In the spirit of Thanksgiving...

I thought today would be a great day to stop and give thanks...

Thanks for my new body.

I'm a hundred pounds lighter than I was 2 years ago and I feel a thousand pounds lighter. In my body, in my spirit and in my soul. My life is changed.

Sure, there are the physical changes. I mean, its so darn wonderful to look down and be able to see my lap. I absolutely LOVE being able to cross my legs. Or even cross my arms in front of me without having to have them press my boobs down. (I'm not crazy about all the flaps of skin that are hanging from me, but hey, those are my trophy flaps, right?)

Then there's the activity part. I'm so much more active now. I used to be a couch potato. Now I just love getting up and doing whatever I need or want to do. Because I know I won't get tired. I used to sweat when I went shopping. Now, I can shop all day and never break a sweat. I love being able to skip up the 3 flights of stairs at work, multiple times a day and not get winded at all. Heck, I ran 6 miles on Sunday, 4 miles on Monday and 2 miles this morning. 12 MILES in one week!!?? Whodathunk!

I've had to get all my rings resized and I think I need to get them resized again because one of them keeps flipping over to where the diamond part falls around to the palm side of my hand whenever I type. I have a little silver chain bracelet that I paid like $5 for, but I don't want to replace it, so I just moved the clasp up to hook into one of the chains, so that there's a strip of chain dangling about an inch long after the clasp. An inch of chain that used to encase my fat wrists. And I'm now down to a size 12 (maybe even a 10, but I haven't been shopping in quite a while). When I started this journey over 2 years ago, I was a SIZE 26/28 and they were too tight on me!!

I love the way I feel about myself. I feel so worth it, now. I feel like before, when I was fat, I was hiding from the world and I wasn't worth anyone noticing me or giving me any kind of credit for anything. And I had to fight for any ounce of respect from my peers. Now... Now, I hold my head high. I am worth it. I am so much more confident in my choices, my actions and my conversations. The weird part was that I always was worth it, I just didn't know it because of all the embarrassment and unworthiness that I felt when I was fat.

Now, I can call my self thin. I even go so far, sometimes, to say I'm skinny. Although, according to most BMI and weight charts, I still need to lose another 10 pounds before I'll be "healthy". But in my heart and soul, I AM SKINNY!

I love this new me. And I'm SO thankful for her. I'm proud to be in the skin I'm in, now.

And I'm SO thankful for my family at Weight Watchers and of course my real family, too—including my absolutely amazing husband. And I'm SO thankful for all of you out there reading my blog. And this is something I want each and every one of you to own. Even if you've never commented on one of my blog posts before, you still read my blog. And that is SUCH great encouragement to me to keep going and keep losing. You know what would make me SO happy. If I could get each of you to just post "your welcome" on this blog post. You don't have to say anything more, I'd just like to send this little piece of thanks out to each one of you and I want you to know that you've changed my life and the way you can own this appreciation is to take it in and just say a simple "you're welcome, Cara". It would make me so happy. It would really make my Thanksgiving PERFECT!

So, what do you say?

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