Putting myself first, such a concept

A while back, I talked about starting a lunch walking club at work as a way for me to continue getting my exercise in now that I'm no longer on summer break.  Some days it is hit and miss in terms of how many people end up going.  Most of the time, it's just me and one of my friends that go consistently.  We have offices next to each other at work and we both have stressful jobs, so, if anything, it was a time for us both to see the sun and get away from the demands of the job for a while.  Sometimes we'll have 1-2 other people join us, which is also lovely.  I enjoy getting out and exercising.  Today I was the only one that was able to go.  Part of me said, "You know, you can skip it.  No one's going with you so it's really okay."  The truth is, though, if I'm trying to convince myself that I need to skip it, that's the last thing I should be doing.  So I slipped off my sandals, threw on my sneakers and went out walking by myself. 

I decided that I would challenge myself and took a new route that involved a lot of hills.  What I love so much is that when I'm walking, even though I start out with pain in my legs and back, the exercise really helps with that.  I'm never pain free, but I get such a good stretch going and feel so much better.  It's almost as if I don't want to stop because I know I'm getting some relief.  As I walked and I was looking over the canyon behind the school where I work, I thought about how grateful I am.  Not only that I'm walking through this weight loss process and not only because I'm walking through getting treatment for pain but because I just feel a huge difference in my life.  I feel God blessing me at truly every turn.  I'm present enough today to recognize that and I'm willing to do the work that is put before me.  I couldn't have ever imagined that this place where I am right now is something that would have been my reality when I first started Optifast.  Can you imagine ... down 190 pounds and still going?  That's really crazy talk when I think about it.  Yet, this is the world I live in today.  No matter what challenges I have had along the way and continue to have, I am living a dream right now as I type this.  When I started, I was hoping to lose somewhere around 100 pounds.  Not only have I lost almost twice that, but I'm no longer a diabetic?  I no longer have high blood pressure?  I no longer have high cholesterol?  All of that is crazy talk, but that's exactly what happened.  There's no way I could be anything by grateful.  Who knows where I'm going to end up as I continue down this path, guess we'll just have to wait and see.