My Roots to Grow: February 2016

So….we are just a few days away from March and I realized that this is only my second post for the YEAR! Can you believe it? I am sucking at this whole blogging regularly thing lately.

I have been blogging for 5 years now and what started as a nearly daily occurrence has dwindled to a once a month thing, sometimes even less frequently. That’s just life I guess. When I first started out (FIVE YEARS AGO- seriously cannot believe that!) I had a lot more focus and my writing had purpose- to keep me accountable. Now, I am much more set in my ways. My lifestyle is just that, it is ingrained into me. Yeah, some days (weeks) are better than others but even at my worst I am far better off than I was five years ago. My friends call it ‘health conscious’ and I love that term. Even my ‘junk food’ or ‘off days’ look nothing like the crap I used to put in my body on the regular before I knew better.

I can say without a doubt that blogging has changed my life for the better. Because of it I found my support group, the world’s best cheerleaders, and some of the most amazing friends. My community, both online and in real life, is amazing. It has allowed me to open up and connect with others that share my interests and struggles that I otherwise would have never met. That right there is priceless.

I lost weight, yes, but it was so much more than that. I gained my health back. I added years to my life. I ADDED LIFE TO MY YEARS! I stopped being so fucking afraid of everything. I stopped hating myself. I stopped feeling ashamed and embarrassed of how I looked or how I thought others perceived me. I found acceptance, self-love and I did so without having to lose weight first. I fell in love with me at one of my heaviest weights and was able to continue that through my lowest weight and every weight in between.

The adventures….oh there have been so many! Fitbloggin’, weekend trips, hiking with friends, slow rides, running races (still can’t get over this) including and most special to my heart – the Ragnar Relay in Cape Cod. Heck- I was even in a magazine!!! (And a book). Me. The girl that wasn’t sure she could do much of anything has ended up doing more than she could have imagined.

When I started writing five years ago I doubt this is what I had pictured for my future self. I am not even sure I believed that was capable of changing my life but I knew I had to try. My life literally depended on it. And I knew that I needed to ask for help, I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own. And that is what I did. I asked you to help me, to support me, to listen, to lend me advice and input and you did. And for that I am eternally grateful.

It has been five years.

Five amazingly wonderful, empowering, heartbreaking, humbling, fan-fucking-tastic years. It’s been everything I had hoped for and more. I feel like I have learned more about myself and about life over these past five years than I had in the 33 previous. There is so much growth that happens through openness. I can only hope that these next five years bring me as much love and happiness as the last.