Thirty Years.

It was exactly fifty days ago that I had a silent heart-to-heart with myself.  For those that know me and have no desire to look at the calendar themselves, that is the day I turned 30.  It was also the day that my sweet husband of fifteen days and I were driving the remainder of my belongings eleven-hundred miles to our home in Oklahoma.  I’m not sure about anyone else, but road trips definitely give me ample amount of time for self-reflection so on that day I found myself thinking about the woman I had become. 

It had just been a little over six months before my 30^th birthday that I had left behind my world of familiarity and comfort of Utah and started a new adventure in Oklahoma.  In such a short amount of time, my world had changed completely – I moved three times.  I started a new job in a new part of the country.  I had made new friends, but I was also struggling with the implications the move had made on old relationships.  My sweet stepdad had passed away.  I met and married my husband.  In just six months, there were very few things in my life that had remained untouched in regards to change.   While my sweet husband drove me farther away from the world I had built for myself over the course of six years, there was a small part of me that was struggling with officially having to say goodbye to parts of my “old” life, but to be honest, I was really looking forward to what the future would hold.  It was no longer my future.  It was OUR future.

And with that being said, I knew that instead of focusing on what was, I needed to re-shift my focus on who I wanted to become.  During this time of self-reflection, I immediately knew that I wanted to become the healthiest version of myself… not only for me personally, but for the man who committed to stand by my side and support me every step of the way.  As we continued to drive, I told myself that it was time to make those changes that I had been putting off for one reason or another.  I no longer had a full-time social life on top of work and school to worry about.  It was the perfect time to make new changes as I was already adjusting to being a wife.   I told myself that I was going to make small, simple changes and I made a personal commitment that these changes were going to be for the long term.   I wanted to make real changes along the way instead of depending on fad diets, shakes, or pills that would be hard to sustain weight loss for the remainder of my life.  As a graduate of Community and Public Heath, I knew what changes needed to be made, but I had never had the real motivation to make those changes until I got married.    

I’ve created this blog as my way to document my progress.  This minuscule part of the World Wide Web is my way of holding myself accountable as I continue down this road of the unknown.  This blog will document my journey and will probably include way too many pictures of yours truly and the food I eat.  I will document each new goal I make and I will be open and honest about my thoughts and feelings along the way.  This is my online journal as I continue to become the woman I was destined to be.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know that I’m not giving up on myself any time soon.  Change is inevitable so I might as well make it happen for myself instead of just waiting around for the next “reason” to get healthier.  This is just the beginning of the rest of my life and I know without a doubt that good things are going to happen and I for one can’t wait to see what the future has in store for me.