Feeling Exposed… and Letting that Go

I’ll admit it:  Blogging is a super-weird thing.

I’m working my way into YEAR FIVE here at NTTC, and I’m still surprised by thing that come up through the process.  This week, I had an awesome opportunity to participate in an interview with Women’s Health Magazine.  The magazine reached out requesting an interview for their Weight Loss Success Story series, and I was thrilled to have an opportunity to participate.

I did a phone interview with Ashley at Women’s Health, and we had a great discussion.  She asked me questions about my weight loss story… and I candidly told her about how I lost the weight and about how I gained it in the first place.

Ashley transcribed the conversation into this article that is currently posted on Women’s Health Online.  How amazingly cool is that??

Excited about the article all week, I got the link from Ashley with the final story, and I completely froze.  I got nervous.  All my words were right there.  All those things I said… talking about how I was embarrassed about appearing larger than someone who was 6 months pregnant and about quitting a 5K halfway through.  It was all true, it was all there for their entire audience (with a much more significant reach than NTTC)… and it scared me to death.

In the blog world, you quickly find your people that you can bounce ideas off of… for example, Emily has been my gut check for my blog redesign, and I immediately reached out to Alyssa for thoughts on the article.

Thank goodness for blog friends!!! In my head, I had made myself nervous about the article… and Alyssa reminded me quickly of why the article existed to begin with:  To help other people who are trying to lose weight and experience what I have.

My story of weight loss is a fun tale peppered with telling progress pics and lots of stories about yoga (the Red Rocks kind, the farty kind, and the one where there were dolphins.)  And, at the same time, it’s a story of the challenges I’ve faced along the way, the emotional eating habits I’ve worked to overcome, and learning to lean on others for support.

And in the end, while blogging may be weird… and it may have its ups and downs (especially on the scale,)  every nervous moment of “should I post that” is worth it… if there’s just one person out there that it helps.

Despite my initial pause, I can’t be more thrilled to have been featured in Women’s Health… if real life weight loss is what they’re looking for, it doesn’t get more real than this journey.  And, it continues…

Thank y’all for being there every step of the way!  xoxo