Starting a new journey of change.......

It has been a long time since my last post. Things in my life have changed a lot since then. My two oldest daughters have graduated from college and just this past May my youngest daughter graduated from High School and she will be starting college next week. We are extremely proud of all three girls. Have you ever heard the saying " Don't blink! "?  Well, I just had to go ahead and blink. It does not seem possible that my girls are old enough to be at the spots they are in but the plain and simple fact is that they are. No matter how much wishing they could still be little girls does not change the fact that they have grown up before my eyes and have become smart, funny, talented and strong young ladies. Some would tell me that I have done my job. In fact, some have already told me that. I have always been very involved in my girl's lives. Whether it was helping in their classrooms, working on the PTA, being their Team Mom or being the sideline photographer trying to capture all of their moments it was always very important to me to be involved in what they were doing. I did love it that is for sure. I can't help but feel a bit sad as everything in my life is now changing. Can you relate to this feeling? Well, I hope to find my way through all of the changes that life has in store for me with laughter, grace, and patience with myself and others. Transition is not always something that I enjoy. I really do not like the feeling of the unknown. I was very comfortable with my life as it was.

I can not tell you how many times people have asked me " What are you going to do with your life now that Holly has graduated?" Believe me when I tell you that it really is a frequent question that I get from people. The question is not meant to make me feel bad and I know that but the bottom line is I often walk away feeling bad. I do have a life that is very blessed and full with or without my girls in school and all of the extracurricular things that I was involved in. I was lucky enough to have been very involved in activities that two of my closest friends were also involved in. We got to work on many things together. We will continue to do many things together without a doubt and I look forward to the new things that we may try to do. They still have a couple years left with their girls in High School and I know that I will enjoy being able to watch them participate in the things they love at school however their boys are going off to college within the week. There are also things that I know I will miss dearly, like Friday Night Lights and Basketball games where Holly cheered on the sidelines. There are a host of other things that I will miss so much.  I will miss the interaction with her friends that are still in school and her teachers as well, some of which were awesome.

I truly believe that God does not close a door on you without opening a window. I know that new things lie ahead for my girls as well as myself. I got to thinking that I surely am not the only person that is going through changes. It got me thinking about my blog. I decided now would be a great time to get back into it. The adjustment of no longer having a child in High School and entering College is not the only thing that is changing for me. This next change really started prior to Holly graduating. I had not been feeling great and went to the doctor. It was not a surprise that I needed to improve and change my life as far as losing weight and changing the way I eat. I started back up at Weight Watchers. I can tell you that I have tried every single version of Weight Watchers since 1986. I lost 11 pounds at that time and became a Lifetime Member. Oh to be back there where that was the amount of weight I had to lose!!! Life happens right. I have been overweight since the birth of my first child in 1989. I have battled this weight loss monster ever since. I would never stay on the program long enough to really see much change. I would become discouraged. I compared myself to other people and how quickly that they were losing weight. I felt overwhelmed with the amount of weight that I needed to lose. I had small children and I was tired all the time. I felt like I was hungry all the time. I felt so down on myself. I felt like I had let my family down and let my parents down. I knew that my parents worried about me for many reasons one of which was that diabetes runs in my family. Knowing that your parents are worried about you is not a good feeling. I only have wanted to make my parents proud of me throughout my life. No matter how much that I wanted my parents, my husband, and my kids to be proud of me it seemed that I always failed at the weight loss. My husband and my kids always tell me they love me no matter what. Have you heard the saying " You can't judge a book by its cover."? Well, they would tell me that all the time. They really meant it too. One thing for sure is you can not change anything about yourself for other people no matter how much you would like to. You have to change things in your life because YOU want to change them. You also have to change things in your life when you are ready to change them. I finally felt it was time to make this big change for myself. After consulting with my doctor I decided to start back at Weight Watchers the very next day. I am so very happy that I did. Life changing, to say the least!!

I want to tell you that the new Freestyle Program from Weight Watchers is awesome. There are so many foods that now have a 0 point value. This is HUGE! I plan my meals by building up from 0 point foods. This allows me to get the most bang for my buck so to speak. I have changed so much about myself with this program. I have changed the way that I look at food. I work very hard every day to work this program and it is paying off. I feel so much better after following the program. It has been a few months since I started and I am down 36 pounds. 36 pounds! this is such a wonderful feeling to me. Wonderful in many different ways. My body is feeling better. I actually feel better every morning before my feet even hit the floor. I seem to sleep better. My activity is higher. My knees do not bother me as much. I have had two knee surgeries for a torn meniscus and I still have some issues with that knee but it is so much better than it was. I have had to buy new clothes several different times. I have bagged up roughly 7 large bags full of clothes and donated them. This has NEVER happened to me before. Talk about a wonderful feeling. I do have a very long way to go before I get to the place that I need to be but that is OK. I am a work in progress.

I want anyone that may feel that they can't do something be it losing weight, making a life change, starting a new job, taking a big adventure, no matter what your " it" is I want you to know that you can do it! If I can do this you certainly can do whatever you may be working towards. My goal with this blog is to encourage people that may be going through the same things as I am to create a life that they love. We are all going through something, some of us are going through big life changes. To know that there are others out there going through similar things makes it a little less scary. Like I said earlier I hope to navigate through these changes with grace and laughter. I hope that I may be able to encourage others through this journey. Until next time I want to leave you with a quote from one of my favorite Princess's, Rapunzel as she said in the movie Tangled...Venture outside your comfort zone. The rewards are worth it!