Welcome to my blog!

Hello! So, this is going to be my blog... my very own spot on the web. So, I'm Laura. I am happily a wife and mother, and like most mothers, my family is the most important thing in the world to me. They are the biggest reason that I love life like I do. Every day is a beautiful adventure with them! For them, and because I want to be around a long time to see them and their children, and their children's children grow up... and because even now at age 31 I look forward to sitting around at age 90 with nothing to have to do with myself except make it to the bathroom... for these reasons, I have decided to live my life to the fullest, and part of that is being healthy.

For the past few months, I have been trying out a new way of life. I'm counting calories, eating healthier foods, and exercising regularly. This is something that I've been trying to do for a long time, and have never really been able to get myself motivated to do it. I was always telling myself that I was happy eating whatever I want to eat and not being able to jog even a few feet without feeling winded.

A few months ago though, I decided I had to change. I had already begun refusing to buy clothes a size bigger than my previous clothes had been, had begun feeling before and after huge fast food meals like I might actually be an the early stage of diabetes, and I was starting my second year of a degree program in Public Health. I just couldn't tell myself anymore that I could live this way forever, because I couldn't.

I was fortunate enough on that very day to run across two awesome podcasts that I have come to love. One is Roni's Weigh, which is done by this amazing lady who has lost 70-some pounds and kept it off for several years now. Her words really got into my head, and I realized that I didn't have to view a "diet" as an extreme way to lose weight fast; I can use the word "diet" to describe what I eat, and therefore I can never be "on" or "off" of my "diet." Sometimes what I eat could include a chocolate chip cookie or 3 slices of pizza, but usually what I eat will be healthy. It will promote health in my body and mind, and my body and mind will thrive because of it.

The other podcast, which I saw right away as a light-hearted counter to the first, is Two Gomers Run a Marathon (or, at that time, a Half Marathon). This one is just two guys, kinda geeky, never before have been runners, who decided "to do something they've never done before." I was surprised right away with how much I loved and identified with these guys. They are awesome, and they did end up running a half-marathon, and are on their way to the full marathon, even though when they started out, Gomer 1 (Anthony) said something like "Dude, after those first 15 steps, I hit... The Wall." They are great.

So now here I am. I've lost 20 pounds so far, I am in no hurry, and I've decided to branch out with a blog of my own... Here I go. The rest of my life, here I come!

P.S. If you'd like to read about my first few months of progress, check out my old blog at http://www.blogtolose.com/profile/LauraWV