“In 3 years, I’ve lost 201 pounds. I had always been overweight. I gained about 45 pounds per pregnancy and then just never lost it. When I had my oldest son I became a mom, and that’s what was most important to me, so everything else fell away. Finding time to make working out or eating healthy a priority just wasn’t a thing. But then my mom, who is also overweight, finally said she was worried about me. I knew what I weighed and I looked in the mirror, but I didn’t really r…ealize people were worried for me. That was my wake up call. I never looked at it that way, so knowing that it was a concern of hers, made me realize it was time to take care of myself. I started working out 3 years ago. It feels like it’s been a long time. It’s definitely a journey. There are ups and downs. The mind game needs to stay up. I’ve come to realize that there’s plateaus and setbacks, but knowing how to push through it and keep going has been so important. I also love knowing that my kids will have a better life if I’m taking care of myself. It’s terrifying to think about how easy it is to gain it back. It’s so easy to let go. If you don’t think about it and it’s not an active decision to maintain it, it’s so easy to gain it back and it’s like 3 times as hard to lose it. That motivates me to keep going. I still have specific weight loss numbers that I would like to get to. I still haven’t done an official 5k or half marathon. My husband is an ultra marathon runner and so I think it would be really cool to do a half marathon with him.”