Watch me.

I've always enjoyed the saying "Today is the first day of the rest of my life."

How many people take this saying seriously? I know I haven't for most of my life. I have always wanted to be something special, somebody beautiful, somebody accepted. But, I never felt that I was those things. Hearing "Today is the first day of the rest of my life", made me feel happy for those who had hope for the future. But...How could I have hope for the future and how could I have been those things, if I didn't feel that I could be...or that I was?

Acceptance of oneself and understanding that goals and accomplishments that we have can become a reality is something that doesn't come easy. I am not sure what clicked within me this past year or what has caused me to start realizing that it's not so far fetched that I can have my heart's desires. But, all I know is that here I am. Sitting in my room. Listening to music, writing this post. And as I search my heart and look at my life, I see that there is hope. I see that I have what it takes to be who I want to be. 

When I look at myself in the mirror, I don't necessarily like what I see. I'm overweight. I'm obese. Morbidly obese. 

...If I look deeper then that, however. Into my soul and heart - I see a girl who simply wants to be loved. A girl who wants to be good enough. I see a girl who wants to love herself. I see a girl who has hope for the future, hope for other people. A girl who's forgiving. Who loves with all she has. Who is afraid of making mistakes. Who has an addiction to food. Who has used food her entire life to cover the pain of rejection and childhood struggles. Rejection from her father, rejection from friends, from family. From losing her uncle to meth abuse. From watching family members almost die from alcohol. From being ignored. From not being wanted. From being alone.

I see a girl who has hopes and dreams. I see a girl who is a mommy. Who loves Christ with all her heart. Who wants to do the right things. Who wants others to love her as much as she loves them.

I see a girl, who is free. Free to do whatever it takes to get where she's going. Free to get up in the morning, and be the best mother. The best friend. The best daughter. The best...person, she can be. I see a girl who is going to be someone great. And who is going to reach for her dreams. 

It's not going to be easy. There are going to be hard days. There are going to be doubts, and there are going to be struggles. There are going to be days where I want to give up but I will not. Not this time, no way. 

This is it. Now is my chance. 

Watch me.

Project 365

We are joining project 365 at click it up a notch starting November 1^st.

We are so excited neither Nicole nor myself have ever done this before.

 Nicole is mainly going to use her camera on her phone while I will use
 my almost grown up Canon Rebel XSI.
Want to join too?
Go to click it up a notch and sign up.
We cant wait to share our world and see your world too.
You can follow us by clicking on 365 up on the tabs.

Before

I wrote this to Nicole one year ago.
The power of the human spirit astonishes me. 
She has come so far in that year. 
She has one year of school almost finished.
She has grown spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically.  She set her journey in motion and she is on a roll and there’s no stopping her.

 

What's in our gym?

First let me say this, you do not need a gym to get in shape. We started out by just walking. I did try running but my knees disagreed with that idea! Your body will adapt to any exercise so you need to switch your programs every few weeks. Switching it up will also allow you to add variety to your routine and not become bored. I recommend talking with your DR before you jump into any exercise. 

Start slowly.

Even though we have a lot of things in our gym, we bought one piece at a time. The first thing we bought was an elliptical. If you buy one make sure the foot boards are close together. The higher end $1000.00 + models will have this feature. The less expensive ones will not. The reason for it is you want your hips, knees and feet to be in a straight vertical line to prevent joint injury.

In the summer months,

we have bicycles and I have a trailer on mine to carry my grand daughter so we can be outside.  In the winter months, we have an indoor trainer which allows you to use your outside bike indoors.

Then we added a Vectra home gym. 

For more info go to

 http://www.vectrafitness.com

We found it on Craig's List and paid $500.00

 it retails for about $8500.00.

We also added all kind of free weights, bands and balls. Then we added a TV. We wanted to be able to do some Pilates, yoga and cardio videos. We also have the walls covered with daily work outs. There are three of us with three different abilities. So each daily workout has something for all of us. 

And then my favorite. A rowing machine. It gives you a full body work out. Ours is water filled and you can set the resistance to make it different levels of difficulty. If you're trying to decide on spending $1,000.00 on a rower or an elliptical  the rowing machine is a better choice because it gives you a much better work out.

We also have an inversion table to decompress our spines. 

We have bad backs and our surgeon recommend it to us. 

I hope this gives you some ideas to build the gym that is perfect for your needs. If you have any questions, ask in the comments and I will answer them.