As a blogger, I have tracked my journey from the very  beginning to now. I updated each month with how I felt, my weight loss and inches lost and instead of writing every single post I wrote during the journey, I thought I would just give you a little glimpse, a snap shot into each month and how I felt at that time by reposting a few little things I wrote each month. I know many of you reading this may still be deciding whether to start your weight loss journey or maybe you are already on it and I hope that by reading my monthly little entries below, you can kind of get a feeling of what you could experience by starting this amazing journey! So much freedom, energy, health and more is waiting for you...it is so worth it!

MONTH ONE: "It's amazing what ONE MONTH can do! I've lost 28 lbs* and 15.5 inches and Jim has lost 36 lbs and 13 inches so far! We feel so good and yet we have so much more to go! Jim is almost half way to his goal but I have a bit more than him. We feel so much better after just one month so I am so pumped to see how we'll feel after we are at goal weight! Woohoo! By God's grace and strength we are getting healthy. We are getting rid of the bondage that we were in with food and being freed from all issues with food and overcoming it with Christ!"

MONTH TWO: We feel SO much better already and Jim still has 18 to go until his goal of 80 lbs off and I have 44 to go until my goal of 100 lbs off! I'm learning how to not eat when I'm emotional, which is a BIG thing for me. I've had LOTS of hard days here lately with Annabelle's due date coming up on Friday BUT i didn't turn to food this time and I thank God so much for that. I've lost 56 lbs and 27 inches and Jim has lost 62 lbs so far! I also had some blood-work done a week ago and have AWESOME news to share with you all. A few years ago when I was at my highest weight I had high cholesterol (both hdl and ldl), high triglycerides, high liver function tests, positive ANA(marker for auto immune issues with the body), high glucose. I was VERY unhealthy...well guess what this time all was NORMAL except for hdl just a little low and they were not concerned and my ANA is now negative. I also had a normal C-reactive protein test, which shows risk factor for heart disease. Seeing all my tests that were once high and now seeing them normal gave me the biggest smile! I love seeing how eating healthy is really changing me from the inside out!

MONTH THREE: WOW! It's been 3 months already. I am so thankful that God has helped Jim and I through these past 3 months to change our eating habits, the reasons why we eat and all the emotional issues behind (especially for me) and for us to see food in a whole new way! That alone is worth it! Jim made his goal just yesterday! Jim has lost 80 lbs and 27 inches and is at goal and I have lost 74 lbs and 36 inches so far. Of course we love wearing much smaller size clothes and looking nicer but the one thing we both love is all the energy we have. We are doing so much more now and dancing all the time together in our living room with Isaac and we have all these outdoor activities for winter and next spring/summer that we want to do now. Things we wouldn't have done last year because we wouldn't have had the energy or been able to because of our weight. It truly is SO FREEING to have this weight off!

MONTH FOUR AND A HALF: I am going to post my whole entry from this month because it was when I hit 100 lbs!* Sitting here on the computer thinking about what a year it's been! The beginning was filled with so many beautiful memories as we watched and felt Annabelle grow in my tummy and was excited for Isaac to be a big brother, the middle of the year was the hardest of our lives as we had to deliver and say goodbye for now to our Annabelle and we wondered if we could make it through the rest of the year but by God's beautiful strength He carried us through, He gave us a new song, He brought much healing to our hearts and He gave us so much freedom from food issues we have dealt with our whole lives and now entering the new year Jim and I are a combined 180 lbs thinner and are so excited to see what is in store for 2012 and what God is going to do in and through us! To Him be all the glory!

I do not even have enough words to be able to describe how amazing it feels that this morning, on the LAST DAY OF THE YEAR, I hit my first big goal of losing 100 lbs! Since starting the Grace & Strength program, I have lost 100 lbs but from my highest weight ever, I have now actually lost 111 lbs! I remember just 4 1/2 months ago feeling helpless, hopeless about my weight, being so out of breath just WALKING a mile and having no energy. I remember feeling like I could never lose this amount of weight and especially in this amount of time. Now 100 lbs lighter, God has walked through this journey with me and gave me His strength every day when I needed it and helped me overcome so many issues I have had with food my whole life. (Grief eating, emotional eating etc). I have such a new way of looking at food now and my taste buds have even changed. I have come to appreciate more the foods that God has given us.

When I started this program 4 ½ months ago here was "my why", the reason WHY I knew I needed and wanted to lost weight.

• To overcome this bondage with food and have victory over it in Christ.
• To be able to sit in a plane/arena/stadium seat comfortably.
• To go parasailing with Jim on one parasail. (Jim and I on our honeymoon had to go parasailing in separate parasails b/c of our weight)
• To feel comfortable in a bathing suit and enjoy buying new clothes.
• To be healthy for my husband and son.
• Most of my family has heart disease and diabetes and I do not want to suffer from it.

Here I am at goal now and I can truly say that now 100 lbs lighter*, I have accomplished all but one  of those things on my list and if I had the chance to parasail right now I know I could mark that one off too but I will have to wait for that one until another time. I truly feel like God has shown me through this that I really can rely on Him through every temptation. That eating when I'm sad or grieving Annabelle will NOT take away the pain and that only HE can take away the pain and help me through the grieving process of losing her. He has helped me realize that life IS really about so much more than food. He has helped me overcome so many obstacles throughout my weight loss journey and break bad habits and make plenty of new good habits! He has shown Himself time and again through this journey that it is by His strength alone that I can do this! He gets all the glory for the changes that have happened in me. The actual weight loss and the physical changes of my body are the least I am excited about now that I have lost weight. What I love even more is the freedom I have found and the energy I have. Seriously, I have SO MUCH energy I feel like a teenager again. I didn't realize that an adult could feel this good, if we just feed our body the fuel it needs and only occasionally give it the yummy but bad stuff! I did the opposite before. I have watched my bloodwork go from horrendous to amazing and my blood pressure do the same. I have watched myself go from thinking I would never be able to even run a few steps to now running over a mile at a time. Jim and I now can sit in theater or other tight seats rather comfortably. I actually went swimming in our hotel the past two months without a cover up skirt on and felt comfortable in my swim suit for the first time in forever. For the first time in YEARS I will wear shorts this summer and not just capris or pants. Now that Jim and I are so healthy and fit and have tons of energy, we are able to do SO MUCH more with Isaac. Almost every night we are up dancing in our living room with Isaac and being silly with him and doing so much with him that we would have never been able to before we lost our weight.

So now that I am at goal I have some NEW goals to set for myself for this new year in 2012. To keep me accountable, to help with maintenance and to become even healthier and fit! Here they are...

• Lose my last 15-20 lbs or so until I get to where I want to maintain.
• Maintain the weight I have lost.
• Learn and conquer the burpee (something I've struggled with in the past, if you dont know what a burpee is, google it)
• Run a 5k and a 10k in 2012.
• Increase my distance and shorten my time when running.
• Encourage and help others to find the freedom and energy that I have found!

I have no words great enough to share with you how great it feels to be starting out 2012 already at the NEW ME and feeling the best I've felt since I was a teenager, heck even better then when I was a teenager! To be starting off the new year 100 lbs lighter is something I am so incredibly thankful for. Thank you God!

MONTH FIVE AND A HALF: I have lost a total of 108 lbs from the start of the Grace & Strength program and 119 lbs from my highest weight ever. I have lost a total of 68 inches throughout my body as well! At first I was going to stop at my 100 lbs but realized I want to go a bit farther, so I have around 20 more I want to shed! I love feeling so healthy, so energetic and being able to do so much more now. I am so thankful! God is totally changing me from the inside out on so many areas in my life and this is just one of them! May each day, I crave HIM more and more and food and other things less and less!

"None of us are as free as Jesus intended for us to be. We may be as free as we know how to be at this hour. As we gain new freedom, we will then be able to look back and see how deeply in bondage we were all along."

AMAZING right? Now on the other side of this journey and after having experiencing so many chains being broken and freedom found I truly can look back now at my life just 5 1/2 months ago and see all the bondage I was in. There was so much freedom to be found through Him in so many areas of my life and still is but already so much has been set free and I thank Him SO MUCH for that!

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* Individual results may vary.