Every once in a while, I get a text from one of my friends in Tennessee who will be flying to Colorado for a work project. I even get the “Hello from DIA” texts when people are just having a quick layover at the airport.
But, it’s pretty RARE that I get the “Hey, I’m going to be in Colorado tomorrow night… Wanna have dinner?” type text.
This is EXACTLY what I got on Saturday night! After a lazy Saturday filled with pool time, a manicure, and some IKEA design work, I was SO EXCITED to get a text from my dear friend Laurel from Tennessee telling me that she would be in town the following day. And, I was even MORE excited to hear that she had time available for dinner!
The last time I had seen Laurel was in February of 2011. That’s WAY too long! We typically catch up on the phone every month or two… and spend hours discussing all the great things that we’ve got going on. We even had talked this week for about 10 minutes and then decided we both needed to hit the gym and reschedule our catch-up sesh.
How fun that our reschedule was going to be in person this weekend!!!
I’m going through a phase where I don’t straighten my hair… as you can see. Here we are at dinner though!
Laurel’s work trip had her traveling to Colorado Springs for a few days, so I zipped down there to meet her for dinner. We had SO MUCH FUN catching up over sushi. Laurel asked if sushi is any good in Denver. Hmmmm…. I only eat veggie sushi, so I didn’t have a good answer, but I thought this looked pretty good!
Happy Spinach roll and a Chicken Teriyaki roll for me…
Laurel and I have been friends since college. We both are members of the same sorority, so we have lots of silly memories of all the crazy things we got ourselves into back in the day. Although our lives were (gasp!) captured pre-digital cameras, I did find this one picture to share of us…
Me and LP – Circa 1999
I hope she doesn’t mind me sharing… but Laurel and I have been on a similar journey for the past few years. While we live our lives thousands of miles apart, she too made the decision to get healthy over the past few years and is down just about as much weight as I am. She looks AMAZING! And, she works out much more than I do… pushing herself much harder than I have (i.e. duathalons, 1/2 marathons, kickboxing, etc) For me, it’s awesome to be able to talk to someone else in a similar boat… and it’s motivating to know that if Laurel can keep it off, so can I!
What’s interesting (probably only to us) is that we spent the night talking about all the things we both love to talk about… but don’t always have people to talk about them with: What it’s like to lose the weight. The struggle of losing the last few pounds/inches. How the heck to tone up those wobbly bits. How to be a single and fabulous 30-something and socialize without sacrificing our healthy living. Dating in our 30s and all that comes with that.
Visiting even for this short period of time reminded me of how much I appreciate having this type of support system in my life. In all honestly, that’s where a lot of you come in, too. I try to be careful not to drone on about healthy living and weight loss with everyone I know… knowing fully that it’s not as fascinating to others as it might be to me. Thank you all (and especially Laurel tonight) for listening to me go on and on….
Laurel also reminded me that I had seen her the weekend when this whole journey started. And, of course, I couldn’t help but remember this BEFORE picture….
Me, Laurel and Angela – October 2010
Oh, how far we’ve come. Just when we already had so much in common, add in shedding close to 100 lbs. Needless to say, our 3 hours we spent chatting over dinner FLEW by… and before we knew it, it was time to go. I’m SO appreciative that I got to see her even if just for 3 hours.
One last shot before we left…
Next time I see her, I plan to be at goal… 10 lbs to go! And, Laurel… I haven’t forgotten about Greece! We still need to get there!!! xoxo
Question: Do you have a Laurel in your life who can relate to your weight loss journey?? If not, have you found a community to support you on your efforts?