Happy Mediversary to Me!

1 year. 365 days. 8,766 hours. 154 pounds. I can't really find the words today to express how I feel. It's hard to summarize an entire year of your life isn't it? Not just any year either..a year of major changes. While I am still, at the core of me, the same person, I am forever changed. In a strange way, I feel blessed to have gone through what I have. I don't mean the weight loss. I mean being the weight I was. If I had never weighed 380 pounds I never would have known how amazing life can really be. It gives you such an appreciation for the small things, that most people take for granted (hell even I take some of it for granted now). We all have struggles in our lives, things to overcome.I will still struggle, for that is life, but it wont be in the same way it was before. As my mother said (wise woman that she is) "You will never have to lose 154 pounds ever again". I will never go back to where I was, but I am glad I was there. It is all part of my own personal journey through my time here.

In celebration of my Mediversary let us revel in some of the things I have been able to do this past year!

• Go shopping in a normal store (which I haven't been able to do since before High School)
• Fit into an airplane seat and buckle the seat belt without an extender
• Sit Indian Style (I know, I know it's not PC but come on!)
• Ride a roller coaster
• Ride a bike
• Make healthy food choices while eating out
• Exercise and grow to love it (never thought I would be that person!)
• Sit in a booth in a restaurant (When I sit in one now I can't imagine that I was ever to big to not fit..they seem huge now!)
• Enjoy the summer months without sweating from the slightest movement
• Go into New York City and not be mocked, stared at or have names called out at you. (I am actually falling in love with the city for the first time since HS)
• Enjoy having my picture taken
• Doing things for myself and being able to say No (being able to make yourself a priority is hard to do when you hate yourself)
• Opening up myself to the possibility of falling in love and having the Universe send me Brian. Who loves me for me (my looks are a bonus)
• Being excited for my future

These are just a few things I can do now that I couldn't before. I don't know where this journey is headed but given what I have seen this past year, it's only towards good things! Thank you all for sticking with me through the good, the bad and the ugly. The biggest thank you though goes to me. I am never one to give myself a pat on the back but I gotta give props where props are due. 1 year and I never gave up. I want to give the little girl inside of me a big hug and tell her "You are worth all the things you never thought you were. I am sorry I put you down and hid you for so long. You are free. You are free". This next year is all about that..freedom and what I do with it. Let's see where the road takes us...