Happy Anniversary to Me!

So November 4, 2010 was my first official weigh-in - when my journey first officially began.  It's been a year now and I spent Friday (Nov 4, 2011) reflecting a lot on the changes that have taken place during this past year. 

The biggest change, of course, is the 81 pounds I've lost to date.  It's strange to try & wrap your head around how much weight that is....the closest I've come to understanding it fully is to pick up one of the 75-pound dumbbells at the gym (no, not a person, an actual dumbbell).  lol  That's the biggest dumbbell they have and yesterday I attempted to pick one up and barely could....Jerry said, "imagine - you used to basically carry that around your neck."  It really hits home when you feel that and imagine carrying that much more weight around.  No wonder my knees would be sore sometimes after a day of walking.

The second change is my clothes - of course I'm in smaller clothes and I have many more options with what to wear.  It's so much nicer being able to shop in basically any store I want and to be able to buy cuter stuff - because we all know that cute plus-size clothes are hard to come by.  Apparently, in case you didn't know, plus-size people like to dress like grandmas and wear polyester.  ::rolling eyes::   lol

The third change - and one of the most important - is I am in much better health.  I couldn't walk up the stairs at work last year without feeling winded.  I could only run 3 minutes on the treadmill at a time when I began this journey last year.  Now I can run 8 miles/80 minutes....and probably longer, that's just the furthest I've pushed it so far.  I'm now training for a half-marathon.  We originally planned for me to train for one in May in Brooklyn....but Jerry's thinking I may be ready by March for one in NYC.  So that is the plan....we're going to keep building on my long distance runs, slowly building up to 13 miles between now and March. 

I'm including a few before/after pics just for fun.  That part is fun for me because it's the easiest way for me to see a difference.  I'm not finished with this journey yet, of course.  I still plan to lose possibly 19 more pounds, to make an even 100 pounds lost.  That will still have me at a good, healthy weight for my height and build. 

Here's to the next year in my journey!