Resolutions anyone?

Happy 2010! Hope you all had a fun night filled with celebrations (and hopefully not quite as much "fun" as we did...there is a bit of recovery happening around here...)

Have you ever been one to make a resolution for the new year? I've never been, but apparently my friend Rebecca is!

Now, before you run over to her site, let me give you an idea as to why I'm so impressed.

In college, I definitely struggled with my weight. That supposed "freshman 15?" Well, I added to that number...a lot. At one point I weighed around 45-50 pounds more than I do now. The fact that I stopped dancing after highschool was part of it...and the 2 am beer & pizza probably didn't help either :) I'm pretty sure that Casey threw up in his mouth a little bit when I pulled out some of those pictures...Put it this way, I weighed more but still tried to wear my old clothes...yuck.

Losing the weight was not much fun. I am a soda-aholic, love eating out and I loveee Mexican food. I had to give it all up. It was hard, and not so fun...but luckily, after several months of "dieting" and exercising, I was able to get myself back to normal...and all of that learning experience definitely helped me lose that dreaded baby weight! (I gained 50 with Gavin)

It's not hard to see how weight can creep up on you...just a pound a week ends up being 52 pounds in a year. Oftentimes women don't really notice weight gain until they see themselves in a picture. I would blame the mirrors when I thought my reflection looked fat, and would blame my pants not fitting to being bloated. Can we say denial?!?

But, moving on...I met Rebecca while working with kids at the YMCA while I was pregnant. We laughed as we realized that our due dates were only a week apart, we were both newly expecting. We also realized we both had lost our dads much too soon, were both (unintentionally)doing the baby before marriage thing, and were both looking to rake in some money with a part time job before the baby arrived. Needless to say, we hit it off from the start.

And then for Rebecca, things headed downhill...and quickly. She was diagnosed with severe hypertension and had her baby, Jaleah, via an emergency c-section at 26 weeks. To make a long story short, they spent over 100 days in the NICU with her but she is thriving today!

Back to the weight thing...Rebecca has been brave enough (trust me, this girl has got some balls to do this) to share her battle with weight...publically. Think Biggest Loser type outfits for before and after pictures...and she posted them. I cannot get over how excited I am to follow her journey, and I cannot be more in awe that she was able to post these. I mean come on, I won't even walk around my house letting it "all hang out"...much less let Casey take a picture...much less post it online!

So please, head on over to Rebecca's site to follow her on her journey and cheer her on!