Before and After

Okay, so those that have followed my blog since January you might have heard that I did this little Triathlon thing...that I started the journey back in January...and reached my goal and finished my first athletic competition  EVER on June 6th and became a Mermaid!

I posted a "before" picture back in January and decided that I should follow up with an "after" picture...

Before

editors note...I "trained" for this after picture by scarfing down a snickerdoodle (see previous post) and pounding a cup of coffee...and then I felt a little guilty and did some push ups...

After

I don't see a big difference except that I might have learned a different pose...

WHAT was I doing in the before picture?!?

and DO NOT let the shortest member of your family take your picture because the perspective is horrible!

So did my body shape/size change lots during the training for the Mermaid?

...I would say no...

I lost a total of ...

drum roll please...

ZERO lbs!

but I do feel healthier...

and I'm now packing...

small, but legal guns...

very small...but 6 months ago I had NONE!

I can do a healthy set of REAL push-ups...I've done 30 in a row, but average about 20...Beau says I'm giving up too soon on them and need to push thru...

but...I don't want to fall on my face 

AND I have no desire to have huge guns...

just nice tank top arms...

and I also am now sporting true war wounds!

not surprising to ANYONE, I ended up visiting the first aid tent after the tri because I had a pretty rocking entry into the ocean...

my leg on the left

and now have true scars to prove that I'm a Mermaid...a clumsy Mermaid

and the biggest change is that I am planning on doing another one...YEP....you read that right.

I was so scared back in January when I went "blog public" with this challenge...

I had never done anything like this before and I was so scared that I would fail...

and I did come in DEAD last in the swim...

but I finished the swim and I finished the entire triathlon...

I FINISHED...

running across that finish line made me so happy and hopeful for my healthy future...

I came home, processed thru the experience by doing what I do...I blogged about it...

and started thinking about next year...and doing it again...

and then thinking about doing the Mermaid in Santa Cruz in September...

and then a fellow Mermaid's husband (thanks Tim) encouraged me to send my 100% Mermaid blog into the Mermaid people...

and then I got an email back asking me if they could share my blog on their website...and they would give me a FREE entry into the Santa Cruz Tri...

did you read that?  they asked if they could post MY blog on THEIR site...

UM...

okay...so I had my answer...

so within 2 weeks of completing my first ever Sprint Triathlon I was signed up to do another in 4 months...

We (the other Mermaids and I...there were 7 of us locally that participated in the June Alameda Tri) also held a meeting and have a whole new group of ladies signing up for the Santa Cruz Mermaid Tri and Du...

(Let me know if you are interested in joining our team...the more the merrier...)

I'm so happy and thankful that Julie invited/challenged me to this event back in December.  And I'm also thankful that I had friends that joined me in the adventure of challenging ourselves and how we look at being healthy.

It's not a number on a scale

It's not a size of clothing

It's not an age

It's not even the time it takes you to finish the swim leg of the triathlon

Healthy comes in all shapes sizes and ages...but it FEELS so much better!