I love holidays.  My parents were about the biggest holiday freaks you could ever meet, so you could say it’s in my DNA.  No matter what else was going on with life they always made holidays special and fun.

Since we are coming off the biggest eating day of the year I had a huge reason to be thankful this year.  Thankful that WW decided to give us our old program back!

Yes!

If you are a regular reader of my blog, I’m sure you’ve caught the hint that I HATED IT when they changed last year.  In the past when WW made a significant change I always fell off the wagon, and ended up quitting.

Thankfully this didn’t happen this time, but it did get me out of the very habits I formed to keep my weight off for 2 + years.  The new program gave to much freedom for someone like me, and I found my portion sizes getting bigger and documenting my food happening less and less.

For me those were the two keys things that kept me in line, and with so many things like eggs and chicken being free I found myself toeing that goal weight line, going over for the first time in over two years.

This blog has many followers, and they aren’t all WW.  WW isn’t going to work for everyone, and it is important to find what works for you. This new program didn’t work for me, and I tried y’all.  I really did.

Then life hit.

It hit hard.

I know you all realize my blog has been sorely neglected.  It wasn’t because I had gained weight.  I documented that here.

My job became more demanding, just as I was releasing my first novel.  I was sent out of town for a week and that turned into three months.  I was working between 70-80 hours a week while trying desperately to meet the deadline for my second novel while keeping my household running from four hours away.

The only thing that kept me from gaining back every one of those sixty-some-odd pounds were the things I learned with the first program.  I’ve had a death grip on the back of the wagon for the last six months, and for the first time I feel like I can pull myself up and back on it.

I’ve made some decisions that should make it easier.  Even though work is still crazy, I’m taking at least one day off each week.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel to this crazy work schedule, but I’m not doing it anymore.

As women we are trained early on to take care of people and be dependable.  Unfortunately many of those lessons don’t include taking care of our self.

I’m teaching myself that lesson right now, and it’s time I put myself and my needs first.

I can’t go back to where I was.

It’s different, starting to lose your grip on your new healthy lifestyle once you’ve achieved your goal.  Before when I’d slip, I didn’t really have the belief that I would ever do it.  Falling back into old habits and gaining the weight usually came with a vengeance, because that’s exactly what I expected to happen all along.

Not anymore.

I know I can do it.  I know I can do hard things.

The biggest thing I know is my weight is not the end all be all story of my life.  So if life gets in the way and I get a little chubby, it’s not the end of the world.  Sure, I will always work on staying near my goal weight – not for the old reasons I used to have like how I look, but because I feel totally amazing health wise at that weight.

I felt better than I did when I was in my twenties, and to tell you the truth I feel like I’m about 90 right now.

No regrets though, right?  There was a lot of good this year.  The first two books in my Snow Globe Café series have been well received, and I’ve sold more than I ever thought I could.  I know a big part of that happened because of you, my dear readers, for spreading the word, and I will forever be thankful.

So I’m back.  And I will succeed.