Take pictures people!  Don’t hide behind the camera like I did!  Remember me saying I had dodged the camera for years, but then when all four sisters got together for the 1st time in 14 yrs pictures were taken?  Here are just a few….it was a very special time in our lives, but who’s the girl on the far left…..that’s me…..the Malinda that I didn’t recognize.

October 2015, all four of us girls with our Mother, then our Father……

Christmas 2015, the four of us together again.  All four of us have the same mom and dad, we all look alike, we’re all from the same gene pool and we’ve all had babies.  So what happened to me?!  I know what happened – I got comfortable and I lived by the “Grab-n-Go” lifestyle.

And this is me today, 147 days later.  Journal, journal, journal – myfitnesspal.com is my new bff!  If it goes in my mouth, it goes on myfitnesspal.com (ok – except for my daily coffee and creamer – that’s the ONLY thing I don’t count and don’t journal – a girl has to have something – right?!)

I didn’t get serious about the weight loss challenge until Jan 5th and to date I’ve lost nearly 40 lbs.  I’m having to guess here, since my trainer friend, not calling any names, but some of you know her…..she won’t let me see that number on the scales!!  Why? Because it’s just a number and I refuse to let THAT number define me!  I am so much more!  I want to be strong, confident and healthy!

It takes 4 weeks for you to notice a difference, 8 weeks for your friends and family to notice and 12 weeks for the world to notice.  Don’t give up!  I make bad choices, but I refuse to give up!!!  “Just because you drop your cell phone doesn’t mean that you leave it laying – you pick it up, brush it off and keep on going!”  Yes, my friend, I have been listening!  And for the record – I’m not losing weight – I’m getting rid of it because I have NO intentions of finding it again!!!