Christmas 2008 in the OC

In the spirit of trying to take more pictures ... here are a few shots of Christmas:

Mom and Me ... baking with matching aprons (I know, I know - awe, so cute)


The Bethany Johnson family photo in front of the Christmas Tree.


Another angle of the Christmas Tree ... and me.

my old self

A lot of people say that when you lose weight you have "a new you" or "a new body" or something like that. I can honestly say that I don't agree. Its more like I am my old self again. I feel like the girl I have been seeing in the mirror the last few years (okay lets be completely honest and say the last 6 years) is not me. She reminded me of me ... but something was off. She lost that sparkle in her eye and it had been replaced with sadness.

As much as I hate to admit it ... losing 30 pounds really does make you feel better about yourself. I am running for the first time since my sophomore year in HIGH SCHOOL. I am eating better and I feel like a million bucks.

I feel brave posting this ... but what has helped me is my accountability to myself and others ... and while I realize that these pictures are not exactly comparable, I hope you can see the progress. So here goes:

Taken August 17, 2008 ... 3 days before I started "the program."

Taken December 18th, 2008 - minus 30 pounds and in new jeans!
(haha - almost exactly 4 months later - I didn't even plan that)

One of the sad things is that I have gotten out of the habit of taking pictures of myself ... so currently, this is the only picture I have taken since I started my journey, so I need to work on that. Also, the journey is not over ... I have some more to lose and I know its going to be even harder since I am at the same weight I was when I started my second year of college in 2002 and thus the remaining 10-20 pounds have been with me for a very very long time. So, wish me luck and send me good vibes to keep it up.

Reuse Buldings - Repower America

Little do the makers of this video know, but this is a really good video that addresses the very basis of my thesis topic - reusing existing buildings to address environmental/energy issues while putting American's back to work ... brilliant! I hope you check it out.