Catch me up

I'm hoping that this will post since my computer has some serious virus that is totally screwing it up.. but there is hope, E nicely volunteered her significant other to take a look at it for us and see if he can fix it. So keep your fingers crossed!

This has been a very emotional week for me personally. I found out on Sunday that my aunt in NY had died from lung cancer. She was only 53. May she rest in peace. And when a family member dies suddenly it makes you think... It was tough, I didn't really know her that well (sadly) because they live 6-7 hours from me, so I got to see them maybe once or twice a year. Plus, I wasn't able to attend the services which I feel really rotten about. I'm sure my family understands and will accept that my thoughts and prayers are with them. Then on Wednesday I found out that my co-worker, Flo had had a stroke and was in the hospital. On Friday I found out when I got to work that she never woke from the stroke and had passed away Thursday night. She was 63. My thoughts and prayers are with her family in this very difficult time. It was so unreal at work on Friday because I had just seen Flo on Wednesday. She was there, walking around and fine and now she's gone. I wish I could say that I knew her very well, but I'd actually only worked with her for about 5 or 6 months. She will be sorely missed at NGJ. RIP Flo.

Friday was measurement day for me. I was really nervous. I knew that I'd kept dropping weight, but I wasn't sure what my measurements would be like. Would the roadblock I'd been working through this week hurt me? The answer? Not a chance in hell. I lost 24 more pounds. 2.1% body fat and 4.5". So my totals so far is 47lbs lost, 8.6% body fat lost and 13.5" total lost. These #s totally blow my mind. Honestly this whole thing has just been surreal. It's kind of like I've been doing the workouts and eating what I was supposed to so that's been real, but the weight coming off and my clothes getting baggy hasn't been. Like I was on the outside looking in, watching. But I look in the mirror now and I see it. I see a new me and it's bloody wonderful!!!

Friday was the last day of 30:30:30. Ben hasn't really told us what we're going to be doing this coming week for cardio except it's 20 minutes of intervals and 20 minutes of running. We don't know what the intervals are yet. So Friday we did 30:30:30 of sprints outside. It was a really nice day so it was great to be able to get outside. Although I'm not that big a fan of sprints, it's definitely helped build my endurance which is great. On the very last sprint, Ben told us to really push and make it the best one yet. So somehow I was able to dig deep and just run, sprint as fast as I could. It felt great to really push myself and challenge myself to do better. I felt like my lungs were going to burst after, but I felt SO good!!

Saturday was "Bring a Friend Day". I brought my co-worker Bernice with me. We did a new one Ben is calling "Death Valley" which is an appropriate name for it. Lol. Here is what we did:

20-16-12-8-4-8-12-16-20

Pull ups/Rows
Clean and Press
Jump Squats/Sky and Ground Squats
1 Arm Kettlebell Swings
Russian Twists
Uneven Push ups/Push ups

Move through reps completing 20 for all exercises, then 16, then 12 and so on.

Bernice did VERY well for her first time and I am VERY proud of her!!! =) She almost puked, but not quite! =) So you know it was a good one. Ha ha ha. We got through the list 3 times. So we ended by doing 12 reps of each one. I hope that she will consider taking more BBC classes, but that's up to her.. who knows? Maybe we scared her away!! LOL...

After the workout we had our final MMC. It was kind of emotional, but mostly we just reflected on how this whole thing went, what was hard, what was easy. That kind of stuff. For me, the hardest thing was the emotional part. I don't think I ever realized just how much of an emotional thing getting healthy and losing weight is. All of the "baggage" and "issues" that you have to get over personally can be overwhelming. For me, my past has played a huge role in why I got big in the first place. One of the most valuable things I've learned is to let your past be your past and look to the future. Don't let something that happened in the past hold you back from being happy now or in the future. Take charge of your life. Trust has always been an issue for me as well. I've had people close to me, who I thought were my friends, hurt me. So trusting new people, not so easy. I used to put up walls to sheild myself. Just go about my business and not let anyone see the real me. But these women, these 4 women and Ben have shown me that I don't need to put up walls anymore. So I made the conscious decision to let go grudges of the past and make peace with it. I may still put up a few walls at first, but nothing like before. I can't believe how much I've been able to grow as a person through this experience. I can never thank everyone that voted for me enough for believing in me and helping me to start on this journey. I know it's not over yet, that we have 4 more weeks, but I hope you've been following along with me and I hope that I have inspired you. I hope that I can inspire anyone out there that wants to lose weight or get healthy to do it. Just do it. Do it for yourself, find that inner woman/man that you know is inside of you. Cause he or she is there, ready to be loved.

I've been listening to my Ipod in my car a lot lately and I found this song and I think that it really says what I want to say to my fellow Moosers. So here it is. Enjoy:

Artist/Band: Rascal Flatts
Lyrics for Song: My Wish
Lyrics for Album: Me and My Gang

I hope that the days come easy and the moments pass slow,
And each road leads you where you want to go,
And if you're faced with a choice, and you have to choose,
I hope you choose the one that means the most to you.
And if one door opens to another door closed,
I hope you keep on walkin' till you find the window,
If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile,
But more than anything, more than anything,
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.
I hope you never look back, but ya never forget,
All the ones who love you, in the place you left,
I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,
And you help somebody every chance you get,
Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,
And you always give more than you take.
But more than anything, yeah, and more than anything,
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish. his is my wish
I hope you know somebody loves you
May all your dreams stay big

~L