On June 4, 2016, I started my first Challenge not knowing what I could or would accomplish. Much to my amazement, with a lot of hard work and encouragement from my Personal Trainer, Kyle Smith, I managed to lose a little over 67 pounds. During this latest Challenge, I have managed to lose another 33-plus pounds for a grand total of 100.6 pounds. The weight loss is obviously measured in pounds, but what I have gained can’t be measured.

My self-confidence has gone up which will help a lot due to the fact I still have a lot of weight to lose, and it will take more hard work and patience to get to my ultimate goal. Patience is not one of my strong points, so that is and will be a challenge all of its own. During the first Challenge I participated in my first 5K, something I never would have attempted prior to the weight loss. Having already signed up for the 5K on January 1st, my goal is to just do it faster than I did my first 5K, which took me 68 minutes as I walked the entire distance. One day I will run the 5K!

As a reward for losing the 67 pounds in the first Challenge, I treated myself to a trip to California. While there my cousin and I did a lot of walking. Walked around Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 in San Francisco for hours, and then walked through Muir Woods for almost 2 hours. On one day she and I walked around a lake, up and down hills, and through a garden area, and ended up in a different town at Starbucks. Of course then we had to walk back. We even took a trip to Lake Tahoe and, you guessed it, did a lot more walking. I would not have been able to do all that walking before the weight loss.

For years I have been waiting to hear one small phrase from my parents, and I was wondering what it would take for them to say, “We are proud of you.” Now I know, it took losing 100 pounds. At my age it may seem silly to want to hear those words, but they have no idea how much it meant to me to hear them say it. Sometimes it is the little things that make the biggest difference.
Many things have become easier to do since losing the weight and continue to get easier with every pound I lose. One thing that, while easier, is still a challenge is going up stairs. I am looking forward to rejoining the church choir but in order to do that, I have to be able to go up 25 or so stairs. It is a work in progress, but then again, so am I.