question came ... now what. Well I decided to find a new goal - walk a half marathon. On November 22, I walked the Philadelphia half marathon in 3 hours, 12 minutes (and 44 seconds to be exact). I blew my goal time of 3hrs30minutes out of the water. Then I freaked out again. I have found that accomplishing a goal for me sends me into a binge eating spree because I'm not sure who I am anymore. I have never been the girl who did a half marathon or climbed a mountain - but now I am. So now I am back on track and trying to figure out how to accept the new person I am becoming and learning how to change the things around me to reflect it. "Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." - Jim Ryun

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