Thankful Days - Hope

This morning I woke up and decided I had to carry on my thankful theme one more day to say I am thankful for hope.

hope (verb) : to expect with confidence

At my highest weight of 231 I felt hopeless. I had learned to love myself as I was, but was still gaining weight. My luck with dieting always lead to failure, so I had decided I was meant to be fat.

It wasn't long after this picture that I realized I needed to love myself enough to take care of my health. There was a little something deep inside me that knew I had to be able to do something to stop the consistent weight gain in my life.

A few conversations with my husband and a dear friend later I decided to take the small steps necessary to lose weight and take care of my health. I read a few blogs, watched a few episodes of The Biggest Loser and small sparks of hope began to ignite the smallest chance of change in my life. Just maybe I would be able to conquer this demon of overeating.

As I began making small changes to my eating and began exercising regularly I saw weight begin coming off.

By Christmas 2009 I was down about twenty pounds and the spark of hope that I could lose weight had turned into a steadily flickering flame in my life. Exercise had become a regular habit and my eating habits were changing for the better.

It's been another year and another twenty three pounds. With forty three pounds lost I'm almost halfway to my goal and I'm so thankful that hope prevails in my life. As we enter into the holiday season I am no longer hopeless about my weight and health. The thought of cooking and eating Thanksgiving dinner and baking for Christmas doesn't scare me.

• I know I will not eat everything I make.
• I know that I will exercise.
• I know that I can lose weight during the holidays.

I know I can accomplish these goals, because I am able to hope, or have the expectation with confidence, that I will reach my weight loss goals and gain control over my overeating instead of gaining more weight.