Since February of this past year, I have embarked on a journey
to lose over one hundred pounds, slim down and most importantly, get healthy.
Some of you may know a bit about my story, but at the beginning of this year I
began to realize that I was not in shape (and hadn’t been in a long time), I
was getting weaker, and I was feeling awful.
I had no energy, I felt like I was dragging behind and
couldn’t keep up with my husband or my friends, and I just wanted to take a nap
all the time. Even before I left the country to go overseas for a year, I went
to the doctor to get a check up and was told that my blood pressure was in that
pre-hypertension stage. Where I almost had high blood pressure, but wasn’t
quite there.
You know what I did? I ignored it. I thought “eh, that won’t
happen to me.” And I kept eating what I wanted, didn’t want to work out, so I
didn’t, and I just kept living. Well it caught up to me. While I didn’t go to
the doctor after I came home from my time overseas, I’m pretty sure I passed
that thresh hold of being in pre-hypertension to having high blood pressure.
But I kept going.
Until I had that wake up call in January and knew something
had to change, or I was going to be headed down a slippery slope of medical
problems that could be severe and cut my life short.
We always tend to think “oh that will never happen to me.”
And then we wake up and realize, it has happened to me. But we may feel
powerless to do something about it, so we continue on in the way we have always
gone.
There is a huge passion and fire burning in my soul to reach
out to you that feel like there’s nothing you can do. I have such a strong,
burning desire to help people who are on that hard slope towards medical
issues, and I want to help you out.
Because it IS possible. There IS hope. There IS another way.
Will it be easy? No. Will it be free? No. Will it be hard?
Probably. Will you want to quit? Most likely more than once.
But you know what? IT IS ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT.
I wish I could reach through the computer screen, sit with
you over a cup of coffee and pour into you, fill you with hope and SHOW you
that there is another way. Don’t get sucked into the lie that it won’t happen
to you, because chances are, you might be facing huge medical complications and
bills down the road because you ignored the signs now.
Don’t let that be you. From the bottom of my heart I desire
to give people hope and show them what I have learned, because it is truly life
changing.
Yes, the journey is painful. Yes, I invest in my health now.
Yes, I deny myself of some things I over indulged in before.
But let me tell you, even though I have not reached my goal
in health, I have never felt more alive. I have more energy, more joy, more
discipline, more zeal for life than perhaps ever before.
Getting physically healthy has helped me get on track in all
areas of my life. Spiritually, emotionally, mentally, relationally. It has
touched every area of my life.
So let me ask you this…what is your health worth to you?
Are you willing to make a little sacrifice right now to gain
more energy for your spouse, your family, your job and your life? To get a more
positive outlook and perspective? Are you willing to move forward, even when
you feel like quitting?
Or will you sit down where you have always sat, giving in to
the instant gratification mentality of our culture, only to find yourself
facing more serious (and expensive) problems down the road?
I hope that you hear my heart in this. It is not a blog to
cast shame or guilt on anyone. Truly, it has just been burning in my heart to
show people that there is hope. And though it can be hard, the journey is not
as impossible as you think.
I encourage you today to think about where you are putting your
health on your list of priorities. Are you investing in it now, or are you putting
it off until later down the road? Be brave. Take the leap you need to take
today.
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