Blogiversary Giveaway Winners!

First of all, let me just tell you, every single one of you is simply amazing! All of your stories are so important and incredible, it just absolutely warms my heart. I love that all of you are taking steps to make your life healthy and keep it that way. Thank you so much, not only for celebrating my one year mark with me, but for celebrating a healthy lifestyle. Yay you!

Without futher ado, let's get down to the winners!

The GRAND PRIZE winner is....... MEG!
Meg had an harrowing story to tell, and almost didn't have a tomorrow to start her healthy lifestyle. In case you missed it, here was her entry.

Okay, here is my story...

My beautiful son was born on June 18, 2010 after a low risk, uneventful pregnancy. I was a little anemic, but other than that, it was a healthy pregnancy. I was 40 weeks, 5 days when I was induced. The labor was long a tough, and after he was out, I did not stop bleeding. I had 5 blood clots in my uterus preventing it from contracting back down. I lost a LOT of blood. I had a terrible headache we all thought was tension headache from labor, and a bruise 6 inches wide wrapped around my shoulders like a scarf. It was not an easy delivery. My son had to be in the NICU for 5 days, and on the day we were supposed to take him home, my headache was so bad it took me to the ER. Within 5 hours at the ER, my lungs had completely filled with fluid. I was drowning. Because I lost so much blood and I was anemic before that, no one could tell that I had preeclampsia. My blood pressure was dangerously high. I was dying. I spent the next 3 days in the ICU, completely unaware of my surroundings and away from my brand new baby who had to go home without me. However, I made it! And I'm healthy now! No high blood pressure! My son and I are completely attached to one another and I have a new way of looking at life. I realized that I need to love myself completely and give myself the chance to do things I really want to do, to have that little black sexy dress, to be who I really want to be. The time is now, not in the future, not someday... I almost didn't have a someday.. That is what has inspired me to become healthier this past year.

Congratulations, Meg!  Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, we are so glad you're here!

And now.... drumroll, please..... the PRIZE PACK winners!

They are Rachhabs, Sandra and Shari!

Winners, please email me your full name and shipping address and we'll be getting your prizes out to you shortly! Send to: fatville at gmail dot com!

Congrats to all the winners and contestants! You all made this giveaway awesome and will pave the way for more great ones in the next year!

The Leaving Fatville Blogiversary Giveaway Extravaganza!

Today is a very special day. Today marks the one year anniversary of this little blog of mine. And you know what that means? GIVEAWAYS! Whoo hooo!

That's right, it's my anniversary, but YOU dear readers will be reaping the benefits. It's going to be awesome. In fact, it'll be so awesome there will be not one winnner but FOUR! That's right, four winners! (I told you it was awesome!)

Here's how you enter. There will be three ways to win. The first, tell me what has inspired you to become healthy this past year. I want to know what your inspiration is for getting healthy. Tell me all about it because I'll pick the best answer to the win the GRAND PRIZE.

To enter to win one of the fabulous three PRIZE PACKS will be randomly chosen from anyone that leaves me a comment on this here blog. Yep, it's that easy.  And the third, tweet this giveaway and leave me a comment that you did so for another entry. Here's a handy dandy tweet button for your convenience.

Tweet

I suppose now would be a good time to mention what's in the prize packs, huh? Without any further ado...

GRAND PRIZE winner gets: a case of the new Chobani flavors, 5lb dumbbells from Sears FitStudio, a bag of Coach's Oats, a prize pack from Arctic Ease, goodies from  True Lemon AND Generation UCAN.

PRIZE PACK winners get: goodies from Coach's Oats, Arctic Ease, True Lemon AND Generation UCAN.

How awesome is that!? Pretty dang awesome I'd say. And let me should out a huge THANK YOU for all of my prize contributors for helping make this giveaway super spectacular!

The giveaway will be open until Monday, March 28th, so get those entries in! The more times you enter, the more likely you'll win!

So, what are you waiting for!? Get to entering!

LF #Fitbloggin Sponsor: Michelle Nelson-Schmidt

I'm simply giddy to introduce you to the latest LF #Fitbloggin sponsor, Michelle Nelson-Schmidt. Not only do I get the honor of calling her my friend, she's my coworker, too! (But not for long. Sad face.)

Medals with her husband, Kevin
at the Tybee Island Half Marathon

She's an artist, a mom, a half-marathon runner, a full-time graphic artist, a blogger and a published children's author. This woman has spent the last ten years doggedly chasing after her dreams, and I’m proud to say, she is living proof that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to do. (And writing a letter to let the universe know what needs to happen doesn’t hurt, either.) It wasn’t always an easy path to becoming a published author, but she stuck with it. Rejection after rejection, she just kept going until she got what she wanted. Now, she’s a children’s book author with not one book coming out, but TWO this September. To top it all off, she is still doing to the dog portraits that started it all.

Michelle is one incredible lady. She doesn’t just rest on her laurels, either. You’d think, hey... two books being published, maybe she’ll take a break. You’d be wrong. She’s already got another book ready to go, Jonathan James and the What If Monster (look down, isn’t he freakin’ cute?), an interactive children’s app ready to be produced and get this, ANOTHER book, this time it’s about a dog and mouse.

On top of Stone Mountain
with the What If Monster.

Did I mention that on top of all that, she’s still the most down-to-earth person I’ve ever met? In fact, dear readers, I wouldn’t be here writing to you without her. THIS is the woman that helped create Leaving Fatville. That’s right. She’s been my inspiration, my cheering squad and my co-conspirator in this entire weight loss adventure. Without her, I would not be down 60 lbs. Without her, I would not have known about this wonderful fitness/weight loss blogging community. 

And there's more! Without her, I would not have walked my first 5k. She was there, every single step of the way. She was cheering me on, taking photos, taking video and making sure I knew I could do it and posting it on Facebook to make sure everyone we know saw I did it. For that, I will be incredibly grateful for the rest of my life. (And forever trying to see if I can afford my new race addiction!)

I told you she was awesome, didn’t I? Get to know her. I promise you won’t regret it.

I walked a 5K yesterday.

I’ve typed it, I’ve said it, heck, I even screamed it out loud. It still doesn’t seem real to me yet. My muscles ache. My ankle is not happy. And yet, I still can’t believe I did it.

I walked a 5k yesterday. I walked it in a little over an hour. With a stroller. And monster hills from hell. I walked it. I finished it.

I did it.

Even on the morning of, I couldn’t believe I was about to do this. I haven’t walked a 5k in 18 years. That one wasn’t timed. This was my first “real” 5k and I finished it. I actually did it.

It started out pretty rough. Downhill at a steep angle then sharp uphill for what seemed like forever. I hadn’t drank enough water the day before so my shins were on fire. I even had to stop and pull them out before continuing. I almost gave up. I almost said, you know what, no. I’m not ready. I couldn’t look at my friend in the eyes and say it. The words just wouldn’t come out of my mouth. I had to keep going.

The first hill was bad. I huffed, I puffed, I got lapped by everyone else with a stroller. I was in the back, but I didn’t care. I just kept going. It leveled out and it seemed to be okay for a bit.

We hit one mile and my friend insisted we stop to celebrate for just a moment.

Then, we turned right. And I was staring at a hill that made the last one look like a Disney kid’s ride. This was a HILL. Hell, this was a tiny mountain. Straight up, crappy asphalt and full-on in the early morning sun. I refused to give up. I started walking. I had the stroller out in front of my at full length of my arms. I put one foot in front of the other. I got lapped by the 10K runners. I didn’t care. I just kept going. And going. And going.

Just like that, I was at the top. I stopped for about 10 seconds to catch my breath (forgot my damn inhaler) and then kept going. We evened out and saw this.

My friend snapped this lovely photo. I have never seen my city look so beautiful as it did right then. It energized me.

We flattened out and hit mile 2. I never thought I’d be so happy to see that little number 2 on a sign. I made it to mile 2. MILE 2!!? I’m over halfway done, I thought. Over halfway done. I was doing this. I was doing this and I was going to finish!

The last mile was a blast. We got lapped like crazy, but I loved seeing all the dogs, the people, the kilts and at that point, it was just about making to the finish line.

About an hour after we started, we finished. I ran across the finish line with that stroller and screamed, I did it! Exhausted, but I did it!

I did it. I finished a 5k. I never thought I’d be doing this year ago.

You know the crazy thing?

I want to do it again.

Changing Pace.

It's the beginning of March and it's time to look at those fitness goals. Mine was a simple one: get on the damn bike. I think I've done pretty well with that, but I think there's room for some improvement on that single, simple goal.

I've decided that calorie counting is not a healthy choice for me. (See, Dear Calorie Counting for a good laugh.) I obsess over the numbers. Whether those are scale numbers or daily calories, I harp on them. I can't get them out of my head. It started to become completely unhealthy. I lived or died by those numbers every day. If they were bad, or I went over, I was a literal mess. I would snap at small children. (A big drawback seeing as how I live with one.) I was a general all-around grouch. I said no more, and I meant it. No more food guilt. No more crazy calorie number counting. Just good, healthy food in moderation. And after nearly three weeks in, it's working for me. I'm keeping good food around me and I'm not hungry. Poor husband is breathing a sigh of relief, too since I no longer have to check on what I can eat before we go out.

Now it's time to look at the fitness routine. I was doing great with the Shred and I really enjoy doing it, even if I want to smash her face in at 5am. Doing it 5 days a week just isn't a feasible option for me. I wear myself so far down that I catch every little sniffle that comes through the door. So, it's time to reevaluate what I'm going to do for variety.

I still like doing the bike in the morning. It's a great mindless way to get my heart rate up while I'm technically doing something else. (Like watching trash tv or hanging out on Twitter.) But I think I might add some weight training/toning in with the circuit training. Not only will I get some rest lung-wise, but I'll get the shake my body up so it doesn't get bored. I can cool down on the weekends with my yoga or pilates work.

Goal 1: Get on the damn bike
Goal 2: Get on the damn ball
Goal 3: Get off the damn Shred

Okay, I'm kidding on that last one. As a compromise for my lungs, I do think I'm going to find a suitable replacement that's less impact/aerobic and more centered around toning or weight work. I can always come back to it when I'm feeling stronger and healthier.

How have your goals changed this year? Are you going to add more fitness? More good food?

Miss me?

My dear readers, have you missed me? I know it's been a lot of promo posts and #Fitbloggin sponsor posts lately, but I promise I'm still here.

Er, actually, I'm over here today. Lisa at workoutmommy.com has graciously allowed me to guest post for her today. Today's topic is "If only." It's been on my mind a lot, all these "if onlys."

Head on over to workoutmommy.com and tell me what you're "if onlys" are and if you're changing them into "I ams."

LF #Fitbloggin Sponsor: The Screaming Belt Loop aka Dewayne Hill

Meet The Screaming Belt Loop, or as he is also known Dewayne Hill. Dewayne is a 34 year old stay at home dad on the path to losing weight. Although he started blogging just a few years ago, he had a major ah-ha moment when he attended the Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge. Since then he's lost an amazing 42 lbs and is on his way to losing even more.

He's tracking his adventure in losing weight with brutal honesty in his blog. Dewayne might be new to twitter, but he's always there with a push in the right direction. He's just an all around friendly guy! Not to mention generous, since he so kindly bought a LF #fitbloggin sponsorship.

So, fit blog people, give this man your love, support (comments!) and encouragement, he is most deserving!

LF #Fitbloggin Sponsor: Foodie McBody

Foodie McBody is a phenomenon. Really, she is. Not only was she a kind LF #fitbloggin Sponsor, she's a force in the fit blogging community. In 2009 she had a wake up call with her health that prompted the beginning of her blog. 4 months later, she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Most people, they would have given up right then; admitted defeat and let themselves struggle.

Not Foodie McBody.

She lost 33 lbs by December of that same year. Ran 3 different 5k races, joined the staff at Weight Watchers which she eventually parlayed into a leader role. Yep, that's right. She's a WW leader.

Now, two years later she's completed her first half marathon is and rocking along, encouraging others and just being generally awesome.

Check out the photo, if that's not a transformation, I have no idea what is! (Doesn't she look amazing. AND TINY!)

She blogs here, you can see the foods she likes (which ALWAYS looks delicious), where she's speaking, how she lost her weight and what she's reading. And of course, you can always find her on twitter.

Read her story, you won't be sorry. Not only is she a fantastic human being, she's an amazing inspiration.

LF #Fitbloggin Sponsor: Fit & Free with Emily

Let me tell you about Miss Emily. Not only did she contribute to the LF #fitbloggin Sponsorship Drive (still going on! Look right!) But this girl? She rocks socks. She does. She's on a journey to lose 150 lbs, she's a mama, she's engaged, she's a blogger and she's just crazy awesome. Oh and did I mention she's a singer, a writer and a musician? I told you, crazy awesome.

She hit her highest weight in August of 2009 at 310 lbs. She's been working her way down since then with amazing results. She's at a svelte 260 and still going strong. Her blog is filled with giveaways, recipes, reviews and information. She's honest with her progress and her setbacks and it makes her a pleasure to read. 

You can find her blog here.

And you can find her on twitter here. 

A great asset to the fit blog community and a wonderful person to boot. You can't beat that combo!

LF #Fitbloggin Sponsor: Benjamin Teal

Let me introduce the very first LF #Fitbloggin sponsor, Mr. Benjamin Teal. Not only was he the very first sponsor, he is one of the very first people that spoke to me when I got twitter a year ago. (Awww!) Even as successful as he is, he didn't laugh at the fitness/weightloss newbie. Always with a kind word and gentle encouragement, he made it less daunting to join in the conversations happening around fitness. 

He's a great asset to the fitness blogging community with his website: Build Muscle and Burn Fat with Middle Management™ He put what he learned in middle management/corporate world to work in fitness. His tagline says it all: Your body IS your business. A great resource for workouts, nutrition and exercises. Not only that, he has giveaways and plenty of chances to get free advice and info all over the place!

You can find Ben here on twitter. Or on his Facebook Fan Page. (Be sure to "LIKE" him!)

Thanks Benjamin! You rock!