My Weight Loss Journey: My Rock Bottom

When you have struggled with your weight your entire life, you've done every diet known to man. You start them, lose a few pounds, get bored with them, quit, and gain back twice as much. Little do most people know, all you need to do is eat right and exercise to have a healthy life and weight. There has to be a true "rock bottom" that you need to hit to decide to change your life forever. A "rock bottom" is something that makes you say, "I'm done with being fat and I'm sick of all the baggage that comes along with it. I'm ready to live and live well."

My motto in life used to be "Eat right, exercise daily, die anyway!" I seriously wanted to eat myself to death. I am honestly an extremely lazy human being. That is hard for me to admit, but I would rather sit on my couch and watch television than clean up my house. Most people would rather do that, but it usually takes having some company coming over to get me to clean. I tell my son to get daddy or ask daddy rather than doing things myself. I'm lazy. PERIOD! So getting me to do the work of exercising is like asking a dead person to rise from the grave.

Fast forward to my "rock bottom". One Sunday in church during praise and worship, I was clapping and kinda bouncing up and down on my heels singing to the music. Our church is like an old theater. Absolutely beautiful. It has beautiful ornate decor, nice carpet to go with the era, and this painted concrete floor under the seats. This one Sunday, I'm wearing my very cute pointy toed shoes. They have a thin, low heel on them. As I'm getting into the music, I feel what I think is my heel break. I was wrong...dead wrong. I look down at the floor and my heel has gone through the concrete floor. That's right...you read that right. My fat ass put my heel through a concrete floor. Now, in my fat ass's defense, the concrete was only like half an inch thick, but the point of the story is that my fatness made my heel go through a CONCRETE FLOOR!

I have never been so embarrassed in my life. I seriously wanted to die. I told one of the maintenance people that there was a "hole" in the floor, and moved along. I prayed that they hole would be fixed the next week for church, but I was wrong. The next week, I showed up to church to our usual seats and there was the dreaded hole.

I immediately decided to change my life and get healthy. I don't care if I am every a SKINNY person, but I want to be healthy. I joined a gym and vowed I'd keep at it and not quit after just a few months as I had in the past. I also joined a weight loss support group called T.O.P.S. (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) so I would have accountability in my journey to get healthy. I do not deny myself any foods. I eat well at least four days a week and usually on the weekends I eat kinda bad, but I keep it in check and I don't let myself get carried away and pig out like I used to.

Now here I am, five months later, and I have lost 29 pounds and I'm still working out at least five days a week. I never thought I'd be someone who could run, but now I can run up to two miles! That is a huge step for me! The most awesome thing right now is that I am nine pounds from being under that "200" number on the scale! It has not been an easy journey. It has been full of ups and downs, but it has been well worth it. I'm still a lazy person, but I now workout hard and I've noticed that I have more energy when it comes to my kids.

I always hated hearing people say, "If I can do it, anyone can do it!" That used to drive me crazy! My new motto is, "Yes, you can do it, but you have to do it when you're ready. If you're not truly ready, you'll never succeed." Just believe in yourself...love yourself. That is the hardest obstacle. I guess everyone needs to put their heel through a concrete floor to get it through their head that it's time.

And that pesky hole in the floor at church...it's still there, reminding me of how far I've come and how far I still have to go, but the journey is sweet and that hole will be my reward.