Hello again, friends! Today's post will feature my best friend and fellow admin on the "Makin' The Fat Cry" Facebook page. From now on, she will be known as "The Walkin' Warrior". She came up with the name for this blog. She and I have been on multiple tried and failed fitness journeys together. This time, we have been journeying together for several months.

 Let me start by saying we live 1300 miles apart, but we are in contact everyday. We help each other overcome obstacles, such as potential food binges, the end of difficult workouts, bad food cravings, etc.

A story about The Walkin' Warrior: She is married to "The Frenchman". She has a stepson, "D.J.", who is the same age as my T-Rex. She also has a son; a kindergartner we'll call "P.B." (that's short for peanut butter!). Walkin' Warrior has always battled with weight. She has confessed to being an emotional eater; something we are still working through together. Soon after we graduated high school, her mother passed away suddenly, while on a Mission to Wyoming. Her father died from a massive heart attack while P.B. was still in the womb. To say that Walkin' Warrior had reason to be an emotional eater is an understatement.

Since P.B. was born, Walkin' Warrior has been mostly a stay-at-home mom. She worked for a very short period, post-partum. She tells me that this is when she hit rock bottom. Her weight ballooned to well over 400 lbs. She was miserable. It hurt to do a lot of things, because of the strain on her joints. Suffering from deep depression certainly didn't help. But, my beautiful friend, Walkin' Warrior decided that she couldn't continue living the way she had been for so long.

So, she started walking! On days when the weather is not conducive to walking, she will Zumba in her living room. She has made changes to her diet. If she is struggling to get motivated, she texts me. I respond with shout-y texts telling her that "she has to be her OWN motivation! Lace up your shoes, and get off the couch! That's the hardest part!" She later responds with a time and distance for her walk, and I am proud!

To this day, she has lost roughly 70 pounds! To say that any best friend could ever be more proud would be an outright lie. You see, I have been with my friend through most of her struggles. I may not feel as though I have been as supportive as she tells me I have been, but if she says I have made her feel better, then I will believe her!

I love my Walkin' Warrior. We push each other pretty damn hard! I hope that this blog, and this post will inspire her to continue on her path to fitness. Being co-admin on a fitness page will help, I'm sure!

Good luck, Walkin' Warrior! And good health!

:Love, Jennifer