First off, update on the drain:  (I know, you've been waiting with bated breath, haven't you?)  My wonderful husband tried to fix it but was unsuccessful.  Turns out, the pipe outside the house was not only frozen from our wondrous -13 degree weather, it was also broken.  Time to call in the professionals!  Guess what?  There's a lesson in there...

How many times have you tried to lose weight?  Are you like me - have you tried everything under the sun?  Pills, crash diets, extreme workouts with nothing to fuel them?  Yep, I tried all those...  I've always been on the larger side of the spectrum.  And I've always hated it. 

Now, like I mentioned last week, I am pretty independent and self-sufficient.  I am no stranger to hard work.  Yet, no matter what I tried, nothing worked.  Nothing clicked.  I started running - and lost some weight.  Truth be told, running is still a huge passion of mine.  But it didn't make the weight come off.  I started weight-training.  I got stronger, but again, the weight didn't come off. 

And then I stepped into my first Fit Club and met my first Beachbody coach.  She was strong; she was toned.  She told her story about how she lost weight.  Now, she really didn't have much to lose to begin with, but what inspired me was the fact that SHE - this little thing - could hang with Shaun T in Insanity.  At the time, I thought Insanity was, well, insane and something only athletes did.  But here was this real, live, mom of two - and she had done it!  And she looked GOOD. 

So I started going whenever my nursing schedule would allow.  Her passion was infectious.  I found myself drawn in more and more by this whole "beachbody thing."  Eventually, I tried Brazil Butt Lift because she had a challenge group, and it was cheap.  Now, in the interest of full disclosure, BBL is NOT my thing - and I found that out pretty quickly.  But, I was still losing weight.  The group provided instruction and support and motivation to keep at it.  Again, in the interest of full disclosure, I have not picked up BBL since that particular group ended (I have, however, found other programs that are much more my speed!).  But that first exposure introduced me to a whole new world - a world where I had a personal trainer in my own home, a world where food was not the enemy but FUEL for intense workouts, a world where fitness was about power and function, a world where support was just a message or Facebook post away.  And I was hooked.

So the moral of the story is this:  try it on your own if you must.  Try again.  But then, ask for help and stop trying.  Start SUCCEEDING!