You lose to gain

What would you lose to gain?  This question has hit me lately.  During this journey that Brad and I have taken together, we have chosen to give up a lot of things that we were eating before.  One of my biggest things has been Mexican food.  I loved going out to eat Mexican to the point that when I was at my heaviest that they knew what our order was and already had it written down.  They just verified that we still waited the same thing.  This type of eating caused me to get to my heaviest weight of 194 when I wasn't pregnant that is.  If you count when I was pregnant, I got up to 208.

We have also learned that in order for us to gain a better life, we have to lose some to gain.  Not necessarily pounds or inches but other things as well.  I have had to let go of people that have been a bad influence on me or have been involved in things that I didn't need to be around.  People that constantly want to live in the past and be negative all the time. People that I had a hard time letting go but knew that I needed to do it.  Mainly for my sanity and my happiness.  Stress causes me to gain weight. For the last year and a half, I just kept going up and down.

I stayed stressed because of things that were said to me and I am thankful that I have been able to let go of that.  I still have my good days and my bad days.  This journey has been so much more than losing weight that I put on.  It has been more about gaining my life back.  The way that my life use to be before the decisions that I made that ultimately caused a downward spiral on my life.  I have gotten my life under control now and wouldn't be where I am at without God and my wonderful husband.

Now that I got off track just a little bit, we will get to our weekly weigh in.  This week I don't have a separate pic of Brad and I.  Instead, I have pic of us together with my daughter Peyton.  I have lost a pound this week and Brad has lost a pound and half.  Total for us since starting on September 21 has been 12 1/2 pounds for me and 24 pounds for Brad.  This week we were thrown off a bit because the kids had their Thanksgiving lunch at school.  It is hard for us because we have two and their lunches are always so close together.  Since we had carbs on a low carb day it probably affected our weigh in a little bit but we both lost.  We can't complain at all though.

We are starting to notice changes in ourselves.  For instance, Brad is having to add another hole to his belt and his pants are starting to fit looser.  Soon he will be buying a size down and that is awesome!!!  I know he is excited. He has stuck with it for almost 2 months and he is seeing changes.  When you have worked and worked without seeing in changes, it can be discouraging.  This time is different and I am so glad that we found something that worked for both of us.

I have gotten in a size 9 in pants that are juniors and they are fitting extremely loose.  I won't be able to wear them soon and I just got to where I could wear them.  I also can wear a 7 in juniors.  I don't like how they push up on my sides a little but soon I will be able to wear those without a problem as well.  I haven't been this small in my adult life and I am beyond thrilled.  I am looking forward to summer because I have worked hard.

We both are looking forward to summer and going to the beach.  This is the first time that I have been excited to buy a bikini.  I am hoping that buy summer time that I will be have abs showing.  You have to have goals right?

Below is our weekly picture.  Look at my sweet baby girl.  She was so excited about taking a pic with us and Bradley did so well taking the pic for us.  It is hard to get a pic of all of us together.

I am extremely grateful for being able to go on this journey with my husband.  We have been through a lot and for us to come out on top is amazing.  Thanksgiving is going to be a little hard but we are determined to come out ahead. We have talked about changing our free day from Sunday to Saturday when we do our Thanksgiving with Brad's side of the family.  We are preparing ahead of time so that we can still be successful.  What is everyone else doing to stay on track close to the holidays?