About Me

Hi there!  My name is Shelley and I am 50 years old, woohoo!  I'm the mom of two grown ups - how is that possible?!  As of May 2013, we have two college graduates who are both employed, so I guess we've done our job as parents, right?  My husband, Jeff, and I have been married for 29 years, which is odd considering I still feel like I'm a teenager...don't ask me how that happened, but I guess it's better than feeling like an 80-year-old!  We've gone from the "this is weird" feeling of not having our kids around, to getting active with running and bicycling, which came after I lost over 100 pounds.  We've run a few half marathons together and exercise has become a normal part of our lives - we're becoming those "active adults" that are portrayed in fancy car commercials, haha!  Originally from California, I've lived in Texas for over 20 years now.

I started this blog on the same day that I started what I believe will be my final diet - May 14, 2008.  That day, I weighed 256 pounds, which isn't a good look on most women, much less someone who is only 5' 1 1/2" tall!  The reason I decided to blog about my weight-loss journey was so I could look back and see how hard I'd worked to get the weight off.  I have a terrible memory, and my C.R.S.* moments are getting closer and closer together, so I figured that by blogging I would have concrete evidence of my successes, failures, plateaus and everything else in between.  What I didn't realize at the time was how much support I would receive from the weight-loss blogging community.  These people have been there for me when I've lost weight, when I haven't lost weight, when I should have lost weight but the dastardly scale didn't show it; they've given me ideas, tips and advice on everything from eating clean and exercising to why that stomach pain probably needs a visit to the doctor (can you say gallbladder surgery?) - they've commiserated with me when it was tough and celebrated my victories - scale, non-scale, running my first mile and jumping a scary box - with me.  I couldn't have done this without my blogger friends - and yes, that is a statement I truly believe.

In the summer of 2010 I was at my lowest weight in over 20 years - 146 pounds.  It was amazing and I felt great!  At the end of the summer I began training for a half marathon and while I stayed the same size, I did put on about 5 pounds, which is pretty normal, apparently (hello, carbs!).  I ran my race in November of 2010, and continued training for the Austin half marathon, which was in February 2011.  Unfortunately, I injured my ankle in January of 2011 and had to stop running.  A couple of weeks later my mother was diagnosed with cancer, and between stopping running and stress eating, I managed to gain some weight back.  My mother had successful surgery for the cancer and is now doing great; I started swimming for exercise while I couldn't run, and ended up having surgery on my ankle in late 2011.  After recovering from the surgery, I have gleefully returned to running!  In the meantime, the extra pounds I gained during that stressful time have pretty much disappeared, and I'm determined to keep it this way!

*Can't Remember Sh*t