Jami's Journey

Hey Beauties this is Tanna. I wanted to start Challenge 3 with a testimony that has truly touched my heart. I met Jami when we first started going to our church, which was about a year ago. When I met her, I had no idea what kind of impact she would have on my life. She started with me at Challenge One, and continued to Challenge Two. She has committed herself since day one, and it is so obvious every time I look at her.

Lately when I see her I just say "What's up skinny mini!" She laughs, but we both know what I mean. What I really mean is that I am proud of her for setting her mind and heart to reaching a goal that matters to her. She was consistant, she didn't quit just because she had a bad day, and she deserves everything she is feeling right now.

I will let her share her story with you. She has such a beautiful heart and I am so thankful that this challenge has brought us so close. Enjoy reading about an amazing woman who has come a long ways in 18 weeks. -Tanna

Hey Beautiful Ladies!

I wanted to give you all just a little idea about how I "happened" into this whole thing and how it all fell in place. And this is not at all me, to just share all about myself, but I just want you to know that if this whole weight loss thing feels at all daunting, you can do it!

I almost didn't do the challenge at all because Tanna, who started the whole thing, looked perfect and beautiful like 3 days after having her baby and it made me want to shut myself in a closet. She started it wanting to lose like 5 or 10 pounds, and I thought, "Wow if she knew how much weight I need to lose, she would die!" At that point, I weighed 168 lbs. The heaviest I had ever been, pretty depressed about it, and starting to feel hopeless after 3 kids and age 30 looming before me. I knew my metabolism wasn't getting any faster. But at the last minute, I said, "Why not? Don't have anything to lose... Well, besides the whole backend that needs a reverse warning signal!"

I found out later that Tanna, who is one of the most amazing women I know, has fought her own battle with weight. She shared her story on her blog after the challenge started, and it made me realize this journey was not just mine, but most women deal with it at some point. Sadly, we usually do it alone.

The "Beauties" keep in touch via email with support, encouragement, stories, and it is amazing to see how God can work when we work together. I've never been good at letting my defenses down enough to admit that I need help with anything, but especially not my weight. So if you're wondering how I lost this much weight, here's my anwser: Beauties and the Beast. This is where I was when I started, just in case you don't remember:>

Wow. Not a flattering picture! Again, not like me to ever show anyone a picture of myself, especially a fatty-fat picture, but I just want you to have an idea of what this challenge has meant for me, and now none of you can say you can't do this!!

So, simply by doing Tanna's challenge, I have lost 30 lbs, and am getting really close to my goal weight of 130. This has been more about how I have, with God's help, tackled this all out. I realized how much the weight was bearing down on me, not just physically, but it had my focus instead of God. I was sinking into depression pretty much because I didn't feel good about myself, and that affected relationships with God, my husband, kids, friends, you name it.

God really worked to put this challenge in front of me- there were many things that just fell into place at exactly the right time- and I am grateful and amazed that he loves me so much he even cares about helping me lose weight just because he wants nothing to stand in the way of "us." And when nothing stands in the way as a distraction, just think how much we could do for women in our community as we get healthy TOGETHER. God never meant for us to parse our lives out into little sections and only share the good bits and pieces with each other. We are meant to LIVE together, share it all, encourage one another through it all and praise him through it all.

So, I know you really probably only wanted the website, but I want you to know that no matter how much you have to lose, a little or a lot, know that you can do it and that it matters to God because it matters to you.

And this is something I haven't shared with anyone- My ultimate goal dress (I had several goal items during the challenge so I wouldn't get discouraged, but this was the big goal), which I had totally given up on ever being able to wear again... (not the greatest picture- Mason took it haha!- but you get the idea:)
It fits!!! And I haven't even made my goal yet!Today I hit the official 30 lb mark. I weighed this morning and I was at 138, which seriously probably hasn't happened since high school. Pretty exciting!