First Steps

First things first.  A little info for your reading pleasure about me.  Why I started this blog and what is its purpose.

Four years ago I reached my highest weight ever.  I was a 225 pound unhealthy, depressed, tired, overwhelmed and just all around miserable person.  However, something clicked in my head and I realized that it was time to change and I took the steps to make that change.  Over 18 months I lost over 75 pounds.  I reached my lowest weight in probably 15 years and made it to 143 pounds.  I was healthy and happy.  I was eating healthy foods, exercising regularly and enjoying life.

Then something happened.  It was a great something, but a life changing something.  I got pregnant with baby number four.  That's right, number FOUR!  We were thrilled to be adding another little life to our family, but I was also dreading what it was going to do to my body.  With my other three pregnancies I gained 23-27 pounds.  It was great.  I was so scared about what baby #4 was going to do and just hoped that I would stay at around 25 pounds of weight gain.

Unfortunately that's not what happened.  My last pregnancy was the hardest one I've experienced.  I was on bedrest and I had to have weekly shots to try to keep me from going in to labor early.  Those two things combined with an inability to workout caused me to gain almost 65 pounds.  When I delivered our precious little baby I was so far from my original weight and I felt like I might never get back there again.

Fifteen months have passed since our baby was born and I've lost about 20 pounds.  I haven't done a lot to lose those pounds and I think it was just the baby weight coming off.  I still have a long way to go, but I'm ready.  These next 45 pounds are going to take some hard work.  I don't know why it's taken me so long to get to this point, but I'm finally ready to do it. Something has clicked again and I know it's time to make the changes and get back to the healthy me that is just waiting on the sidelines.

I have lots of goals for my life (thus the title of this blog) and I'm hoping that expressing them here will help me to reach them.  I read lots of other blogs (weight loss and others) that inspire me to be my best.  I'm hoping that I can do the same for other people. 

So, this is the first step on a long journey, but it's time and I'm ready.