Let Freedom Ring! - Day 4

Please join me today in celebrating freedom and independence once again by reading how Tricia's great success with weight loss brought freedom to her life.

July 4th is our country's Independence Day, but I will always see January 5, 2009 as my own personal "Independence Day". It's the day I declared war on my unhealthy lifestyle and liberated myself from a life of sorrow.

When Leah asked me to write about the "freedom" I've experienced through weight loss my mind started racing with ideas. So much change comes with 128 pound weight loss. I am now "free" to enjoy amusement park rides without the fear that I won't fit. I am now "free" to wear SHORTS and sleeveless tops and feel comfortable. I experience the "freedom" that comes with being able to comfortably walk down an airplane aisle without having to turn sides ways, and am further freed from every having to worry about the seat belt not fitting. I am liberated from the dread that comes when you sit down in a plastic lawn chair. I am now free to show my husband affection without fear of him being repulsed by what I had let myself become. And I now experience the independence that comes from being a runner.

While all of those things are important, they are simply small parts that make up a whole. Quite simply I am now free to be ME.

Of course I was the same person at 278 pounds as I am at 150 pounds, BUT now I'm FREE to show that person to the world. Its sad to say, but when I was obese I pretty much tried to hide from life. When we were in public, or at work events instead of engaging others I would try my hardest to blend into the background. I didn't volunteer my opinion on topics, didn't crack all those funny jokes going through my head, and didn't put myself out there to make new friends. I pretty much did everything I could to disappear.

I got tired of living in a self imposed prison. My morbidly obese body was the figurative bars that were holding me back from the world.

So I changed. I took small steps towards a healthy life.

And those small steps added up to great things....they added up to my own personal

liberation.

I now have the freedom to live my life. And love it.

Tricia - Endurance Isn't Only Physical