Everybody's Working for the Weekend! (Day 38)

Day 38 finds me looking forward to the weekend.

I have a very good friend named Donna.  We've been close since our children were small. Around 5 years ago, Donna was diagnosed with a grade IV neuroblastomo...a particularly evil kind of brain tumor. It comes with a horrible prognosis. She's had two surgeries, radiation, chemo, and clinical trials.  A couple years ago, the tumor came back and was inoperable. 

She started to go downhill quickly, and her friends had to take turns being with her during the day while her husband worked.  We set up a schedule and we helped her with her most basic needs.  At that time, the doctors threw up a hail mary and tried a new protocol of radiation that was based on scorpion venom. I'm not sure if the scorpion venom worked, or if it was all the prayers that bombarded God on her behalf, or if God used the bug juice, but Donna started to improve.  And today, she's doing fantastic!! She has an MRI every few months, and they've all been completely clean.  She has a vision deficit on the left side as a result of the position of the tumor, but other than that, she's back to teaching 2nd grade and living large!

I admire and love Donna so much.  She's always taken care of herself...she eats right and is totally committed to exercise.  Always has been. She just did a 5K to benefit brain tumor research!  She has always had great faith, and never asked, "why me?"  Her question was always, "why not me?"  She fought cancer hard, with commitment, dedication, ferocity, faith, and pure courage. 

Donna's going to turn 50 tomorrow.  She's not really a birthday-celebrating kind of girl, but this is a birthday that we never thought she'd see.  And we are going to party!!!

I bring this up because Donna has set such a good example for me.  She was in an all-out battle for her life and she met it head-on with all she had. And that's how I want to approach getting rid of this extra weight.  It might actually be life and death, now that I think of it. I don't want to ever compromise on this...I want to be steadfast in this quest for a healthy relationship with food and exercise. I want to show courage, and strength, and resolve.

And so to celebrate tomorrow with Donna, I'm definitely saying "no" to the cake! :-)

By the way, 1300 calories today and 25 minutes on the bike!! Ooo Rah!

To my fellow travelers, let's have a good weekend! Let's make good choices, let's move, let's love, and let's LIVE!!

God bless...