Not Everything is Bigger in Texas: "Obese" is not in my vocabulary.

Yesterday was a momentous day! I weighed in under 180lbs and dropped from "Obese" on the BMI charts. I have been in that category for the last decade and I am so happy to be out. Never again will I be there. I promise. Not only for myself, but for my children, my husband and for all the people that have told me "It's easy to lose, but so much harder to keep it off." I will show them. This is a life change for me, not a for now change. I've come a long way and I'm really proud of where I am today. I can look in the mirror now with more confidence and I've learned that I am capable of much more than I have ever given myself credit for. Which leads me to.....

My first ever 5k! Saturday was the big day. I went Friday night to go pick up my shirt and bib and all that stuff. While I was there Dan and Jackie Evans from season 5 of The Biggest Loser came in for a meet and greet. They hadn't officially started the meet and greet but we wanted to leave so I walked over and said hi and took a picture with them. They asked if it was my first race and I said it was. Then I told them a little about my journey so far. They were super impressed and even said, "You didn't even need Bob and Jillian!" Haha Jackie was probably one of the nicest people I've come across in life. She was very easy to talk to and down to earth. When I thanked them for taking a picture I walked over to Kevin and the kids and Jackie ended up following me. She said to Kevin, "How amazing is your wife?!" Made me feel really good. We chatted more about the ranch and her experience on the show. I told her about how I used to watch the show every season eating junk food (usually a bag of potato chips) and I'd cry wondering why I couldn't just lose weight. Now I cry every episode but for a better reason. :) She said she used to do the exact same thing before she went on the show. She ate a huge bowl of popcorn with an entire stick of butter. (Ew) I don't know why we did these things, but I'm so happy that my eyes have been opened and I'm a much healthier person now. I still eat chips, popcorn, even cookies...I just eat less. We said our goodbyes after about five minutes or so of chatting and I was even more excited for the race after talking with her.

Saturday morning my alarm came way too fast. I couldn't sleep Friday night. I probably fell asleep around 2:30am and woke up at 7am. Yuck. I got up and got ready to go, ate breakfast and got everyone else in the family ready. We got to the race an hour early and waited in our car for awhile because it was cold and drizzly that morning. Finally it was time so we walked to the course and I took a picture standing on the Biggest Loser scale (it didn't actually show your weight or anything, just the giant silver scale to stand on) and then we waited. Dan Evans sang the National Anthem before it was time to start and I started tearing up. To think about where I'd come from just eight months ago and where I am now. I was about to RUN over 3 miles! It had been less than two months since I was first able to run a full mile without stopping. To say I'm proud is an understatement. I feel sometimes like I'm watching someone else go through this whole journey and I'm going to wake up one day and I'll be fat again. So anyway, after the Anthem they blew a blow horn for everyone to start. The 5k'ers and 10k'ers all started off the first 1/4 mile together so it was a LOT of people. Took awhile even to get to the start line for my time to start. Then I had to run around and through a lot of walkers to even begin to get a good pace going. I ran the whole first mile without stopping except to slow down to pass people or hop around mud so I didn't fall on my butt. I ran most of the second mile without stopping but towards the end of it I slowed a bit and took a cup of water from one of the people handing them out. Spilled it on the front of my shirt so then I looked like I had been sweating through my chest. Nice. HAHA Ran again and pretty much all the way through the rest of the race. I think I probably only legit walked like one minute of the whole thing. It was really nice to see people cheering on the sidelines and all the different shapes and sizes of the runners. I learned that morning that I judge people in a way I shouldn't. There were a lot of people out there running that if I saw them on a normal day I'd think they were really athletic and could definitely out run me, but I was passing them! Made me realize that just because someone looks fit, doesn't mean they are (or aren't really) As I was coming to the finish I started to worry that Kevin and the kids wouldn't see me but as I made the final turn I saw them. My heart raced and I started to really tear up. They were on the side of the track just before the finish line and I waved to my daughter and she jumped up and down yelling "Go mommy!" Best feeling ever. Kev got my finish on video on his phone and I got to hear what I didn't know happened which was my son started crying when I ran past them yelling "mama!" because I didn't stop. Poor kid! Seeing them gave me an extra boost and I was able to run past one more person and finish. Final time 39mins 51.4 seconds. I finished 11/28 in my age group, 125/239 overall and 84/180 among females. Those numbers are much better than I thought they would be. My time wasn't great, but I finished and I'm so proud! I cannot wait for my next race in March! It's going to be amazing.

Here are some photos: