Poonapalooza: The post about AOL comments and running in the heat

I got a lot of awesome AOL comments. People are so supportive and complimentary. I am thankful for each and every one. Even the one from Mr. Decker is Mr. Right. Check out his comment on my story. Scroll down and you'll come across it. Makes me appreciate that I am someone that has empathy for others. Unless you have dealt with the emotional issues that go along with obesity, you will never understand how this disease affects your psychological well being. Honestly Mr. Decker, I wish we could all be as perfect as you, but alas we are not. I'll never make excuses for how I became obese, but I can assure you, if I could have done this 35 years ago, I would have. I applaud your 30 pound weight loss at the age of fifteen. Sounds like your parents didn't let you play enough. Perhaps this is why you are so angry now? Maybe a good counselor is in order? Best of luck to you!

Today was a freaking hot day! I was driving around in my car for the majority of it which meant I was a hot mess. Although I have a/c in my car, using it too much causes me to have a headache. I ran at 5:45 this morning. It was already 30 degrees Celsius with the humidex. Not a very pleasant run to say the least. I drank a lot of water yesterday in preparation for my run this morning, but it is never enough. I swear I would prefer to run in the freezing cold than to run right now. Any physical activity outside in this heat means you have to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. And honestly, I'm sweating right now as I type this, so I need to hydrate! I can't stress that enough.

Thanks to all for your supportive comments over the past couple of days. In regards to the video and the AOL business. It's still a bit surreal to me. I couldn't sleep last night because I had a lot of anxiety, and I'm not sure why. Ultimately, I'd like to help as many people as I can. That is why I agreed to do the Everyday Health interview and that is the main reason I continue to write this blog. I answered a lot of emails today. If I haven't gotten to yours yet, I promise that I will by tomorrow.

The video is something that I wanted to make for Julien so that he will have it to look back on when he gets older. He doesn't remember me being morbidly obese, which I'm thankful for. It's a bit difficult to talk about the video still. Julien wants to watch it several times a day. He's just tickled he's actually on Youtube. The hard part is that when he watches it, I have to read it to him and I still can't get through it without getting choked up. He asks why my eyes are sweating. Which makes me laugh through my tears. He is such an awesome boy.

So I haven't posted something positive about myself in the last few posts. I love that my thighs no longer rub together. They actually haven't since last summer, but it is definitely more defined now. Although I still have some fat to lose around my upper outer thighs and hip area, I'm really happy with the way things firmed up in my inner thighs. Slow and steady wins the race. I actually tried to get a decent picture of the space between my thighs and was finally able to do this through the reflection on my patio door. I don't have a full length mirror, so the patio door had to do. I'm proud of my inner thighs because it shows another way that running has transformed my body. Just another reason I love running!

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this picture of myself in the window.
It is definitely not the way I see myself.

So my day in pictures today is pretty lame. Same old, same old which I'm sure you have to be bored of by now. Mandarin for lunch with a client and chicken ratatouille for dinner. I hadn't made the ratatouille in a while and it was good, but what was I thinking cooking on such a hot day. We don't have central air! And I just want too brag for one minute...the shorts I'm wearing in the photo below? Size 6 Joe Fresh! I couldn't get them past my hips a couple of months ago, and there I am wearing them and they are not skin tight. Have I lost any weight? Nope. Still sitting strong at 165... Yes, great job on the weight loss. It's great that your not some lazy over grown gross cow anymore. Good for you doing something about it, as you should in the first place. UnlesUyouwill never I've spenenoI NleastfMandarin today with a client