With A Little Help From My Friends

I worked my ASS off in 2011! Well, some of it, anyway. 50lbs, to be exact.

I've never lost this much weight before. I wouldn't have had to if I had taken care of myself in the first place. And I think I got stuck on that; trying to figure out how I wound up at this place. What I realized is that it didn't matter how I got there. What I needed to focus on was gettin' the hell outta Dodge.

I had some help, every step of the way thanks to Weight Watchers. Yes, I joined Weight Watchers. I've been a Weight Watcher since May. I hit my breaking point on April 29th, when I went to see Fast Five, and I had a hard time getting into the seat.

Geez, it's embarrassing to write that down! But, it's the truth. I had gotten to the point where hating myself was the only emotion I had. I made a decision that I was going to change, for the better, and I did.

Outside of the Weight Watchers community, very few people knew what I was doing. It was hard at first, letting go of all my bad habits. But I had made the choice to live differently, and no family or friends were allowed to infringe upon that...no matter what.

What I realized in trying to get healthy was that I was drinking all of my calories. I cut my alcohol intake to zero for a couple of months, and the weight just began to fall away. For those of you counting, yes, I used to drink A LOT. Functioning alcoholic was a term thrown around by some, and maybe they were right.

Not anymore.

I'm no where near done with this weight loss journey. But after 8 months, I finally feel confident in my resolve that I WILL continue. Last time I lost almost this much weight, the compliments were enough to carry me, which meant that I slowly slipped back into my old ways.

I'm not satisfied with where I am this time. I'm going to keep working, keep pushing myself, keep tweaking the plan to get the best results. In the past 8 months, I've changed my eating habits twice and my workout routines 4 times.

I'm done making excuses! I was unhappy, and I did something to change it. Of course, I didn't win every day, but I didn't give up. Not once. As cheesy as it sounds, I do feel a lot better, inside and out.

I wanted to share this with y'all because I need more people to be accountable to. I've still got a ways to go, and it's not going to get any easier. Selfish, I know ;) But if you've read this far, feel free to tell me to step away from that second helping of chocolate cake!

So here's to 2012. A year in which I plan to live by the Nike creed, JUST DO IT. I found an old blog post where I said, "2011 will be about letting go past hurts and embracing new paths." I think 2011 lived up to that.

2012 is what we make of it, y'all. So I'm pressing on! I encourage everyone to go out and MAKE 2012 YOUR year.