Alright so this may be a bit of an unfair comparison, if only because of the horrible angle the first photo was taken at, BUT, idontcare. Sometimes one of the best motivators to keep going is looking back at how far you’ve already come. 

Okay so let’s turn tonight into a BEFORE AND AFTER WOOOOOOO!

Okay so my favorite band is Streetlight, I’ve seen them a billion times, met them once, and tonight I went to a solo acoustic show by the lead singer, Tomas Kalnoky (pictured above.) I see a difference!!!!

Okay so quick recap of the show (this is more for me than for you, but if it interested you at all then READ I SAY. READ!

I didn’t decide I was going until crazy late the night before, and it just so happened that I had work until 6 on Walnut Street, and doors opened at the venue at 8, also on Walnut Street! So I walked over after work, and sat down and enjoyed an amazing show. After the show, people got up and left, but as always, a few people lingered, me being one of them.  Another lingerer was a kid who also came to the show alone who sat right in front of me (no this isn’t a LOVE story, he was a junior in high school and a clone of my younger brother.) We were the only two people after the show in our section, so I told him how after a show ends I always want to see another one RIGHT away. He agreed and we got to talking about concerts and Streetlight and how people weren’t singing along like we both thought we were going to.  I said “Oh well I sang anyway” to which he replied “Oh, that was you?” And I immediately thought ‘Great, I RUINED THE SHOW FOR HIM!!!’, but said “Oh, yeah, I’m sorry about that, I couldn’t help it” (I REALLY COULDN’T) 

THEN GUESS WHAT HE SAID!?!?!

“No, you actually have a really nice voice!”

THANK YOU 17 YEAR OLD BOY<333

So anyway, me and this kid who was named Matt, but people call him Jake, so I call him Matt-Jake, decided to go on a mission to find Mr. Kalnoky because he had never met him before, and I’m just a stalker. We ask the guys who are clearing the stage, no help. Waitress, no help.  Sound guy, no help. Merch guy, no help. Opening act guy, no help. Ticket booth guy, NO HELP. So then we creep around the building hoping to see them leaving, but don’t.  So we decide to go back inside.  Most of the concert goers are gone now, but merch guy is still there, so we talk to merch guy.  And merch guys friend came over and we talked to them while they were packing up and they talk about Tomas and life on the road and blah blah blah. FINALLY we convinced him to go get Tomas and he came out and we got our picture! I wanna write more, but I’m WIPED OUT (I’ve been awake since 6 pm yesterday?!)

This picture gave me a new sense of motivation to finish what I started.  

I know I’ve been posting a ton of these, but last one (at least for a while), I promise! I call this one “at least I used to have a tan”

I’m taking a series of pictures of me now, so I can compare them to old me, and then so I will be able to compare them to “new me” aka me when I reach goal. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: TAKE PICTURES OF YOURSELF NOW! You will regret if you don’t! Photograph, measure, do whatever you wanna do because being able to compare is awesome. 

Between weighing 155.0 this morning, the purple shirt update picture I posted this morning, and this sweet picture I just took of my calves, I am feeling fucking AWESOME today.  It’s so nice out and I’m gonna go run to Philadelphia Runner to pick up my race packet for tomorrow’s 10k (my first!)

There are some days when I feel like I look exactly like I used to look.  Same body, same face, same everything.  Those days suck and they are coming more few and far between, but they still happen.  There are other days where I don’t recognize myself at all.  I look in the mirror and think that that person isn’t really me. I don’t know who it is, but it’s not me.  It’s like like I’ve lost a huge amount of weight (not saying that 30 pounds isn’t anything to shake a stick at), but looking back, I can’t believe how different I look now.  Not even just skinnier, just different. It blows my mind how my perception of myself can change on a daily basis. Those two faces look completely different, but sometimes I don’t even think I look different.  Recently I find myself wondering when I’m going to accept that this is what I look like now. I suppose it will come with time. 

GPOYG(uns)W