Out with the old, In with the new

I felt like Recapping 2011 to take a mental inventory of all I've started and accomplished this year.

• I decided late in 2010 for several reason I won't particularly get into publicly that I wanted to get more education to possibly change my job/career path; I want a career, not a job. I went back to school January 2011 to get an AA degree in Health Information Technology through Rasmussen College. All of my courses are online and I've been working full time at the same time and maintaining a 3.59 gpa. I sacrificed most of my weekends for all-day study and homework sessions but it has paid off. My husband has been incredibly supportive and wonderful. I have completed 75 of 90 credits (thank goodness for transfer credits from my BS in Social Work I got in 2006) and will be starting 2012 out with 9 credits in the winter quarter and then 6 credits in the spring quarter. I am on track to graduate in mid-June 2012. It used to feel like a far away date but now June is only 6.5 months away!

• In March we went to Seattle, WA for my brother-in-law's wedding. It was a wonderful place to visit and would love to go back in the height of summer. We really didn't want to come back home so soon but, alas, a soggy wet basement was waiting for us.

• At the beginning of May I attended my slightly older sister's Bachelorette party. I was mistaken for being underage (under-21) at Zorbaz much to my delight! Being 138 pounds is great! When I was weighing 280-290 I was thought to be at least 30-35 by some folks and at the time I was only 23/24! Yikes! At the end of May we attended my little sister's High School graduation. All of the Doll kids have successfully graduated from High School.

• Over the past 2-4 years or more my husband and I had discussed off-and-on if we wanted kids. We went back and forth between "yes", "maybe", "if it happens", "no" and "definitely no". We finally decided that having children is not really something we want so in early June Ben had a vasectomy. For everyone thinking "you're young still, what if you change your mind?" - we can always adopt. We're not that young at 33 and 28. I don't like babies or very small children anyway - I'm uncomfortable around them and don't know what to do with them. They are not necessarily cute to me and I fear they would test my patience in ways I would not be able to handle. Six months later we don't regret this decision (and if you're wondering yes, the procedure was successful).

• In June I decided I wanted to start running. I felt that my weight loss had become stable and since I had never been able to run further than 20-30 feet without having to walk due to being completely winded I wanted to have another go at it. The last time I ran a full mile was... never. I don't think I've ever had a mile run faster than 17 minutes and that was back in high school and it wasn't running - it was walking for the most part. I wanted to be able to call myself a runner. I downloaded the C25K app on my iPhone and started the program. Ben decided that he wanted to start running, too, so we did it at the same time (but we didn't run together). We registered for the Mankato 5k that took place on October 21, 2011. It was a tough regimen and I learned early out that you MUST have actual legit running shoes; they're worth the cost. My time was 00:30:12 & was 129th of 383 total runners. I was 63rd of 271 total females & was 18th of 61 in the female 20-29 age group. I ran another 5k on Saturday November 12th at 9am for the 6th Annual Minnesota State University Army ROTC Veteran’s Day 5K. My time was 00:30:35 and I'm happy with it! Our posts about running times and training on Facebook & Twitter have inspired friends and family members to start running as well.

• In August we attended my 10 year High School Reunion. I have a lot of thoughts on this but I don't feel like sharing them publicly. Let's just say that it was an interesting experience to see a few folks in person that I've only see via Facebook and vice verse. Re-introducing yourself to classmates is a fun activity when they think you're someone else =) I was only slightly disappointed that a few classmates didn't attend. I can't deny that I wanted to show off my smaller size and felt slightly prideful wanting to act all "look at me now, bitches!" toward a few people. For anyone who was over weight in their elementary, teen, or young adult years they understand how strong the desire can be to rub your new found hotness in past transgressor's faces as if to say "fuck you, look how hot I am now, bitches! AND my marriage survived, if not improved, during the process!" I grow weary of being humble about this.

• It's been 2.5 years since my weight loss surgery (lap RNY on 5/27/09). I've been maintaining my weight loss. I tend to average around 135-138 pounds. I think I will always aim to get down to 125 lowest but it's okay if I don't because at 5'2" being this weight is "normal" BMI.

Goals for 2012

• Graduate with my AA from Rasmussen
• Wear my glasses more often
• Get hired for a position in which I will use everything I've learned over the past year
• Run another 5k, run a 10k or two, complete the "Warrior Dash" this summer (by the way holy cow registration for these things is NOT cheap. At least $25/$30 at the least!)
• Kill some debt (this is on-going and unavoidable but still a good goal to have regardless)

Notice that there aren't any "lose weight" or "maintain weight" or "have a healthy lifestyle" goals? That's because I've already been trying to live that way. I want a healthy lifestyle to be my goal every day instead of something I set at the beginning of the year and abandon by the end of January or mid-February. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit while others report around 66 days. Either way those habits took time to adopt; it wasn't easy and I did break/bend the rules a few times but I redirected myself and corrected my behaviors. Misbehaving once in a while is normal and acceptable - if it becomes more than "once in a while" then we have some problems.

I'll probably update this list at some point or add a few things but for now that's all I feel like putting out there. I just hope 2012 brings health & healing to my family & relatives struggling with cancer and illness. I want 2012 to be a positive and happy year. Not to say that there weren't happy moments of 2011 because there were a LOT of them!