my boyfriend came up with an idea a few weeks ago to start a weightloss competition among our close friends and family to help motivate us to lose weight and be healthy. So far nine people have signed up for the smackdown! We are really so excited and ready to be our best!

Right now I am at 125. I am so proud of my progress since having Lilly! After she was born I was 138 and vowed to myself that I would lose the weight. It was the heaviest I had ever been by more then 10 pounds, and my body looked like it had been dragged from hell and back (childbirth will do that to you...) I A few months after she was born, I vividly remember trying on one of my favorite pre-pregnancy jackets, and my heart sunk when I couldnt even get the edges of the coat together to zip it up. It sat sausaged on me with a solid 4 inches of girth between the zippers. I didnt realize how much bigger my body was until that moment.

It's been a long road of progress...a lot of small changes to my life that added up over time. Trying to watch what I eat, going to the gym...but a year later I have lost all the baby weight, plus a little more :) Im now at the weight I was several years ago! But I'm not done yet. I love the feeling of being lean and healthy, and this is not the lowest Ive ever been so I'm striving now to be at 120 and drop 5 more pounds. My goal is to develop more muscle tone, lose some of the weight thats still clinging a little around my hips (yeah, pregnancy will do that to you too. haha) and get some serious abs!

It's really not that I think Im fat, sometimes people have that misconception that "thinner" girls trying to lose weight have body issues. My goal comes from simply knowing that I can go farther, push myself harder, and be healthier. I dont feel like I've hit the end of my road and this is the best my body can get. I know I can make myself even better, and it feels good to have a goal to work towards!

next post... my workout regimen and diet plan!

“The teachings of a Master appear different in different times. The need of time and place vary. When you were alive few would have said the words of Buddha matched those of Krishna or Jesus. But in essence they all said the same thing—that there is one God and that we are all part of him. That it is important to realize this great truth while we are on Earth. But over time the message becomes distorted. People take God out of man and put him in an imaginary heaven, where he is of no use to anyone. Or else they found a religion based on the worship of a particular Master. Yet Buddha never founded Buddhism. Christ never founded Christianity. Krishna hardly spoke about religion at all. He was too busy dancing and playing his flute. He was too ecstatic to be dogmatic. I am very happy now as I speak to my followers in ancient Egypt. But I know in a short time after I vanish from their view they will begin to squabble over what I really said and what I really meant. Even now as the quarrel amongst themselves. I have to laugh—it is natural that a Master should speak from his level of consciousness but that the followers should hear the words at their level. A long time ago, as mortals are fond of saying, the Rishi was also worshiped as the only son of God. But we all deserve that title, don’t you think?”

I nodded. “How about saying ‘the daughter of God’?”

“Very good, you understand, I am not saying religion is bad. Where it turns men and women turn inward and helps them realize that they are as great as the creator who created them, that there is an ocean of love and silence deep within the heart, then it is useful. But where it divides people against one another, where one person is led to believe he is saved and another is damned, or it leads a person to think that true happiness only in the afterlife, then it is harmful. Each life on Earth is very precious. I called each one a day in class, but if you are wise, if you go deep inside, you can go all the way to the goal in just one life.” He paused. “It is a wonderful thing to be alive.”

- Christopher Pike Remember Me 2: The Return