The Big Five-Oh!

Today was a good day.

It was Weigh-In-Saturday at Weight Watchers this morning.
And it was totally awesome, because I have finally hit the 50 lb mark!  (Fifty-two to be exact.)

I am now at 240.2 pounds of Dorian lusciousness.
I am 23 lbs. lighter than when I graduated from college.
I am only 9 lbs. away from being the smallest I've ever been in my adult life.
I am 10 lbs. lighter than my driver license says that I am (and we all know THAT was a total lie for so many years).
I am merely 20 lbs. away from my weight at 16 years of age.

Let's face it.
I AM  a rock star.  Boo-yeah.

So I'm feeling good about me today.  I'm starting to feel good on the inside as well as the outside.  My knees don't hurt quite as much.  I'm having fewer headaches than I had in the past.  My back doesn't hurt quite as bad at the end of the day.  And my inner self-talk is much more positive than negative.  I'm starting to say things to myself like, "You can totally do this!"

OH!  And I have to tell you about this AMAZING accomplishment I had at the gym on Friday.
I took Lily with me, and while she was playing in the kids' club, I was working my ass tail off (quite literally) on this weird elliptical/treadmill/stair stepper hybrid.  It's called an "adaptive motion trainer."  I've included a link to a video on how it works, just in case you're itching to know what it does.  For the short version of what it does, let me tell you, It kicks butts and is taking names!

Okay, so I'm on the freaky, hybrid machine, which is actually a lot of fun because it has this neat little bounce to it, and it really doesn't put stress on my knees, which is what I like about the elliptical.  I like to imagine it's what it would feel like to exercise on the moon.  And as I'm watching an episode of Glee,  45 minutes pass by and I hardly notice.

The thing about the freaky, hybrid machine though, is that it REALLY works me out, and it's somewhat difficult to really cool down on it.  So, I decided to move over to the treadmill and walk slowly for a few minutes to my cool down groove on.  But, when I stepped on there, I couldn't help thinking, "Gee, it's been a long time since I've ran on the treadmill.  I wonder if I can still run for 30 seconds without stopping?"

So, I bumped up the speed till I was running, and 30 seconds went by....and then....ANOTHER 30 seconds went by.  And I didn't die!  Even after a whole sustained minute of running, I wasn't in pain, or so short of breath that I'd be in danger of passing out.  It was...well, it was ok.  And it was so ok, that I thought I'd go ahead and give it another try in a couple of minutes.  And so I did.

And did again.

And did again.

And then the last time, I wondered how long I could run without stopping, before my legs started really complaining.  Well, it turns out that I was able to make it to the 2-minute mark!  This was very exciting for me.  I haven't run in several months.  I wasn't sure I even could.  Two minutes may not seem like a very long time, but for someone who is carrying around 80 lbs. of extra fat on their body, running for any length of time is somewhat of a miracle.

But here's the REALLY miraculous part:
As we were leaving the gym, I asked Lily if she had fun.  She said she did, and before I could think to stop it, I said, "Me, too."


I don't think I've EVER felt like exercise was fun.  Unless you're a masochistic psycho who considers an hour of torture fun, which I'm not.

But Friday night, for the first time that I can ever recall happening, working out was actually fun.
Who knew THAT was possible?
Personally, I think that change in attitude is just as much of an accomplishment as losing 50 pounds.