Say it LOUD... Say it PROUD!

It had been three weeks since I last exercised, I had promised myself that I would do it tomorrow but it was already TODAY! I didn't have anymore excuses, even though we had just driven in from a looong road trip over the weekend and were sitting in the car for over 10 hours with two kids. My eyes suddenly opened and as I saw a little bit of light I thought if everyone is asleep why not change into my workout clothes and JUST DO IT! 

I changed quickly without making a sound, I did not want to wake the kids up. I did not want to wake up my husband. I walked towards the door.... iPhone? check, keys? check, water? check, earphones? check, jacket? check... LET'S GO! 

As I walked down the steps onto the courtyard I noticed it was still dark, there was some a crispness in the air that was not there the week before. Could it be it will start to cool down -I thought. Then a few seconds later I'm at the gym! As I programmed the treadmill I couldn't stop feeling accomplished, proud of myself and I felt a winner. 

It's barely 6:30 and I'm already 5 minutes into my workout! I pumped up the volume and enjoyed working out to some music. Nothing gets me more pumped up to workout than some great music. On this particular morning I was craving some "reggaeton" and just like that I was well on my way.

That early Monday morning I remember tweeting, instagraming and posting on facebook how proud I was of myself, me at the gym before anyone woke up! On the way back home I was all smiles and ready to start the day, ready for whatever our week had in store for us. During the next couple of days I had my ups and downs, specially with weather changing so drastically my sinus' acted up... Yet I managed to get in at least 30 minutes of physical activity. I would put on some videos of people dancing on you tube and rock to them, other days I would just do some squats, jumping jacks and knee highs. On a rare occasion I did some burpees... never heard of a burpee? Oh my you are in for a workout surprise! it's a combination of a squat, push up and jumping jack, or something like it. Very challenging. 

I had agreed to be parteners with Stacie and I wasn't going to let her down. So all week we would tweet each other: "Water!" "run" "jog" "pushups" "what's for dinner?" and motivating eachother really put everything into perspective! I joined this team to get healthy. To lose weight. To wear a much smaller size of clothes and I am not going to give up now! 

As I watched what I ate, drank more water than I was drinking the weeks before and kept myself active on Saturday morning I decided it was time for a weigh in. Had all my work paid off? Had all that water instead of soda and all those low fat meals paid off? 

And then... the moment of truth, I was on the scale and I looked down. What I saw was beyond achievement. It was beyond what I had expected.... 

I thought to myself: Say it LOUD! say it PROUD! 

5 lbs down! 

I kept getting on and off the scale, I could not believe it! and then it hit me... I was dancing and jumping from joy. I had reached one of my goals, I was now officially 20 lbs lighter!  It took me 4 months but I had done many changes, I had stuck to it and it was certainly paying off. 

Whenever we lose weight we say it loud and proud, but when we gain we are always shy about it. This time I was loud, proud and confident. I had lost weight and it was certainly going to show.

My updated measurements are:

Neck: 15"  before 16"

Chest: 41 3/4" before 45"

Arm: 14.5"  before 16.5"

Waist: 41 3/4" before 46.5"

Hip: 49" before 53.5"

Thigh: 28" before 32"

As you can see I'm losing my most noticeable weight/inch loss is on my waist and thighs. 

Have you ever felt this way? 

A very special feeling that means we have been hard at work.