melissa in may

Happy May Day, everyone!
Seriously, where has the time gone??? It feels like just yesterday we were cursing the snow and ice, and now summer's like a month away. Not that I'm complaining, because well, I'm not.
End of story.

I'll do a food post later on, because I may possibly have a recipe to share (if it turns out well!); after all, tonight is curry night. I am SO excited! I love love love Indian food, but I find it oh so hard to control myself around all that spicy goodness, so we don't go there so much anymore. If the home version is 1/3 of the deliciousness, I'll be oh so satisfied.

Today was a fairly good gym day, all things considering. I wasn't feeling it at all, in part due to rainy-day laziness, but I walked my butt there anyways, a small victory in itself. Today's Weighted Workout was hard with a capital H, and I was sweating like crazy; I wouldn't be shocked if the room was at 90 degrees. I ended up going to water aerobics afterwards, and pushed myself to the max. The depth of water you work in helps decide your intensity level, so I made sure that I spent most of my time in the deeper waters to really get the most out of the class that I could. I treated myself to a little time with my buddies, Hot Tub and Sauna, and we had a great time together - so relaxing!

Leaving the sauna, I could hear singing coming from the shower next to it. Normally, I'm not a big listen-to-people-singing-in-the-shower-kind-of-girl, but it was beautiful. Full of hope, joy and contentment. I hate to admit it, but it actually cheered me up a bit. I recognized that voice - it was Melissa. Melissa is a woman I met during one of my first Weighted Workout classes, and she is amazing. She's the person in the front of the room that you watch when you're in the back, going full force and doing things that you don't even think are possible. She's the one that moves so fast, you'd think that she was flying. She's the one you look at, and think that that can never be you, but dreaming deep down that one day, it will be. Melissa is one of the kindest people that I've ever met, and somehow, we've become friends. The craziest thing about her, though, is that she used to weigh 320 lbs. She was the person in the back of the room, staring forward. She struggles every day, battling food, life, and herself. Let me be the first to mention that she's doing a fabulous job at winning.

There's not really a point in telling you about Melissa, but to say she inspires me doesn't really cover it. She's the one person in the world that I can turn to at any point, no matter what, who can honestly say that she understands. She came from where I'm coming from, and has been to where I'm going, and has never stopped fighting her entire way there. Is she perfect? no, and she never pretends to be. She's just doing what she can when she can, one day at a time. For me, that's such an important point to remember: life isn't always perfect, and neither are you, but it's not about good or bad, guilt or absolution or reaching perfection. There is no perfection. In fact, if you're waiting for perfection, you'll be waiting around the rest of your life and never get anywhere. Melissa is the me that so often, I've wished I could be, yet here she is, looking at me as an equal, reminding me to keep going every step of the way. I'm now 1.5 lbs. away from 40 lbs. lost, and the first person I told was Melissa.

I wish everyone could have a Melissa in their life - the world would be a better place for it. Do you?