Shauna

October 15, 2009 - It's 11:00 pm, I should be asleep but I am pumped up. I just got off the phone. I talked to my dear friend Shauna for over an hour. I haven't seen her in awhile. She has changed her life. I am so happy for her and so sad for me. I want to be where she is. I want to feel as good as she is feeling right now. She cried tears of joy, she is on cloud nine, she is fit, healthy and feels so good. I on the other hand am fat and unhealthy. I wonder what I can take from that conversation and use on my journey to good health. She told me she was 208 lbs at her heaviest and is now 140 lbs!! She is going to Mexico in November and bought a bikini to wear!! Today she went shopping and size 8 clothes fit her! Before I go to sleep I need to write down a few of the key things that led her to this good place she is in.

• She decided that today was the first day of the rest of her life. She had a friend die of cancer and it really changed the way she felt about her situation. Here she was alive, basically healthy and sitting in front of the TV, eating and her friend was dead.
  
• Change your lifestyle. You've heard that before but she really did it. All the things that used to make her eat she has eliminated. She no longer watches TV or reads at home. She walks or goes to the gym instead.
• Eat to live, don't live to eat. This is an age old saying but she really lives it. She is so active now that she really has to remind herself to eat. Food is the fuel for her fit body. She feeds it because it needs to be fed. She said when she goes on her hikes in the mountains she needs to eat constantly to just keep herself going. Even with eating constantly she will still have dropped 5 lbs the next day just from the hike!
• Stop waiting for someone else to make you happy. Only you can do it for yourself. Get out there and live your life.
  
• Be selfish. You need to do this for you, so you need to put yourself first. Stop doing for others and leaving yourself to the last.

That's pretty much it! It took her almost 2 years to do this but she worked hard and her work has paid off! Even though I'm so jealous, I'm so very proud of my friend. The sad thing is that in 2006 I lost 40 lbs and I was the one she was jealous of. We went shopping in the "fat lady" store and I didn't fit into any of the clothes because I was not in the plus sizes anymore. I will get there again. I want it bad. I'm going to blog, and starting tomorrow it will be day one of my journey to good health.