I dread buying pants!  Having to take kids to the store with me, find the women's section, find the pants, the size...  then the dreaded- try them on otherwise you have to come back.  Thankfully my friend Kristi was at Walmart too so she watched Bravo team while I tried the clothes on.  I got 2 pairs out one the size I fit in my current clothes- 10 and a 12 just incase.  I could button up the 10, but just didn't fit right.  The 12 wouldn't even button.  I was past frustrated, so I got stretchy workout clothes and I will get those size 10 jeans in a few weeks!!!

        Here I am at 173.8.  My weight started at 216 when I delivered Preston last December.  I am hoping to be at 135 by spring.  Last week I was at 177.  I have stopped nursing and I am just getting over a long cold.  I hope to be in the 160's by the time I get back from Omaha next weekend!!!  I can do it!!  When I finally hit 165, I am having a fat clothes burning bonfire!!!  I am anxiously piling together my fat clothes.  I have wanted this to come for a long time.  It has been 6 years since I have even seen 173!  The great thing is that I will never see this weight again!!!!  NEVER!  So here is to my new workout outfit (I have never owned one).  Workout outfit, may you and I become best friends and lose a lot of weight!!!

Well, if you are on my Facebook list, you will know what CRAZINESS is going on at our house.  We are going to do RAGBRAI next year as a family.  This has been my husband's DREAM since he was really young.  I put it down, laughed at it and even try to convince him that it isn't for our family.  Well, I was convicted that we don't have any real ! in our marriage.  If we keep staying the same and never have an adventure here or there, then we will look back and have nothing to really remember.  So, I gave into the RAGBRAI idea and he bought the 3 person tandem - yes I said 3 and then we are adding a tag-a-long (rented from a friend) and we got a burley trailer off of Craig's list for $100.  So, we need to get everything together and practice with the kids.  Mostly, I need to get in shape.  I have lost 42 lbs, but I have 39 more to go before I hit my ideal weight.  Carrying 39 more lbs on a bike of 6 is a lot of weight and I need to get it off my butt and gut.

So, I started walking/jogging yesterday with the 2 kids in the burley.  I forgot how hard it is to run and it brought back many memories of when I was in highschool.  Just transferring to Waupacca Christian School in 10th grade, I was puggy (ok FAT) and lonely and had no friends. The kids had grown up together and went to school together, but I was new and an outcast.  The teacher said that they were going to have the Presidents' test to see how fit we are.  Most of you know what that is- run under a certain amount of time...  I knew I couldn't be the last person.  I would definitely be laughed at and I would never live it down.  So, I started running the mile and a half to church and back.  It was tough.  I remember the first night I went out (I went out around midnight so no one would see me), I couldn't even make it to the end of the street and I had to walk most of it.  But over a few months, I finally got it where I could walk and even added an extra mile on.  It was great.  I would allow myself to sneak into the church (since I knew where the key was) and play the player piano and sing as loud and long as I wanted since no one was there!  It was great, but it was really tough starting out, but I knew I couldn't be last- and I wasn't.  One of the older boys was.  I can't remember his name, but I can sure remember what he looked like and that moment that I knew that I wasn't going to be the last one in!!!

Yesterday was that same way,  I was proud that I went the 4.5 miles with most of it gravel (which is tough) pushing a burley in high winds, but I know if I keep it up, I will loose the weight and I will be ready for that 7 day bike ride with my family.  I don't want to be the last one, but even if we are, I want to be in shape for my family and for me.  I have lived too long being FAT and it is time that I get back to the way I was when I got married. 

It is sad that people say-"she let herself go".  Well, I did and now it is time to reverse that idea.  Hebrews 12:1-3 is my motto and I know that with all the other things I am changing in my life, I can do this and keep it off.  The first 42 lbs was hard, but I did it, now I know I can do the last 39 lbs which is less than what I have already lost.  As Nick Vujicic put it (I think he quoted Armstrong), It's not the marathon that you look at, it's the mile you are on that makes the difference.  I can't look at the huge RAGBRAI, but I can look at riding to and from church, running my 4.5 miles, losing the next lb and getting to 35lbs left...  Inch by Inch life is a since, Yard by Yard life is ______.

So, for you that might have thought I have fallen off the band wagon of blogging, I am back and this is my race for the race of my life is on!

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