The journey

I had someone recently state the following to me: "I would be lying if I said I was not concerned with you being able to keep up your healthy lifestyle for the rest of your life," (because I do have a history of obesity).  It got me thinking about a lot of different things, most importantly the journey and story  that weight loss and living a healthy lifestyle is.

This year marks 3 years since I kissed 65 pounds goodbye. A challenging journey indeed. This year also marks the year I got divorced, and ran (literally) into a new life by completing the IMT Des Moines marathon (all challenging journeys).  It also marked me having IT band issues in my knee, and going from running 26.2 to 4 miles maximum while doing physical therapy. This journey has proven more challenging than any other thus far-because it requires me trusting the journey to recovery. It also makes me more accountable to my eating habits and trying new things to obtain overall fitness.

Now, I emphasize the word journey above. And for good reason. All of life is a journey. It is a story, and we get to share that story with other people and have others influence the journey and story of our life. Positive, negative, and anything in between.  The above mentioned challenge got me to thinking about the relation of our stories and journeys to relationships. If we truly care about someone, don't we genuinely care about their story, and their journey? And we would likely do anything to support, while also understanding that it's their journey to walk. You accept the good, the bad, the up, the down and anything in between. The journey, the story is what makes that person uniquely them and likely what attracted to you to them in the first place.

So, I will leave this post stating this: this person was mostly right-no one can guarantee that they will life a healthy lifestyle forever. But as long as I am physically capable of movement (even if it's just my arms), I will do everything in my power to prove your statement as completely inaccurate. As long as I can eat wholesome, organic, all natural food, I will prove each day that this is forever.  I will show my daughter that a strong, confident female body beats the hell out of a 'skinny' woman that society is warping her to believe is ideal. I can, and I will prove that my journey in weight loss, running and physical wellness is a 'forever thing.' I have many people in my life that are there to support me as part of their own journeys as well. And those people are certainly my forever, for the rest of my life.

Have a blessed week!

Kara