Just Keep Moving

Guess whose back? Me, obviously.

I can't believe how blessed I have been over the last three months. If you asked me on New Year's Eve 2009 what I thought I had in store for me for next year, I could not have predicted this is how things would end up.

I used to be a person who would count down to everything and get excited about everything and in the midst of my depression that person got lost somewhere in all that darkness. In July, when I made the decision to lose weight and change my life, I was fighting to find that overly excited girl again.

I found her in the strangest moments. I found her on the elliptical trainer at the gym and I found her almost jumping for joy when she heard she lost her job. These were places that in the last three years I didn't even attempt to look.

I had been "living" on survival mode for so long that I just let the flow of that just take over my life. I looked forward to nothing more than must-see TV Thursday (still am excited about tonight's TV schedule though!) and getting paychecks. The day I looked in the mirror and decided to change everything was the day I had enough with living a life without passion.

The first step was taken on an elliptical trainer. All I said to myself as I gasped for air that first sweaty 10 minutes was, "Just keep moving." And getting laid off from my job gave me the freedom to "Just keep moving" in other areas of my life, like seeing a little of that big old world I dreamed about. So, I hushed the boring practicality that often rules my life. I embraced the girl who longed for something to look forward to and just kept moving. And it took me to a family party in Winnipeg, a long overdue family reunion in San Francisco, a London adventure with an old friend and a new one, the true Sin City Amsterdam, to unexpectedly beautiful Austria and Germany, experiencing the delicious history and food of Italy, crying tears of joy at the Eiffel tower, and going back to England to even further realize how blessed I am to have such an amazing family.

There were times that weren't perfect and blissful during my trip. There were early hung-over mornings, scary people trying to scam me, and getting lost all while being quite sick in the middle of the trip. But each moment was an adventure and every moment after that was something to look forward to. I felt more alive than I had felt in forever.

So, the plan for the future is Just Keep Moving. So far that has taken me some pretty awesome places.

I will start giving you the details tomorrow when I tell you all about quirky and insane Amsterdam and all the amazing people I met. Ta Ta for Now.