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October 8th, 2016 All these people are sooooo young and fit and wow.... scary obstacles too.... but I have the ticket hanging on the fridge. I'm going. Fear be damned. So better get the training on track, summer lull is over. It's time to move! Details will follow. love you folks.

Ok, so maybe not quite, but that does seem like an apt title for an introductory post. My name is Sarah and my story begins - well, probably as far back as my childhood - but this particular story arc begins about 9 years ago when I had gastric-bypass surgery. For those who don't know, gastric-bypass surgery is really only considered for those people who are morbidly obese (read: will die from being obese), and who have a history of failed attempts at losing weight (I started seeing nutritionists and doctors when I was in 2nd grade). For me, the surgery went great. I had no real problems during recovery, and I lost weight - a lot of it. I lost 180 lbs, actually. I kept most of it off for a few years until I moved to Florida and was unemployed for a few months. My mom had, had the surgery before me, and she had been my fitness partner and without her, I really slacked off on keeping active. Being unemployed didn't help, and then when I was employed, it was at a pay level far below what I was used to. I had a lot of excuses for not getting back into a fitness routine. Most had to do with comfort and money (no money to join a gym, hate sweating out in the Florida heat, no money to get proper exercise clothing, etc.), and some had to do with the fact that I am accustomed to failure and don't like setting myself up for it again. I have no particular reason as for why I am ready to start anew at this point in time. A friend of mine who lives far away told me that she is using this platform, and it seems like we're both looking for motivating, encouraging people right now. It just seems like it is time. I would love to get back down to 170 lbs, where I was at my lowest weight. But that isn't my real goal. For some reason, this past year has been littered with messages for me about accepting my beauty, and I don't particularly care what weight I am at. I simply want to be healthier, and that definitely means being more active. If I lose weight as a side effect, great. If not, ok, too.