One Mama Gets Fit

Encouragement.   Everyone needs it.  Everyone wants it.   It's fuel.   For me, it's motivation to keep going.   Over this past week, since sharing that I hit this big milestone of 100 pounds lost, I have been flooded with words of encouragement.   Phone calls, texts, gifts, Facebook comments and messages, emails.   It's been BEYOND lovely.   Inspiration. That's a word that I have heard this past week.  Many times.   Wow.  It's so…not even sure of the word to use here.  Just over a year ago, no way would anyone say I'm an inspiration in the area of health & fitness.   Crazy how just a year can change things.   I love encouragement.  (Really who doesn't love to be told they are rocking at something?!)   Last year on my birthday, one of the gifts that Kyle gave me was posting throughout our house notes from friends speaking life to me.  Those are still up in our house…since the end of September.   We've als

Yesterday was one of the best days of my life. I hit a milestone I waited a long time for: 100 pounds lost. It's still quite "unfathomable" that I hit that but yet - it's completely "fathomable". I tend to be one to shy away from saying "yea, I did that!  rock on!" But, I did!  I can be proud of this!  I worked hard for this. I changed my lifestyle to one that is better than anything else in my past.  I took control of my health and I believe I changed my families health for the better and for our lifetime. I am very proud. The past couple weeks as I approached getting close to hitting this mark (and I'll be honest - I stayed in between 99 and 100 pounds lost for a bit over a week and I'll just say that was one of the hardest weeks for me because I was so close yet so far away!) I started to work on a list of "100 ways life is different/things I have observed with now losing 100 pounds". (Also, shout out to my h

Somedays living and working overseas is great. Somedays it's not. Pretty much like living anywhere really.  We all have our days. I think lately I've been jealous of my family and friends that are living Stateside. Why? It all has to do with being healthy really. I'm jealous of the fact that folks can just go out for a run - really anytime of day and it's safe to do that. Not so much here.  Why do people have to target expats for robbery when they are just wanting to go out for a nice walk or run?  (I am thankful though for a forest on the other side of town that is safe to go outside and run/walk.) A friend mentioned taking a new class at the gym.  How fun is that?!  A new class to challenge and change things up? My family are all doing races together.  I never thought I would be so sad to miss out on doing a race or two. This is silly - but I wish blueberries and salmon were cheaper.  Two items I wish I could incorporate more into our meals.  But,

At the end of 2014 I made a list of 30 things I wanted to accomplish this year. I shared them with Kyle, my mama, and two of my sisters. The feedback I got was so encouraging at how doable they were yet challenging. I liked that. We're one month into the year now and I'm on track for several things and feeling great about this year. One of my first goals for the year is coming up on Valentine's Day.  My goal is to hit 100 pounds lost by that day - so 13 more days to go and 3 more pounds to lose.  Feeling strong about that one. Another goal is to run 4 races while we are Stateside this year.  I'm not sure on distance yet for the races, but I do know 1 race that I'll run this year (one we are putting together for our work here in Kenya).  If anyone knows of any races that would be good (5k, 10k, half) - please let me know. Healthy recipes!  One of my goals was to find 15 new recipes that my family loves.  Thanks to this challenge I'm doing right now