Gust Post - My Friend Stephanie

To celebrate my 1st anniversary of my weight loss journey and the start of my weight loss blog I've asked one of my best friends, Stephanie, to do a guest post. She has not only been the chubby friend with me through school years she has also now just reached a big healthy success in her own life. After having her second baby in February 2009 she has just reached 50 pounds lost.

One week after having baby -------- 50 pounds and one year later.

Hello to all of you out in blog-land! I am so honored and privileged that my friend Leah has asked me to “guest-post” for her first anniversary of her journey to her “New Ending”. My name is Stephanie, and Leah and I go WAY back…..like we were twinkles in our mother’s eyes and we already knew each other! Ok, maybe not that far, but our moms grew up together and have been friends for years so of course, Leah and I have been friends as well! I am so thankful to have her as my friend!

As I’ve known Leah for all these years, one thing we have both always struggled with is our weight – (imagine that). We’ve always been the “pudgy” girls – not skinny, but not overly obese, and so through the years we’ve had some good chats about the ups and downs of weight gain and loss.

These past few years, I have seen Leah go through some major life events that have set her back as far as losing any weight. As you all know, sometimes we allow life to get in the way, and we push that aspect of our lives to the backburner to “deal with it later”. I was so excited the day Leah called me to tell me of her “Journey to her New Ending” and how she was going to go through the process of dropping the extra weight she had allowed to creep on. What was exciting is, that I was just coming off of having my second baby and was about 45-50 pounds overweight myself – the most I’ve ever weighed in my life! I had already started, about a month before, trying to lose my own weight and was tickled we’d be able to go through this process together.

I think the most amazing thing I’ve seen happen through this whole process, as we’ve talked on the phone, emailed, talked on the phone some more – are the incredible changes in Leah’s thoughts, ideas, attitude and drive towards weight loss, eating habits and exercise. Her weight loss is slow, as most of you have seen, but what you HAVEN’T seen are the changes that are happening inside of her that will enable her to lose the remainder of weight she has to lose, and to keep it off for the rest of her life. She has used this last year to deal with some major emotional attachments she has had to food and to eating.

Every day, I’m amazed by the insight she has gained and the strides she has made towards a healthier lifestyle. She and I have NEVER been the active type – meaning – we’d rather sit on the couch and read a book than to go outside and be active. It’s just part of how we grew up what our preferences are. To see her activity level soar to new heights has been another incredible part of her journey. I was so excited the day she called me to say she RAN (not walked) her first mile – ever! What an amazing accomplishment!

This past year of traveling this journey with Leah has been incredibly helpful for me as well because, although I have not dealt with emotional ties to food and eating, I still had to work through some issues that came out while going through my own journey. Some of the things I have dealt with are similar issues Leah has dealt with and having her to bounce ideas off of was therapeutic.

I’m very excited at this point because I’m at the end of the first phase of my journey. I have lost 50 pounds and 4 pants sizes – the smallest I’ve been since I was 10 (I think). I am anticipating the day when Leah can say the same exact thing. Maybe in a year, maybe in six months – who knows – but what I do know is that she WILL make it and I am so honored that she’s included me in this part of her journey.

I am so proud to be her friend - you have no idea what her friendship means to me. I hope that all of you have at least one friend or family member you can count on like I can count on Leah.