I'm a SPA!

Gosh, it sure has been awhile since I’ve written! I just haven’t had it in me and my focus has been else where. Training for my first half marathon is in full force! My appetite has increased and my sweet tooth is out of control! My mood swings are crazy and my bed time gets earlier and earlier!

Don’t let all of that fool you though, I really am enjoying my half marathon training! It seems like every Saturday is a new PR for me! This past weekend I ran 9 miles, which is simply crazy to me! Two years ago I couldn’t make it up a flight of stairs without gasping for air and now I’m running 9!

I get a lot of my motivation from friends who are runners. Some have never ran a day in their life and then beat cancer and decided to start running. Others were in the same situation I was, morbidly obese and are now running marathons! Others, just for their sanity. I take to twitter every morning and see the motivating comments and inspirational quotes by so many people, that it’s hard not to get motivated.

This leads me into the whole purpose of this post. With the encouragement of my friend Sam I decided to apply to become a Sweat Pink Ambassador. Ever since Sam brought SPA to my attention I had been following all of the #SweatPink action on twitter and checked out their website. I loved their mission statement:

Mission

We believe that kicking ass is best done in pretty shoes. We’ve learned that real women sweat, and sweat hard. We know that assertiveness, strength, and ambition are the ultimate feminine qualities. We concede that sometimes it takes hours to get ready, but we’re also no strangers to just rolling out of bed and going. We’re convinced that we run faster in pink shoelaces. We believe in pushing ourselves, and we believe in giving ourselves a break, too. We’re all about the rush of endorphins and the thrill of the challenge. We’re all for looking great and feeling even better. We’re committed to finding our best fit, and making it stick.

How do we get there?
We climb.
We journey.
We balance.
We reward.

The girls that were already SPA’s were awesome, so encouraging of one another, always offering advice and definitely inspirational! I knew I wanted to be a SPA, I knew that my story/journey could potentially help/encourage/motivate someone who may be following a similar path/journey as myself.

When the application process opened back up I jumped at the opportunity and patiently (Ok, that’s a lie, I stalked my inbox!) waited to hear something. Several days went by and I remember stating the anticipation was like waiting for Christmas morning to arrive. On September 4th I received the e-mail I had been waiting for.

WAHOO it was official I was accepted to be a Sweat Pink Ambassador! I was beyond excited and was doing the happy dance with my three dogs!

I hope that my journey can inspire just one person! I took drastic measures to get my health and life back (RNY Gastric Bypass on December 8, 2010) and have lost nearly 160 lbs. The past two years have been the hardest yet most rewarding years of my life. I went from morbidly obese to training for my first half marathon! What I want people to know is don’t be scared, take that initial step, push yourself, it will be hard, you may cry but in the end all of your hard work will pay off!

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