Day 100

Today marks the one hundredth day of this journey for me! I started this blog back on August 12th and, at that point, I had no idea where this path was going to take me. I would love to say that I knew from the start that this would be the time I finally lost all the weight and accomplished my goals, but the truth is I had no idea what would come from this particular pilgrimage to better health. There were so many times in the past when I was certain that I could stay on track and lose the weight, but those strong feelings obviously did not end up being accurate.

Ironically, I am now very confident in stating that I do know that this time is it. More than three months in, and with a completely different attitude and perception framing this experience, I am positive that I have found what will work for me. I have never had any weight loss program last for this long – whether food based, exercise based, or based on utilizing both elements – and I have never thought of the changes I made to my lifestyle as one that would be permanent and sustainable.

After little more than three months of eating cleaner and being more active, I have accomplished a lot! In one hundred days I have:

1. Dropped over fifty pounds.
2. Developed much more confidence in my appearance.
3. Lost more than eight points from my BMI reading.
4. Had most of the people in my life take notice of my efforts.
5. Gone from a 24W to a size 18 jean.
6. Significantly reduced my chances of a heart attack or stroke.
7. Found that I have ninety people I’ve never met cheering me on.
8. Experienced many epiphanies about how to make this long term.
9. Discovered a sense of pride from my progress photos.
10. Collectively taken off thirty-two inches from my body (when considering bust, waist, hips, both arms, and both thighs).

There are so many more things that I could list here, but I thought that these touched on a lot of the biggest achievements. I am so proud of how far I have come in such a short time. Some parts of this journey have been surprisingly easy and other areas have given me much greater difficulty. There has been a lot of hard work involved in getting to this point, but also a lot of great times along the way.

The best part is that this is still just the beginning. I have so much more to learn and share and, really, this won’t ever actually be over. My life has drastically changed for the better because of a decision I made one hundred days ago, and I am truly excited to see where the next one hundred days take me. And after that? I look forward to discovering the gifts and challenges of the next one hundred weeks, and then months, and maybe even years. Who knows? This journey has certainly taught me that absolutely anything is possible!