This is where I give my back story, eh? Well, shit. My twinsie + partner in crime for this little journey already published her first post, and it's frigging hilarious. Tough act to follow? Indeed. 

My name is Nicole. I'm a 31 year old wife and mother living in the suburbs of Boston. 

Oh hiiiii!

Last September I got sick of looking at myself in the mirror. No, really. Anyone who has battled with their weight knows the moment I'm talking about. The moment where you are giving your own self the stare down... Making the decision to either give up all together and let yourself go completely to hell, or actually do something about the disgust you feel. I DID SOMETHING.

I started running. I ran for a lot of reasons. I ran to prove to myself that my fat ass wasn't a lost hope. I ran to show my (at the time) 3 year old son that his Mommy wasn't giving up. I ran to be more attractive to my husband. But, above all else, I ran for my life. The picture above is just before I ran my very first 5K in March of 2012. (PS I kicked that 5Ks ass!) 

I have run in several since, but lately my motivation to push beyond that goal has faltered. Life gets in the way, and sometimes you find any excuse to not lace up your sneakers. Getting lazy in my running lead to getting lazy with food. Getting lazy with alcohol. Suddenly, the number that used to be getting smaller on the scale is starting to get bigger. This is where my friends come in...

Have you ever had a friend inspire you so completely that you want to push harder just to be worthy of their support? For me, that's Carroll. Carroll, with nothing more than an encouraging conversation, has challenged me to get back on track. To do so by being more vulnerable than I've ever been: by doing this all... PUBLICLY. Obviously, I accepted... otherwise I wouldn't be typing right now.

Then there's Emma. My Twinsie from my roller derby days. She has had my back for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 5 years? haha. And I dragged her ass into this with me! Bwahaha! 

Okay there you have it. The journey has begun. My homework is as follows:

1. pics

  2. measurements

  3. goals

  4. stress-factors / what your nervous about

  5. what you're looking forward to the most   The pictures have been taken... It ain't pretty. I'm looking forward to calling them my "before" photos and not my "current" photos. I will post tomorrow. 

Here we go...