Week 27, 191 lbs.

The "before" pants!  The photo is not the best,
it was taken with my cell phone, but you get
the idea.  It's amazing how far I've come!

Closer and closer!  I am nearly to the century mark!  My goal for the week is to blow past the 100 mark for Monday's weigh-in!

If I could travel back and time and tell my heavier self back in June what I would accomplish by December, I think I would have laughed hysterically at myself.  I was so fat for so long that I had resigned myself to always being the biggest girl in the room.  Today I am such a different person - alive with the knowledge what I am able to accomplish!

Yesterday at weigh in, Caroline (my Ideal Protein coach) asked me to give a brief testimony at that evening's orientation seminar.  I told her I would think about it .... and then went home, telling myself that I'd only get up there and talk if I found some old "before" photos to take with me.

I found some photos that were captured on my husband's game camera while I was watering the garden. They're pretty horrifying.  Then my husband reminded me of the Capri pants I kept.  The pants were too tight to wear in public when I started the diet and when I got too small for them I hung them in the back of my closet after my friend Michelle suggested I keep an article of clothing as a reminder of how far I've come.

YIKES!!  I've come a long way, baby!!

I hadn't looked at those pants since I put them in the back of the closet and I was stunned when I held them up in front of me.  I know in my head that I'm a lot smaller than I used to be, but it blew me away when I held up those pants and saw HOW MUCH SMALLER!!

Anyway, I went to the Ideal Protein seminar and was blessed to find a good friend, someone I love a great deal, in the waiting room.  Because of me and what I've been able to do she decided to give the diet a try, too!  I can't tell you how much it warmed my heart to know that my journey isn't just doing good things for me, it's touching the lives of others and inspiring them to make a change.

Seeing my friend gave me the confidence I needed to get up in front of a room of strangers, tell my story and show some really HORRIBLE before pictures... like the one I posted here at the right. 

I really enjoyed talking to the group.  I like giving others hope - to show them what is possible.  I remember the doubts I had when I started this program and the spark of hope that another woman gave me when she spoke to my orientation group. 

What a wonderful opportunity to pay it forward!  I hope I get the chance to do it again!