Best birthday present EVER!!! (Warning: It's a long one!)

The thing about writing a blog for so long is that you tend to forget what you've already written about and what you haven't.  So if something sounds repetitive, I apologize.  Deal with it haha.

As I'm sure I've mentioned many times before, my weight loss journey has been going on for as long as I can remember. Even in my teens I was trying things like Weight Watchers and Richard Simmons workouts to try and lose weight.  Of course now I'd give anything to be the weight I was in high school, but I've always been slightly overweight, even back then.  Since then I have tried almost every diet that's been out there.  Nothing ever stuck.  That's because I was calling them "diets".

And then season 11 of NBC's The Biggest Loser aired and while I loved the show before then, two new contestants...sisters...really made me fall in love with the show in a whole new way.  Hannah Curlee and Olivia Ward were fun, spunky, hard working and really freaking determined for the entire season of that show and I admired them both.  I felt a bit more of a connection with Hannah because she was a volleyball player and we're the same age and she just reminded me of myself as I watched her struggle over the course of the season.  I felt like I was watching myself lose weight from the comfort of my couch with my chips and dip and bowl of ice cream.  Unfortunately, that doesn't quite work.

But watching them flipped a switch in me and I decided that it was time to change.  I auditioned for season 12 of Biggest Loser.  I told myself before even getting in that long line at 7am that whether I made the show or not, I was done being "morbidly obese".  I was going to do this once and for all.  Obviously I did not make the show, but the experience was something I will never forget.  I walked away from it more determined than ever.

I went home and ordered my BodyMedia armband (which, though upgraded, I have worn for almost 2 years now) and bought our family's membership to the local gym/aquatic center.  And then I created the thing that has helped me the most.  Jilly's Losers.  My little weight loss competition group on facebook has never grown to more than 30 people max, but it has become my family and the biggest support I've ever had aside from my actual family.

After a while I wanted to add even more things into my weight loss regimen that would push me to keep going..especially when I spent almost a year within the same 10lb range.  I tried new classes at the gym and switched up my workouts in the weight room...but I was also introduced to dietbet.com by two of my very best friends, Amy and Angie.  This website basically allows anyone to host their own weight loss competition where people pay a buy-in fee and have 4 weeks to lose 4% of their starting weight.  Winners split the prize pot at the end.  And when I heard that Hannah and Olivia from season 11...my favorite contestants ever...would be hosting their very own dietbet...I HAD to join.

The first round went great and I was able to lose all the weight I'd regained on my vacation to Florida as well as a bit more.  When they announced a second round, it wasn't even a question.  I was in.  I had to lose 10lbs in 4 weeks (after having JUST done that same thing).  But I was on a roll and I wasn't gonna stop!  I broke through the famous 250 milestone that had eluded me for so long and kept going all the way down to where I'm at now...240.8.  I won $48 and thought hey, that's awesome!  I like money.  But then there was the grand prize drawing.

The 750+ people who had lost their 4% were thrown into a random drawing (done by a computer) for the grand prize and two runner up prizes.  They'd told us when the dietbet started that one grand prize winner would receive an all expenses paid trip for two to the Biggest Loser resort in Chicago (which JUST opened this weekend) for an entire week.  And that both Hannah and Olivia would also be there with us!  That's a pretty freaking awesome prize.  The runner up prizes were brand new, waterproof armbands, which is also awesome considering the one I currently have has to be taken off to swim, etc.

Yesterday, Hannah and Olivia were having a live Google Hangout to answer questions and announce the winners.  I mixed up my time zones and completely missed it as I was at the pool getting a nice burn with my family.  I came home and remembered...and realized I'd missed it.  Luckily they archive and post the chats so I excused myself from family time for a few mins to just go check quickly what I'd missed.

As I pulled up the webpage with the youtube video for the hangout...there it was.  My name...sprawled out above the link saying Congratulations!  You won the grand prize trip to Chicago!  I did a double take and then I just started to scream.  And then I screamed some more.  This went on for long enough that my children started plugging their ears and telling me to stop haha.  I opened the video and skipped to the part where they made the announcement just to make sure it wasn't some mistake (though I did go back and watch the whole video later...it was 45 mins long and I needed to know like NOW!).

People may think I'm nuts for being so overjoyed about a week long trip where I'll be working out for hours and hours a day, but this is very literally the best vacation I could ever imagine.  I get to spend a whole week alongside the very people who got me started, learning from them and being pushed by them as I work harder than I probably ever have in my whole life and I'm going to love every sweaty, sore minute.  Not to mention we will have amazing chefs cooking healthy meals for us all week and there will be luxurious spa accomodations for after the workouts haha.

The hardest part about winning such an amazing thing was having to decide who to take with me as I would love to take all the people in my life who have loved and supported me through all of this mess!  But I'm excited to be going with one of my best friends, Amy...who is on a weight loss journey of her own and is sure to push me throughout the week that we're there.  I know this is going to be an amazing experience and I am truly grateful that I've been given the opportunity.  Somebody up there has definitely been cheering me on and has kept me from going insane and throwing my scale out the window when it hasn't been so easy.

So here's to the second half of my 180lb weight loss journey.  May it be a bit shorter and less dramatic than the first!!