You're beautiful!

One thing is for sure, when you lose 65 lbs, your looks change a bit. In the last few weeks, I have had quite a few people telling me how good I look: “wow! You look beautiful!”; “I can’t recognise you”; “you look really good”, etc. On the one hand, I love these comments, because it acknowledges all the work that I have done in the last 8 months and because it makes me feel good. On the other hand, it makes me wonder...if people tell me that I look good now, but never told me that before, does it mean I looked that bad before? Could people really not see beyond that fat and see what I really looked like before? Some people think I’ve changed. On the surface, I have. I exercise more, I have changed physically, I will allow myself to do things that I didn’t do before. But really...deep down I’m still the same person, a person who loves to help people, a person who tries to be honest about who she is, a person who likes to keep busy, a person who loves to laugh and make people laugh, a person who loves playing games, etc. So really, do me a favour, the next time you look at someone who is fat and you think that he/she doesn’t look that good, take a few minutes to try and figure out who this person really is. You might actually be surprised! You might actually find them much more beautiful than some people who just look great on the surface!

I am grateful for...

Skinny pants has been on a negativity path lately. Training is fine, eating is...well...ok. The work is good. But old issues have come back to haunt me and have gotten me down a bit. I don't like that. I'm trying to find ways to get back to being positive and to enjoy what's going on rather than what's "not going on". So, in the spirit of being positive, here is a list of top 10 things (actually 11, I couldn't figure out which one to take out) which I am grateful for these days, in no particular order (if you look closely, you'll notice that half of those are about losing weight or exercising. What can I say? That's a big part of my life right now!) Here it is :

1- I am grateful that I have lost 63 lbs since the beginning of December for a grand total of 103 lbs since I started to lose weight a few years ago.
2- I am grateful that my vacations are coming up.
3- I am grateful that I was able to run two races this year and that another two (maybe three) are coming up!
4- I am grateful for my parents, my sisters, my nephews and my niece.
5- I  am grateful for my coach and for how she cares about what happens to me.
6- I am grateful for the friends that I have.
7- I am grateful that I have started to run and for returning to swimming and biking.
8- I am grateful that I am able to help people through volunteering.
9- I am grateful that I get to go train with my coach in August.
10- I am grateful that I have accepted God back into my life.
11- I am grateful that I get to go back to school in the Fall while keeping my job part time.