Christmas and New Year’s Day is now over, all my visitors have gone home, and it is time to get back to writing my book and posting on my blog. 2013 is going to be an amazing year. A year that I will actually reach my weight loss goal, along with walking through more dreams and accomplishing things I never thought I could.

So, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and let me continue to share this incredible journey with you….It will take a few posts to catch you all up. I’ll start with sharing what happened around the holidays, then I will take you back to the experience I had at Unleash the Champion to finish sharing the spectacular events that happened there. This journey continues to be something that incredible movies are made of…and I am just busting to share it all with you…..Enjoy!

December 24, 2012- The Best Christmas Gift This Year…80 pounds lost!
It’s Christmas Eve day, and I am starting it this year unlike any other year…..80 pounds down for Christmas….and in the gym! It was pretty amazing to get up with my husband and say, “who goes to the gym and works out on the morning of Christmas eve? We do!…We are now one of THOSE people!”

I actually couldn’t wait to get there to see everyone, and to just hug the owner and thank him again for supporting me, believing in me and helping me get my life back. The work out was really tough– weights and cardio, doing a lot of it on a step. Eliza worked us out hard, and early on I was dripping with sweat. As I saw it fall onto the step and floor, I just thought about one of the speakers at Unleash the Champion saying, “sweat is just your fat crying”….and so looking down, I just smiled and loved the fact that I was starting this Christmas Eve out, making my fat cry!

It’s amazing how much stays with you in your heart and head as you continue to stay on this journey and really want to fight and make it a lifestyle. I have my “believe” bell back on, which I placed around my neck one year ago today…and today I am also blessed to know that wherever my friend, Roseanne, is today, she has my original bell on her neck, and I know she is doing amazing things throughout this Christmas, believing that she can do all things through Christ who strengthens her. She is transforming her life and inspiring so many others, also.

In the past few days, so many facebook messages and emails have gone back and forth between all of us from the “Unleash the Champion” family. I posted that I reached my Christmas goal and lost 80 pounds for Christmas. Only God could have allowed me to pull out a 3.4 pound loss this week, in and amongst all that I have had to do. I prayed all week for Him to help me with this miracle, as I knew that the only way that I could have done it in my own strength and ability would be to work out at least 2 times a day. I was going to try all week, but life got in the way, and it didn’t happen.

When I got on the scale, the woman’s face was in shock, she reached for the calculator, said,”Oh my gosh, Wendy, what did you do?”… and then she looked back and forth at the numbers, checking her math, and then said that I did it! I lost 80 pounds exactly!  The loss of 3.4 pounds brought me to exactly 80 pounds! It was all God! I jumped up and down, and I spinned around a few times. All the people coming in the building could hear me shouting with joy, “I lost 80 pounds for Christmas!”. It was the greatest gift ever!!!! I couldn’t wait to tell everyone at home, but sharing it at Weight Watchers was just as spectacular, as they were all pulling for me, they knew that I was working so hard to try to make this Christmas goal, and they were all so proud of my accomplishment. Other members got on the scale and also had losses, and we just “high fived” each other and celebrated the fact that we actually lost weight the week before Christmas…. With Christmas parties and all!

It was a fabulous meeting….great ideas, more inspiration to keep us all on target. And when I left, and pulled out of the parking lot, I turned on the radio as I stopped for the light and my favorite line from “All things Possible” was playing at that EXACT moment!!…
I know mountains can move
I’ve seen what You can do
In my weakness
So my heart will believe
If I wait I will see
My God doing, what only He can do

It was an amazing miracle and gift this Christmas. It’s something I prayed so hard for as I worked out, and He provided.

So I go into this Christmas Eve blessed beyond words, for the journey I have been on, the friends I have met, the “God incidences” I have walked through and continue to walk through. I am in awe of the treasures that have been unveiled this past year, and I am beyond excited to see where this new year will lead me and my family in our journeys.
It was the toughest, most exciting year to experience. A year of truly finding out that the Lord really is ALL that He says He is and can do ALL that He says He can do. Nothing takes Him by surprise, and He never lets go of us! We will walk through trials beyond what we think we can handle, but He walks through them with us, and He provides.
Praising Him this Christmas for all that He has done and will continue to do…in His amazing timing, with His unfailing love. And praying that everyone will experience Him in their lives the way I have experienced Him this past year. I am in awe and left breathless every time I share what He has done. What a gift! One that I pray every person will unwrap in their own lives this year! Merry Christmas!