I can’t wait to tell you about how great my evening was last night!

Before I left work I got an email from Lynne telling me that her and two other friends were going to be walking later in the evening and asked if I’d like to join them at around 8:15. This time was perfect for me because my daughter’s performance would be over by 7:45, so I said “SURE!”. I was concerned I wouldn’t get any exercise in last night, so this was great news.

So I got off of work and went down to the Target shopping center to walk while I was waiting for my husband and girls to get there. We were going to eat at Chik-Fil-A before her performance started. So I got a good mile walk in before they got there. Going good so far, right?

So we head on over to Chik-Fil-A and they were PACKED. Not an empty booth in the place and people were lined everywhere! Ugh. Looks like we’ll have to find a Plan B…So we looked around at other places and the consensus of my family was Five Guys. I ordered a grilled cheese (430 calories) and had roughly 10-15 fries…which isn’t bad considering THIS was how much they gave us:

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This is one example of just how much I’ve changed. I’ll openly admit that before I started this journey to lose weight, Five Guys was one of my favorites. The burgers are the biggest, greasiest, and cheesiest and I loved every artery clogging bite of ‘em. And their servings of fries as shown above were very appealing to a fry lover such as myself. (That’s not including all the ones in the bag; they always put an extra scoop in the bag) But, now that I’ve lost 31 pounds and trying to loose 90 more, it’s just not for me anymore. My husband isn’t dieting and neither are my children, so it’s hard to say “no” when the consensus is a place like this. Ideally, they need to be eating healthier too, but this isn’t an ideal world, ya know?

After we ate, I got a phone call from Lynne. She was letting me know that they were planning on riding bikes, not walking and wanted to know if I still wanted to come. I said “well, that’s one way to get over a fear!” and I agreed to ride with them. (For those of you who might not know, I have had a silly fear of riding a bike. One of my New Year’s and Perfect 10 goals was to get over this fear and ride one.) Lynne said she had an extra bike I could ride. After my daughter’s performance I headed over there where I met up with Lynne, Angela, and Mindy. It was my first time meeting Angela. I had met Mindy once before, so it was nice getting to know both of them!

I was so nervous to get on the bike. I was sweating before I even started because I’ve always been afraid I’d fall and make a fool of myself. I know it sounds irrational, but aren’t most fears? I hadn’t ridden a bike since I was in middle school! So I just got on, pedaled, and went! It was great. The four of us rode for 6.4 miles! And I didn’t fall once. I did get the living crap scared out of me by an owl! Hey, I thought it was a plastic decoration on a mailbox, so it freaked me out when it flew off as I approached it! :-P

I can’t express how genuinely happy I was last night…the whole experience of riding the bike combined with spending time with an old friend and making new ones was just…amazing. We think we want to start doing it on a more regular basis and I hope we do!

Now to tell you about tonight and another way I can tell that I’ve changed. As you all know, I have really enjoyed the kickboxing class I’ve been going to every Thursday now for a few weeks. Honestly, it’s the hardest workout I get during the week, because I have someone there pushing me, so I really look forward to Thursday nights for this reason. Well, I’m not going tonight and it really bummed me out…to the point where was very close to tears. If I ever needed evidence of the change within me, that was the moment right there. Six months ago I never, ever would have guessed that not being able to go to KICKBOXING would cause me to cry. If anything, I would have cried had someone tried to make me go! LOL So I won’t be getting that awesomely great workout tonight and that’s ok, because I will be spending some time with my mother (much overdue!).

If this week has taught me anything it’s that I’m still learning to find the balance between family and working out. It’s tough, but I’m getting there. Baby steps!

14.5/500