• This doesn’t suck

    We scored a cheap night at a hotel ON the beach in Nags Head on the OBX for the night. The above pic is from the door of our room. The sound of the angry ocean from the crazy tropics right now is amazing. It never gets old. The sound of the thundering waves is…

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  • I feel out of place in almost any social setting. I am that person who, when the server tells me to enjoy my meal, I say “you, too!” like a bumbling fool. Please tell me I am not the only one! Any time I have to go into a situation where I don’t know the…

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  • Our Story

    Our Story

    My fiancee keeps asking me when I am going to talk about her on my blog. She has a point. She is an incredibly important part of my life and I wouldn’t be where I am today without her. Our story is one of love and struggle, as most love stories go. I am truly…

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  • Having been born in 1979, there was a time in my life that I CAN remember not using a personal computer on a daily basis. However, computers were still prevalent in my life as far as companies using computers for our everyday shopping and such. So truly, I cannot imagine a world without computers of…

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  • This is the actual quote on my daily cat shaming calendar today. How fitting that today’s prompt is on focusing on the important details in life. For me, the thing I need to focus on is my own personal self-care. I put everyone else before me and don’t even stop and think about what I…

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  • Making time for priorities

    My #1 priority for tomorrow, as it is every day since January, is to practice positive affirmations in my mind. I am not an innately self-confident person and I often put myself down. I never push myself towards my dreams and goals because I am too afraid of failure. I start my day listening to…

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  • The type of “hard work” that is fulfilling to me is when I get out and exercise to better my health. I go out in the mornings as the sun is coming up and I live in a campground right now that is on a creek and the beauty of that in the early morning…

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  • Perseverance

    This is a tough prompt for me. I am not one to talk about myself in a positive way (something I am working on!). I had to think for a while to come up with something that fits me well. After a bit of consideration, I came up with perserverance. I have not had the…

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  • All kidding aside, I would love to have a job that makes me feel fulfilled AND takes care of my financial needs. I am now 46 and definitely having the “mid-life crisis” feeling of dissatisfaction with my career. My job is not bad, and I like the people I work with, but it fills me…

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Growing up, I was skinny and tall like a beanpole. It wasn’t until I turned 17 or so and went on the depo provera shot that made me gain about 50 pounds – and fast! Since then, I have struggled with yoyo weight loss.

At 17 I was 105, then 155 after the shot. For the next 4 years I would go up and down about 25-30 pounds, give or take a few. I got pregnant at 22 and I was 177 (Damn, wish I was that now!! LOL). I gained 57 pounds with the pregnancy, but lost all but 10 pounds fairly quickly. Until I turned 30, I fluctuated between 185-220 pounds. At that time, I went through a rough divorce and lost 25 pounds and hovered around 160-170.

I gained all that back and then some, clear up to 250. I again had a rough life situation, lost 20 pounds down to 230 and got a job working at Wendy’s. In the 3 years I worked there I lost almost 80 pounds from my 10-12 hour active days and not eating enough during the course of the day. As a GM at Wendy’s you have no time to eat!

Then, I hurt my back. I ended up leaving the job because I couldn’t handle it physically anymore. I moved in with my now-fiancée and her two boys and you know what they say about love making you fat and happy? Yeah that happened LOL. Also, as I aged, the weight was harder to come off and I started going through perimenopause. I ballooned up to 280 pounds. I couldn’t stand looking at myself in mirrors and in pictures.

In January of this year, I got my shit together and went to see a doctor for the first time in, oh, about 12 years. Needless to say, I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high triglycerides. Talk about wake up call. My doctor told me if I didn’t change my habits I was headed straight for a heart attack and/or a stroke. This is the beginning of my current weight loss journey, so please come along and we can all support each other!

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