Slowly, but surly... Making and SEEING progress!

**DISCLAIMER**
I am not yet comfortable showing a current full body picture of myself. However, when I have more progress photos, I will start. For now you will just have to take my word for it.


I am addicted to the feeling of getting stronger everyday. I mean, I am not gonna go train to be a body builder or anything; but, i do want to be strong. That has been inside of me forever. I have always been strong. I have always been the one to lift the heavy boxes, or move a huge thing from one space to another. I love it. Only now I am building muscle, and doing it the right way so I am continuously strong, rather than strong in small spurts. I am finally seeing definition behind all that fatty-ness, and it will only get better.

Every time I go to the gym I challenge myself. I do a heavier weight, more reps, faster pace. Whatever have you. If I don't challenge myself, I get upset because I know I can do better. Therefore, I just push myself every time. Now I can run almost a whole mile without stopping. Never in my life have I been able to do that! And I am sure within a week, I will be able to run the whole thing! It is amazing the progress I have made in the past month with running alone. I always made the excuse that I was too afraid of the treadmill, or that I had to much weight on me for the impact. Forget that. Running is a mind game. One day I just said eff-it and ran. Now I think I'm addicted to it. My plan is to run a couple 5k's this summer. It'll happen.

But
For months I hadn't seen anything. No muscle definition, no thinning out. I still fit in all my old clothes, and was frustrated because I knew I was feeling so much better on the inside. I only wished it would reflect on the outside. I would weigh in with my health coach and it would be 1-2 pounds here, 1-2 pounds there. Which is a healthy rate to lose weight, for sure, but I figured that it would start showing eventually. I would start thinking my body would never change. That I would be healthy, but forever be a big girl. I would go back and forth wondering if all this hard work was worth it, if I was ever going to be in the body I knew was inside me. I was genuinely scared.

WELL! 35 pounds later... eventually finally came.

Recently I took a picture of myself in the same pose as my 'before' picture and placed them side by side. I was in complete disbelief. Denial even. For days, I couldn't stop staring at the picture. I would try to trick myself into thinking it wasn't true, but I do look different. As my brother said, it looks like someone put me into Photoshop and squished me. I still look at the picture and think, nah, that can't be right. It's the angle or something. Maybe the lighting. Or the clothes I'm wearing.

But no. It's real. I am different, and it's finally starting to show, even in the smallest ways.

Then I noticed people making comments like, "Senaida, look at your pants!" or, "have you dropped weight?" or, "You're looking very healthy."

It feels great, let me tell you.

Another thing that feels great?
Buying new pants.

About a week ago I went to the store in search of something new. Mostly shoes, but I knew my pants were starting to look frumpy, so I figured I would look for something along those lines too. To my surprise, I kept having to get a smaller size to try on. I started at 20, then went to 18, then 16! Again, I was in shock and disbelief. Same as the picture, I was in complete denial. I kept making sure I wasn't wrong. I walked around, sat down, pulled at them, and even asked the lady that worked there if they looked weird. There was nothing keeping me from buying them, so I did. I still don't believe they fit me.. I am scared to put them on every time. My past experience with that is they never fit again. But they do... They really do. Really well too.

And just to make things better! -- I just had my monthly meeting with my health coach. We did numbers, as always.
I dropped ten pounds.
BMI dropped 1%
and body fat percentage is at 35.
I figure if I keep losing a healthy 5-8 pounds a month, I will be at my goal weight on or before the new year. Although a friend thinks I can do it by June. We have a bet. She will probably win.

All this change, and finally seeing the physical change, has me extremely excited! I now know I am on a one way path to my health and fitness goals. It won't stop there either. Once I get to my goal weight, I will only make new goals. Not necessarily weight goals, but goals that challenge my fitness on new levels that I never thought I would be doing in a million years.

Whatever it is, it will be awesome! That is what matters.
It'll take more hard work to get there, but now I have no doubts (or at least fewer doubts) that I will! My life is taking me places I never imagined, both in and outside of health. However, I do believe it all revolves around healthy choices!
Now I just have to get out of these frumpy clothes!

Until next time <3