Why start a blog about MY journey?

In June 2010, I had enough. I was unhappy, and extremely overweight. I was the type of person who complained about being heavy, but was too lazy to do anything about it! I hated exercise and came up with any excuse not to do anything about it. My eating habits were out of control, and so was my life. As a short 5'4" woman, I was over 200 pounds and increasing rapidly. Something "clicked" I needed a change. I lost who I was. I was so consumed by my weight, that I felt I was trapped in someone else's body. On June 21, 2010 I received a company email at work that talked about procrastinating and how we all come up with excuses to start tomorrow on a project. That's all it took for me. I joined Weight Watcher's that night and started my journey.

I have been very open about my success with not just losing weight, but changing my life. Many, many people have shared with me how following my story has helped them or inspired them to make a change in their own lives. To hear someone tell me that I have inspired them, I cannot even tell you how that makes me feel. Its truly the biggest honor and makes every struggle worth it. I post on my Facebook page all the time regarding this topic and I felt with all of the positive feedback, why not start a journal about MY JOURNEY! Not only will it hopefully keep me honest about my struggles, my success, and my progress BUT maybe I can help even one person that can relate to what I go through or went through. If I can help, this is worth it!

To date, I have lost 51.4 pounds. I workout hard, eat right, but I'm human. My life is not consumed by this every moment of my life...I enjoy food, and sometimes I don't want to workout. Its OK! I am not paid to endorse Weight Watcher's, I am a real person who just happen to choose this tool to help with my journey, but something WW has preached from day 1 - this is a lifestyle. And that is what I've appreciated the most. Its not a quick fix, its a way to teach us to live our lives by making smart choices and learning self control.

I am open to suggestions, hearing other's views, but I ask for anyone that follows my journey to be respectful. I tend to be brutally honest, so hopefully those of you that need some extra support may find this helpful :) It's not always glamorous, and certainly not easy!

Thanks! And many more posts to come! And ps.... I do this from my phone, my spelling/grammer may not be perfect- sorry, that's me!

Shantal

The family picture posted on here is exactly two years prior to my journey. I wasn't even at my heaviest quite yet here... Hard to believe, that was me.