Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Taking a LEAP

I wrote this note last night on facebook. Thought I'd share it here also since I haven't written anything in a while. 



This is going to be a little longer than my typical status update, so bear with me as I share a little soul-searching and go back in time ...

I was thinking while driving home (doesn't everybody do their best thinking while driving the same route every day or is that just me) my decision to begin my own personal Body by Vi Challenge back in September 2010. I was in a funk at the time. Not depressed, mind you ... or at least I don't think I was depressed. Funk really is the best way to describe it. No self-confidence, very little self-esteem, didn't really feel that it was worth it to take care of myself. Of course, that self-destructive thinking just led me into a deeper cycle of not feeling worthy. How could I not feel like I was good enough to make better decisions where my health was concerned? After all, I am married to the most wonderful man in the world and we are blessed with two incredible children (yep, I'm a little biased on that subject). If that isn't reason enough to take care of my body, what does it take?

I still can't tell you exactly what happened to give me the nudge to give weight loss another try (God does work in our lives each day, I KNOW that's the case here). I had yo-yo dieted for years since my college years in the late '80s and early '90s. Lose 10, 15, 20+ pounds and then gain them back along with a few extra - lather, rinse, repeat again, again and again. But, I felt the nudge and started the Body by Vi Challenge on September 3, 2010 - yep, I remember the exact date.

Was it easy at first? I didn't expect it to be. But, in all honesty, I enjoyed the shakes and wasn't too hungry those first couple of days. I did have a wicked headache during the evening on those first two days and they were whoppers. But honestly, I'd been abusing my body for so long with incredibly bad food choices that I believe I had to go through a little bit of a detox. I stuck with it and started feeling GREAT. Even better the pounds started coming off ... not the gangbusters results some people have with 6-8 pounds in the first week. But it was a steady loss. Then my clothes started hanging a little so I tracked my measurements - even bigger results there! My energy increased and along with that, so did my feelings about myself. A little more self-esteem does wonders for your self-confidence. 

So I lost a total of 23 pounds and more total inches than that moving from a very tight size 16 to a size 10. I'm going to be honest here, because I'd expect everybody else to be. I put a little bit of that weight back on during the holidays, but you know what? I don't regret it one bit. I made a conscious decision to enjoy the full experience of the holidays. Our family celebrations for the most part center around food and socializing. We had an incredible holiday season and I wouldn't change that now even if I could.

Now my Body by Vi Challenge goals are to get back to that 23 pounds lost plus 7 more for 30 total pounds. My focus right now is to really up my exercise because I absolutely love a great, intense, sweaty, exhausting workout (that's what she said). By the time we go to Alabama in September for our first wedding for the next generation of the Hawkins family, I plan to be wearing a size 8. There, I said it!

If you've gotten to the bottom of this looooong note, well, I thank you. I'm sure most people will pass it by and that's really okay. This was really just a therapeutic writing for me anyway. I'm not even going to go back and proof it before I post it. I'm sure a lot of people get tired of seeing my facebook wall dominated with Body by Vi updates, but seriously people, these products have improved my life in a way I didn't even know was missing. I want to share that with others by paying it forward. Why would I want to keep that a secret?

Take care, everybody ... God is indeed good and offers us more blessings than we will ever realize!