Dedication

A twofer! I meant to add this to the end of the post I made earlier today..but I forgot once I started writing and then once I remembered I decided to just make a completely new post.

It's no secret that I've been on a weight loss journey for the past year. I've lost around 45 pounds and I'm so incredibly proud of how far I've come. I fell off of the wagon a little during the first few weeks of school (adjusting from a summer schedule to waking up at 5:15am and then dealing with 24 little bodies all day took a lot out of me!). I'm back on track and am LOVING every minute of it. Friday morning at 4:30am, I'll start week 9 of the Couch to 5K program. I cannot believe that after 3 more runs..I'll be a C25K graduate! I'm so proud of myself.

I also recently purchased a Polar FT7 heart rate monitor and I'm beginning to kick myself for waiting so long to get one. It's so incredibly gratifying to know EXACTLY how many calories I'm burning (as opposed to just estimating like I had been with MyFitnessPal) and it's also done a great job of motivating me to workout longer and harder to try to burn more calories than I did the day before.

This was from my very first run with my heart rate monitor (which was the beginning of week 8 in C25K). I had no idea I was working that hard during each run and was definitely underestimating my caloric burn. 

I really can't believe I'm on the downward side of this whole weight loss thing. When I started this journey, I know I was just as skeptical as everyone else. It's incredibly shocking to look back at pictures of myself from even a year ago and remember how pretty I thought I was. I definitely look better 40 pounds lighter! This week I'm going to sample some Shakeology shakes to see if I like them and as soon as I finish C25K I'm going to start running for DISTANCE and not just time..so I'll be able to go (hopefully) go faster. Who'd have thought I'd turn into a runner?!

So much has changed and I'm excited to see what else will change in the future. LIVING HEALTHY!