I have a vision - Inspiration Monday guest post

It’s Inspiration Monday and a very inspiring story is waiting for you. It’s not your typical story about inspiration but I’m sure you’ll all love it just as much as I do.

There are so many wonderful and inspiring women here on blogsphere and I’m really happy and honoured to be hosting some of them here on my blog. Today’s guest is Jewels who writes at Naughty nothings and Jewels turning 30. She is a very kind and helpful lady and I’m really grateful that she wrote this amazing story on such a short notice. Thank you again Jewels!

When I was first asked to write an Inspiration Monday post I panicked a little, after being totally honored of course. Inspiration can mean so many things for me depending on my mood, what I want inspiration for, and where I am emotionally. My inspirations for writing are many but the most influential are music, quotes, and relationships. My inspiration in life and who I want to be as a person are my father, my grandmother, and my late great grandmother. I am not going to write about any of those things though because I feel like it is a story that most people already know…because you have your own. I am going to talk about something that is new and exciting in my life and my inspiration for change.

I am on a journey for the first time in my life to workout and change my life. I want to be healthier and the weight loss and shrinking inches is a wonderful side effect. I have sufficiently bored everyone over at my blog with my tales of Zumba and of trying to lead a healthier life. I hate bringing it up over and over but this is a new and exciting time in my life. I am not fit, I have never really been fit, and my activity level was the equivalent of getting from my seat at the bar to the bathroom and from my bed to the refrigerator. Sound disgusting to you? Seems seriously unhealthy doesn’t it? Well it was. I was.

So what inspires me to hit the gym 3 times a week for amazingly awesome Zumba classes, or hop on the treadmill in my room after a long day when I’d rather be in bed watching TV? What keeps me eating healthier, cutting down on carbs, cutting out all drinks but water, increasingly my fruit and vegetable consumption, cutting out all sweets (wasn’t much of a sweet person anyway), and being better about portion control? Simple, for the first time in my life I don’t want to be out of breath and sweating uncontrollably on a dance floor. I want to be able to jog…hell I want to be able to run. Do you know how long it has been since I have run any significant distance without having to stop and grab my side? I honestly can’t remember.

There I am...from a flattering angle of course.

My inspiration is this vision of myself I have in my mind. I close my eyes and think of myself and I’m nowhere near as large in my minds eye as I actually am in real life. That scares me. I have this idea that I’m not that bad but I can’t deny anymore that I am. I am inspired by the life that I have a chance to lead. I’m moved to work harder to avoid the high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes that plague my family. I am inspired because for the first time I am not dieting, I’m not on a pill or a fad. I am making changes that I can live with for the rest of my life. This is huge for me!

My friend's wedding in September of 2010. *I'm far left*
In comparison to the other women I felt huge in the wedding party and in these pictures.
This was a wake up call for me to get my act together before my sister's wedding.

The other thing helping me along is that I am determined to lead a healthier and more active life but I’m not focused on the pounds. I didn’t weigh myself before and I’m not weighing myself now. I can physically see the loss of inches, see it in my clothes, feel it in my lack of being winded going up and down stairs multiple times. For the first time in my entire life I will have a birthday where I haven’t gained weight. In all of my 30 years I have steadily put on more and more weight, slowly but surely. I am happier than I ever though I would be, secure in the knowledge that this year that will not be the case, this year I will have lost. 

I have dubbed my weight loss efforts “Operation Drop Dead Sexy Bridesmaid” because my sister is getting married in September and I want desperately to not ruin her wedding photos by being a giant pewter (the color we are wearing) blob. That isn’t a pity inducing sentence. I am gorgeous. I know I am beautiful, inside and out, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know improvements can be made! Her wedding may have given me a push but I know, without a doubt, that I am doing this for myself. So right now the most important inspiration in my life comes from within myself and the hope that I have for my future.