REAL.

I'm gonna keep this one short and sweet. :-)  I know you're all cheering inside, right?  I had an epiphany/duh moment.  Usually the holidays roll around and I'm thinking "Yay!  I get pies, cookies, caramels, and our family's traditional Christmas morning cream cheese French toast casserole!"  Yum.  Am I the only one that gets excited by this "excuse" to indulge?  Yeah, I thought not.  No judgment!  We're cool.  I won't tell your secret.  Anywho, this year has been a little different.  Heck yes I've been excited for these yuletide goodies, and yes, I have appreciated them adequately :-)  Trust me :-)  But there's been a noticeable change this go round:  I've actually LOST WEIGHT this month. No lies.  And this is where I get completely REAL with you.  I've shown you my transformation pictures, and at that time I gave you a deficit number.  I had lost ~26 lbs, yeah?  K.  When I decided I needed to do more than workout to be healthy, I weighed 148.8 lbs.  Which, for a woman at 5'7" put me at the high end of the "healthy" BMI range at 23.3.  Now hold on to your socks.  Today I weighed in at my lowest weight yet, 5 months later.

This is how excited I was about it.  I posted this picture even though my toes look sad; but this post is titled "REAL" so, there you go.  119.8!  That is 29 lbs EVEN.  And the last 2 of it came off this month.  So now, my BMI is 18.8, at the low end of the healthy range for my height.  Moral of the story:  If I, who STILL has to give in to my sweet tooth regularly, can LOSE WEIGHT during the peak of the weight gain season, so can YOU.  I don't do this to brag; seriously.  I do this to show you that it's possible.  I've been totally honest with you, completely upfront about what I've done, and why it's working.  I even showed you a nasty picture of my feet, which motivated me to do this:

The holidays don't have to be a time to dread the goodies and the threat of weight gain if you make it a habit BEFOREHAND to take care of yourself.  Everyone deserves to feel this awesome about themselves.  I've spent SO LONG, TOO LONG being uncomfortable in my own skin.  Have you? 

NO MORE.