Of course this is the time of year when everyone reflects on what has happened, or what hasn't happened, or what they want to achieve for the next year, or where they are going in life, what they have accomplished and what they want to accomplish... for most of us this means resolutions that we struggle to keep. Big goals and that get lost in the monotany (or the chaos) of the every day. Dreams that seem too big and too far off to reach but I'm here to tell you that they aren't! Looking back on my 2011 (and forward to 2012) I just wanted to share a few things that I've learned, say some much deserved thank yous, and hopefully inspire you (and myself) to have the best year yet.
As most of you know 2011 was the year in which I finally lost weight (60ish pounds). I say finally not because I have been trying to do it forever or because I waited and waited for it to just happen but because for whatever reason (by the grace of God I imagine) something clicked in my head this past year and I just did it. It wasn't a New Years resolution, I didn't sit down and say "I want to lose 60 pounds," it wasn't even like I hated my body and needed a change. I don't know that I can describe it really. I decided around the second week of January that I would try weight watchers again, having tried it before, with a goal of being healthier and, initially, of losing 10% of my body weight. Nearly a year later I have lost around 60 pounds and about 30% of my body weight. People ask me now if I have reached my "goal" and I don't really know what to tell them because I never went into this with an end goal. I guess the answer to that question is "no" because now that I know what I am capable of I am always, every single day, pushing to make myself better, stonger, leaner, and healthier.
2011 was the year I discovered my potential. I can not describe to you how impowering it is to know that you can do so much more than you ever thought you were capable of doing. 2011 was the year that turned my life around. I am dreaming bigger than I ever have before, I am working harder, I am pushing my fears and my insecurities back and doing things I never would have done before.
So many people have supported me on my journey and for that they deserve HUGE thanks.
To my sister, the only person that knew about my journey from the very beginning, THANK YOU. Thank you for being the support I needed to take that small step into what has become a life changing experience. Thank you for understanding my need for privacy in the beginning and for listening when I was frustrated and for encouraging when I needed encouragement. Thank you for letting me go to the gym with you and for continuing to join and support me when I ask you to do 5K's on thanksgiving morning, and for showing up to join my for weightlifting class on new years eve, it made my day! Thank you!
To my boyfriend, thank you! Thank you for putting up with all my point counting, and recipe testing. Thank you for your patience when I said "I can't eat that, we can't go there, I can't have another beer." For standing with me in the grocery isle while I tallied the points plus value for every box of crackers before deciding on one. Thank you for loving me before AND after the 60lbs.
To my mom, who has to listen even more when im frustrated to tears than when I'm excited and encouraged, thank you. Thank you for answering the phone 15 times in one day when I have questions, concerns, frustrations, and when I just need to talk your ear off. Thank you for knowing that I always had this in me and for patiently waiting for it to surface. Thank you for ALWAYS making me feel like the most beautiful, most successful version of myself, no matter where I was in life. Thank you!
And to my friends, thank you for supporting from a distance. Thank you for encouraging and not questioning or criticising my methods. Thank you for not making me feel bad whether I said no to one more glass of champange or yes to another bottle. Thank you for being there when I needed and staying back when I didn't. I have the most amazing group of friends and I am so grateful for all of your love and support every day. Thank you!
For 2012 I plan to continue down this path of fitness and health. Now that I know what I am capable of I want to tap into it even more. I want to be stonger than ever before, more fit, healthier. I am going to work every day, and it is day by day, to be the best version of myself. I hope for every one of you, if you haven't yet discovered your potentional, that 2012 is the year that you do it. Make your goals small, achieveable, and work towards them one day at a time. Let fear and insecurities go. Like anything else the thinking is actually much harding than the doing so stop thinking and worrying about doing things and JUST DO THEM!
For me 2011 will be hard to top but I'm determined to make 2012 even better. I hope the same for all of you. You can do more, be more, acheieve more, than you even know. Go do it!
Happy New Year Friends! CHEERS!
Love Katie xoxo
