Lesson Learned: It's a freaking sand dune out here!

I have been thinking of this for a while, and now seems like a good time to say it: Losing weight and changing your life is FREAKING HARD!!! It's like climbing up a giant sand dune.  And not one of those wimpy little beach sand hills ... I'm talking the Sahara Mountains of Dunes.  The second you stop fighting you start sliding backward.  It sucks.  Big time.  And it gets REALLY discouraging.

Great Wall of China: 2011

However ...  and this is a true story: Last Fall (as I've mentioned before) I did the Beach Body Ultimate Reset.  Its a 21 Day Cleanse/Total Food Makeover.  You follow a very strict eating plan.  The first week you cut out all dairy and red meat, the last two weeks you switch to a vegetarian/vegan diet.  It's tough.  One of the hardest things I've EVER done.  So, my point is ... as I've talked to more people who have done the cleanse, I started to realize I am one of the only ones, if not the ONLY one (of the 20 or so I know who did it with me or after me) who stuck to the plan exactly.  No cheating.  Not one thing crossed my lips that wasn't on the food list.  I did it while my husband was gone for training and over my 34th birthday and STILL ... I followed the plan exactly.  But I realized why ... losing weight for me has already been FREAKING HARD!!! I've had to discipline myself in SO many new ways, and change SO many bad habits, that I was already ready to try something of this magnitude.  And ... Because life isn't fair. Loosing weight or maintaining weight for some people is easier.  It really is.  They don't need to be quite so disciplined.  They don't have to change everything about themselves to make it happen.  But I did.  I have slowly started changing EVERYTHING about myself.  And so in the end I guess I'm lucky.  I'm lucky I learned to do things that are difficult.  It's taught me perseverance and discipline and it has given me a crazy amount of will power.  It's like the scripture that says:

"I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

I say this with utmost humility of course ...

This is me, climbing the Great Wall of China with a 35 pound kid on my back ... I weighed about 270 at the time. If I can do THAT ... Well ...