"Accountability breeds response-ability." -Stephen Covey

Confession time again: I didn't jog for 5 days....yep. I jogged for the first time last night since Friday. And it was fantastic. It was a wonderful 3.5 mile run that gave me that wonderful runner's high and made me feel so much better. The whole beginning of the week was kind of rough for me, I was feeling down, not eating as well as I should have, not exercising. I was happy to have the time off, but after the run last night, I feel great all over. I've had a hard time controlling my eating for the past few days and I'm not entirely sure why. I've actually added to my calories just to see if that will help me to stick to my planned food and not feel the need to snack on other things. Maybe I'll feel less hungry in between meals and planned snacks and be able to stick to the good foods. I will most definitely continue the good running for the rest of the week and I hope that it will help me push past this plateau I've been stuck on for the past month or so. I want SO badly to get into the 140s and sometimes I get very down about not getting there. But then I tell myself that it's really not about how fast I do this, it's just about doing this at all. I do want to be done, but I also want to continue doing this the right way. I refuse to give into taking supplements or anything like that. I want to accomplish this completely on my own (well, witht the help of my Mom and you guys :)

I would like to introduce all of you to an inspiration of mine. Her name is Brandi Laughlin, she's 28, lives in Dallas, has a husband, 2 kids, and a full time job. She's also lost almost 100 pounds....She's AMAZING! Her BLOG is absolutely hilarious and very informative. She writes the way I would like to hear it. She's crude, sarcastic, obscene at times, and absolutely does not sugar-coat anything. She's honest and did I mention hilarious? She's gotten pretty big in the blogging world and I've been following for a few months now. I actually emailed her earlier this week to thank her for writing it and she replied almost immediately. She told me she was happy for me and what I've done and then she told me something that I think will stick with me forever. She said "I'm glad that I've helped motivate you, but just remember that you did that all on your own. YOU accomplished this!" Reading that made me realize that I've accomplished so much. Yes, I look up to her and I look up to Shannon, both inspired me so much. BUT I did do this myself. This is something I can take pride in for the rest of my life.

If you're going through this process, I hope that I am helping you in some way and I hope that I'm motivating or inspiring you or whatever. But just remember that you are doing this. YOU. No one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to do this. You are the one pushing yourself, you are the one sacrificing, you are the one succeeding, YOU are the one getting things done. Believe in yourself, trust yourself, trust God to help push through the rough times. You CAN do this. But only YOU can make yourself succeed.