Thanks for joining me...

Where do I even begin?  I have been contemplating starting a new blog for months now, and here I finally go!  I used to have a blog (www.bonnieb.blogspot.com) that I began in October of 2003.  It began as a place for me to journal my experiences in South Africa, then transitioned a few times, finally ending up as a place for me to mostly write about my weight loss / health journey.  The last time I posted in that blog was May 20, 2011, and I wrote that I was "surrendering the page" to the Lord. I wrote the following words... 

I'm finally excited again... excited to see what the future holds... 

excited to see what God writes on this page!!

Eight days later, on May 28, 2011, I went out for dinner after church with friends and ended up sitting beside this guy that I thought kinda had a crush on me.  He got my number that night, and on March 24, 2012, I married that guy.  What a whirl-wind it has been the past couple of years!  I wouldn't change a moment of it!

Now... to the present!  I plan for this blog to be a place for me to write... the purpose of my writing may change over time, but for now it is a place for me to write primarily about my continued weight loss / health journey, but I will be writing about other things as well as they come up.  I have many lovely friends who no longer live close by, so hopefully this will help them keep up a little. :)

I am calling this blog "Redefining Normal" because my main weight loss goal this year is to get into the "normal" range on the bmi chart.  I am right around 190 now (I started out a little over 2 years ago at 259).  My goal is 145.  I have never been my current weight (on the way down)... never...  I weigh less now than I ever did in high school (and maybe even middle school... I'm not sure).  It seems unreal to me to think about being "normal" but I am more determined than ever to get there! However, I think that normal is a funny word... who defines what normal is?  Is there really such a thing as normal?  I don't think there is... so I'll be writing about my normal... my ever-changing normal!!  :)

So there you have it... welcome to my journey.  I appreciate your comments, encouragement, suggestions, and thoughts along the way.  They have helped bring me this far!

For a little visual of where I've come from, here's a couple pictures from New Years 3 years ago...

And here's a more recent picture that my friend Kim Campbell took for me a few months ago... I've lost about 10 lbs since this picture :)

Who else can't wait to see the next pictures!?  Stay tuned... may a take a while, but I'm in this for the long haul!!