Everyone has a story

Today I want to share some links with you.  If you've been looking for some motivation, perhaps you'll find it in one or all of these.  I find them all incredibly encouraging, motivating, and one is actually scary.  But for good reason :)

Let's start with the scary one, because now that I've said there was something scary to look forward to, you can't get it out of your mind, can you?  I think I've mentioned  that I'd recently read a medical report that said something like 150 (?) cancers were linked to obesity.  I honestly can't remember the specific number, but suffice it to say it was a LOT.  My immediate thought at the time was something to the effect of, "it's 2012 in America.  My life and our world are loaded with toxins.  If I get cancer, I get cancer.  HOWEVER.  If I get cancer because I am overweight?  That. Is. Unacceptable."  Now, please hear me - I'm not being cavalier about cancer.  I just know that it's possible to get it.  And of course I try to do things that will keep me from getting it.  Of course!  But if I got it because I was fat?  Oh, man.  How is that ok?  It's not.  And then a couple nights ago, a more definitive and specific report on breast cancer in particular was on the news.  I recommend everyone watch this news clip. 

And then there's this story, which is loaded with motivation and also made me sniffly.  My friend Mol sent it to me and I have been thinking about it since I read it.  And now I want to run with her.  I highly recommend you read this article on Sole Sisters:  How 9 Women Became Runners.

And last:  here's a quick article highlighting 4 women who all lost a LOT of weight running.  You know I'm a walker, but this is inspiring.  And although I'm walking now, there's a possibility I may start running.  I'm not going crazy or anything :)  But this is pretty inspiring:  How Running Transformed Me.

That last one is especially inspiring to me because one of the (many) reasons I knew in my heart I needed to lose weight was because of some of the things listed in those stories.  I could feel my weight in my knees and my back and I wasn't sleeping well, and I was pretty sure I was snoring because of my weight (I never snored when I was slimmish!), and ... the list goes on.

Anyway, I hope you find something in one or more of those articles to get  you off the couch.  And out the door.  Or on the treadmill.  Or away from the fridge.  Or whatever it is that has you in its clutches.