Halfway Home...

Ninety-five days gone... ninety-five days left. We are halfway through with the Biggest Loser competition, and, as always, I have a few thoughts about the past 13.5 weeks:

 

1. If someone had told me that I could be down nearly 100 pounds in 13 weeks, I would have said they were nuts. It can't be done... it's not safe... I'm not that disciplined... I don't like vegetables... (actually that one is true, still!)... I've never been athletic...  on and on. But it's happened - I'm down 89 pounds in 95 days. The weight loss has slowed down, but it is still coming off.

 

2. My perception of what I thought I could do and what I've actually done are two completely different things. Growing up as the fat kid, the last one chosen when picking teams, I never thought that I would be the fastest, strongest person on my team (or one of them, anyway). I have legs that should have had corrective surgery when I was a kid; a back that has blown two discs and required two surgeries; and complications from those surgeries including cramps and numbness in my left leg. But somehow  I have been able to overcome these things and do more than I ever thought I could. As I said in my interview last night, I was afraid to walk into the gym that first morning, because I had never been in one, and was afraid of failure. But as someone said, if you don't experience failure, you're not trying hard enough.

 

3. I had not planned on getting so close to my teammates - my plan coming in was to remain detached, maybe a little lost in the pack. But it has not turned out that way at all. They are the first people I talk to when I've had a bad day, when something funny has happened, or when I have health concerns. In our interviews last night, everyone noted that our team has become their second family, and they meant it. We see each other at pretty much our worst, which most mornings is crawl out of bed, grab a T-shirt, and head to the gym.

 

4. Week one, I wrote our trainer an email, saying that while I knew I had no chance at winning this competition, I was grateful for the opportunity. That may still be true, but in week three I grabbed the lead (percentage of body weight lost), and have held onto it for eleven weeks now.

 

The pounds are harder to lose; the workouts are getting tougher; the journey does not get easier. But it is one worth taking, because the rewards greatly outweigh the sacrifice!

 

Thank you, NBC, Omni, PHC, Johnnie, Barry, Tim, Colin, Tanner, Ashlee, Laycee, Lori, Nandy, Lisa, Tammy, Bronnie, and Charles for this experience - truly the chance of a lifetime!