About Me

Hi! My name is Cat and I am a 32 year old stay at home mom of 3 amazing boys. My oldest son Austin is 11 and my fraternal twin boys are 9. Austin is perfect and “normal” in every way. My twins were born 14 weeks premature and have struggled with various disabilities since the day they were born. Both are on the Autism Spectrum, one has a rare and severe form of Epilepsy, as well as various psychological issues.

I have been married to my soul mate for over 11 years. He is the yin to my yang. We have been each other’s rock in hard times, which there have been plenty of. We always manage to stick together and pull each other through. I love him more than I love myself.

For the past twenty years I have been a chain smoking, binge drinking, overeating, couch potato. After weighing myself one morning and realizing I was near 200 pounds I broke down and finally realized I needed a major lifestyle overhaul.

I have tried to change my lifestyle at least a dozen times in the past 10 years. I have gone to Weight Watchers, gone on crash diets, tried every program in the book. None of it lasted though. I always ended up back where I started with a little extra weight to lose the next go around. It’s been a vicious cycle that really needed to be broken.

On June 24, 2008 I smoked my last cigarette. This was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Of all the times I’ve tried to quit this one has been the easiest though. I guess in my mind I knew in my heart what I was doing was literally killing me and it had to stop once and for all. I think that in order to truly quit smoking you have to be ready. I did it cold turkey. Put them down and never went back. The first 7 days were the hardest of all. After that I can honestly say I have hardly thought of them at all.

At the same time that I quit smoking I was preparing to begin a Body For Life Challenge.

I have attempted to complete a challenge before but never been able to do it. I felt a determination inside this time like I have never felt before. I just KNEW that this time would be different and I would finally complete the challenge.

Today (July 17, 2008 ) I am 3 and a half weeks into the challenge and I have changed immensely from where I started. I have lost 16 pounds in a month and a half, more than 12 inches over my entire body, and gained a new self respect and love for myself that I thought was gone forever before I started.

I started this blog to chronicle my progress and changes as I go along. I hope that some will come along and find this and find that they too have the spark within themselves to truly change.

Feel free to browse around this blog and let me know in the comments if you find anything that inspires you!