Growing up active in the country keeps a kid from having to worry about their weight. During the school year, I played basketball and softball; and every other sport known (and unknown) to man on recess. During the summer, I played softball and spent the rest of the time outside with my brother exploring the eighty or so acres we lived on. Playing softball lasted through my sophomore year of college. After that, the weight slowly climbed. So slowly that I had a tendency to not notice how big I had gotten.
At the end of July 2007, I had finally hit the tipping point. I refuse to buy bigger pants! But how to get rid of this jiggling mass? I was cruising the internet, trying to find a quick fix, when I stumbled across Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. But did I really want to spend money on a book? Something I had to read? Then I thought to myself “you were willing to spend money to buy pills that you knew in your heart wouldn’t work...” I bought the e-book and read it that very weekend. On July 30, 2007, I started my journey to be the fittest me.
When Holiday Burn 2009 came around, I was coming off of a personal contest and I didn’t really have the right mentality to give it the necessary effort. When the member poll was taken to see how many might be interested in a summer contest, and after seeing the success accomplished over the holidays, I voted positively.
Shortly after the contest began, I found it less daunting to break the time down into a week, and even a day, at a time. I did a good job of planning my meals a week ahead. This is something I had always started out doing well, but would go by the wayside a couple of weeks in.
I made two important food-related purchases during the contest; a digital scale and a rice cooker. Both have caused me to ask myself “why didn’t you do that sooner?”. Like all things, weighing food becomes a habit and can be done quickly. As my family can attest to, I’ve always been a stickler about my food touching. Now I have found that foods aren’t so bad mixed together and foods that might not otherwise be thought tasty with one another are excellent.
I’ve always joked that I played sports so that I didn’t have to exercise. As grown-ups, life often gets in the way of playtime. Fortunately, I was able to join a softball league during the contest. Unfortunately, I did have to run to burn off most of the calories. Most of my time was spent on a treadmill, and on occasion I ran on the country road beside our house.
I have a wonderful support group in my husband, family and friends. My husband joins me in a good number of my meals. When he doesn’t, he never complains about fending for himself. He doesn’t mind when I get up an hour earlier than him to put in my time on the treadmill, even though it has to be noisy owing to the fact that we live in a trailer house. His compliments and encouragement have boosted my spirits on more than one occasion. My family and friends have given me no small measure of good natured ribbing about my healthy lifestyle, but they also make it plain that they support me and are happy for me. I strive to be a good example for my thirteen year old sister and my nieces who are aged thirteen and eleven.
I am, without a doubt, in the best shape of my life…at thirty-two years old. I often find myself shocked when I see my reflection in a mirror or window. I have muscle definition I’ve never had before. I can handle the Oklahoma summer heat better. I can work at physical tasks much longer without tiring. It’s such a wonderful feeling! There’s no way that I can say that it was easy. It takes work, discipline and a bit of stubbornness, which I have in abundance. But like everything that takes hard work, the reward is that much sweeter.
While writing this essay, I was thinking about the question “Why are you a winner?” and realized I had been reading it as “Why are you ‘the’ winner?”. “The” winner can only be picked by the judges. I’m “a” winner because I meet expectations I have for myself. Even when my mind and body cries for another hour in bed, I get up, strap on my shoes and do the cardio. At the end of the day, when I’m mentally drained, I head to the gym and lift weights. When I’m planning to be at an event, I have my prepared meals waiting in the cooler. Before I go into a restaurant, I know which meals I will eat. When it might be so easy to eat that cookie, I pass it by. I look in the mirror and overlay what I want my body to look like on top of what is really there and the difference is smaller than I ever imagined possible. I’m “a” winner because I’m submitting this to the completed challenges thread.
Now it’s up to the judges to determine if I am “the” winner, which will give me and my husband a wonderful 10th wedding anniversary trip.
