Shelli Belly

January 2011

I had such good intentions for 2011.  New Years day I had my first Diet Coke in a year. What an accomplishment.  I used to drink 6 Diet Cokes a day. The most difficult part of this task was when I went to restaurants.  I substituted Green Tea and lots of water.  For 2011 I planned to give up all Fast Foods (FF).  I knew this would be difficult but a necessity. See even while I was dieting I’d still go to McD’s for breakfast. Yep a great start to your day. So no Fast Food for 2011 except for maybe Subway, Eat Fresh right?  I figured that if I didn’t have a plan then I’d eat FF so  this year I needed to have a plan for each meal. I remember one time in January I walked out of a Subway (legal food) because it wasn’t part of the plan for the day.  There is a lot of power in walking out realizing that you have set a boundary for yourself that you were not going to cross.  In January I began reading  Lysa TerKeurst‘s book Made to Crave.  This book led to a change in my “Want To.” I’ll review the book another time but it certainly started my year off right with the Lord as my guide.  I spent New Years with J~ setting goals for the year but not just goals but prayers. J~ is a friend that knows how I tick and when she said that my cheating on my diet weren’t cheats but sneaks it really touched a place in my mind and heart.  To sneak was so much worse than cheating. This idea kept me going for a time.  When I returned to the gym Angimal really recognized that want to.  She even said that if “NO November” continued that it was going to be difficult to train me but she noticed a change in me.  We were ready for a New Year.

February 2011

With this new dedication Angimal encouraged me to sign up for the June triathlon.  She believed in me but good grief I couldn’t see it.  I couldn’t picture me doing such a thing.  How could a 300 lb person Swim-Bike-Run at that weight?  I’ve always wanted to be this type of athlete so I just needed to borrow Angimal’s belief for a while.  I continued my workouts now with an end in mind.  I wanted this!  I was going to go through the motions and get there when I get there.  If you don’t shoot at anything you miss it every time. 

My first glimmer that I could do this was the February Master’s Swim Meet. I always think of a Dave Ramsey quote: “If you want to be rich you have to do what rich people do.” So if you want to be skinny you have to do what skinny people do.” Skinny people  SWIM.  In the 50 yard Freestyle, 100 I.M., and 50 yard Breaststroke I earn Third place ribbons. I earned Second place ribbons in the 100 yard Freestyle and 50 yard Backstroke.  Age group wins are a wonderful thing. I was there baby! I looked the part and made a good showing.  I had FUN! So maybe the TRI could happen.

      February also brought me back to So Cal for my nieces wedding.  “The Dress” made another showing.  Its a lot different wearing an outfit when you don’t know anybody and could care less what people think but when people know ya and there’s a history its a different feeling.  Well so I thought. Once again I felt confident and pretty.
What a new feeling.
During this trip I also noticed that my clothes from the summer were extra-large.  I was making progress and still couldn’t see it or believe it.  You see I knew the truth even though I was an exercising machine my food was still not spot on.  Grandma Rose really noticed a difference and couldn’t keep her hands off my extra-large pants.

My FF goal was going fine but I was still not eating right and February was the real beginning of that.  Its something that I’m really going to have to face. If it was just exercise in this life change I’d really be doing great. ARG FOOD!