Melissa Jones

My ten year anniversary with BTD knowledge is coming up! I often get frustrated with my slips and falling off the wagon, and my scale's recent stubbornness (although it does say I've lost 4% body fat!)
Yet, when I consider what things would have been like over the last ten years if I hadn't picked up that book, I shudder. So I need to pat myself on the back and toast with sparkling water to:

Ten years without chronic back and joint pain, and avoiding Vioxx and dangerous prescription anti-inflammatories.

Ten years without major depression or antidepressants.

Ten years without panic attacks (except one after a restaurant gave me somebody else's plate then swore it was my gluten free food)

Ten years without 70 pounds, and without phen-fen and other dangerous methods of weight loss (35 pounds lost twice, only regained through pregnancies)

Ten years with the addition of two great children!

Ten years with energy to raise those two great children.

Ten years without bladder infections (despite two pregnancies)

Ten years without wheat! (except unintentionally)

Ten years of really LIVING! No, I don't regret, and never will regret, not eating the foods I chose not to eat for health reasons, but I would regret being sick like I was before the ten years.

Ten years of being able to get by with just 7-9 hours of sleep, not 10-14 like I needed previously.

Ten years of being healthy enough to choose every blessing and consequence I've received, ten years of not being a victim of my own ignorance.

Ten years of being able to be as active and as spiritual as I've chosen to be.

My ten years have been fantastic, not perfect (mainly because my compliance hasn't been perfect), but way better than I imagined when things were so bad more than 10 years ago. I love my life, I love that I've been able to have two wonderful boys, I love my family, and I love beneficial foods!

Here's to kicking it up a notch in the next ten years! Write that book, get that black belt, continue doing all the things I know I can and should. Serve others more, share myself more.