Dreams can come true

Hello!  Ok, it may be many days later, but finally, following on from my last post, here is Part 2 of my #operationbirthday story...AKA The Fairy Tale of all Fairy Tales, AKA the best bit - the

Read on to hear about this card

results!  Results are always more fun to talk about rather than hard work, right? :)

So we left off from last time with me going to sleep, on the eve of my birthday...early...apprehensive, nervous, excited, all rolled into one.  12 weeks of hard work came down to when I woke up.  Will I have made my goal??

I woke up at 2am.  I was supposed to be up at 4am but when I awoke earlier, I couldn't help myself.  Obviously I was itching so much to find out my result that I couldn't even stay asleep, which is extremely unlike me.

I got out of bed and walked to the scales, quite wide awake.  I tried to tell myself it would be ok either way: a fruitless last attempt to save a hearty disappointment on my birthday.  I jumped on the scales, looked down, and that is the moment that has me tear up while typing this.

Written across the screen of the scales, was the magic number.  The number that I had visualised for 12 whole weeks; the number I had pictured in my head every day.  The number that kept me busting my gut on my weekly run test when I really wanted to stop; the number that encouraged me to not sample my friends chocolate caramel slice at the work morning tea when I really just wanted to eat anything I liked, like everyone else.  That exact number - that is what was on the scale.

91.0kg

TO.THE.GRAM.

91kg!  Literally, the scales said, 91.0kg.  Not even 90.9kg or 91.1kg (or a couple of kg's more, which is what I truly expected).  They read, 91.0kg EXACTLY.

Now it may have been 2am, but I knew that I wasn't dreaming.  This was real.  I weighed myself 3 times in total to check and each time it read "91.0kg". :)

I had done it. 

I cannot describe the emotions that I felt at 2am, in the stark light of my bathroom, last Wednesday morning.

In a brief moment, so many things had just happened.

• I had just lost 50kg overall.  Exactly.
  
• I had just lost over 20kg (20.3kg) in Round 4. (12 weeks)
• I had just lost 35% of my body weight.
• I had just become Overweight - moving on from Obese, and before that from Severley Obese, and before that from Morbidly Obese.
• I now had less than 30kg to go until I hit my (current but may change) goal weight.
• I didn't see this calculated until later but I had just lost 18.23% of my weight in Round 4.
• I had already measured myself but I had lost 52.3cm in my measurements throughout Round 4.
• In an instant, I had made a dream and goal that I had set and worked towards, come true.
• And it was my birthday.

Now this is a lot of things to try to conceive at any time, let alone at 2am!  I tried to make sense of it all.  To be honest it did make sense, because I had been planning it and preparing for it

My post on Instagram

and working hard to make it happen for 12 weeks.  So it made sense.  What I guess I couldn't quite grasp, is that it had happened so perfectly.  91.0kg.  To the gram!  That's what had me in shock.  It was perfect.

I walked out of my bathroom and into the kitchen to get some water.  I stood in the kitchen, wide awake and smiling to myself.  'To the gram'!  LOL - I couldn't believe it. I was grinning my head off and I could feel myself glowing - well, as much as you can glow at 2 in the morning...

As I stood there drinking the water, I realised that my flatmate had brought in the mail from the

day before - I had obviously not been on my game the day before to collect the mail myself! #distractedmuch?

There was a parcel there from a friend, Kellie.  Kellie is Kellie Martin, or Kellie Moon from The Biggest Loser Australia series in 2011.  We've become friends on Facebook, and although we haven't met yet, she is one of my lovely supporters and is always cheering me on.  The week before she had messaged me to say that she had sent me something in the mail.  It had seemed to have taken awhile - I remember thinking it should have arrived earlier compared to when she had sent it.  I stood there and opened her parcel...and as if my exact 50kg loss on my birthday wasn't perfect enough...

Kellie had sent me a gorgeous card, and inside the parcel, was the shirt that she wore on The Biggest Loser, when they did the Hobart yacht race, which was one of their big challenges on the series.  It was so thoughtful of Kellie to send me this, and so exciting.  As a viewer, I love that show!  The Biggest Loser is one of the many things that inspired me to start on my own journey.  I used to sit there and cry bucketloads while watching it, usually stuffing my face with KFC and icecream at the same time.  Now I just sit and cry bucketloads, minus the KFC and

My weight marble jar now!

icecream.

And now I had my own actual shirt from the show?  I was stoked.  And the irony was definitely not lost on me.  I had literally *just* lost 50kg...then walked into the next room, and was 'given' an actual Biggest Loser shirt.

Incredible timing and just...yeah, no words.

This was the start of my birthday.  It wasn't even 2:30am yet, and already all of this had happened. :)

Regular readers may remember me explaining how I was a bit nervous about my birthday.  My last two birthdays were a little bit sad.  As always I had amazing family and friends around to help me celebrate both of them, but my actual birthday days themselves, were tough. 

Last year I woke up to the Brisbane floods having hit pretty hard.  I was safe and my house and belongings were fine - I was whatsoever, not a flood victim.  But I woke up on my birthday to find

Some of my presents from my family ;)

my power had cut out completely, after 4 days of a gradual decline.  I spent the morning having to throw all of the contents of my fridge and freezer into the bin, which was heartbreaking as I couldn't afford to replace it.  My workplace got flooded that day and I couldn't go to work, so I spent part of the day shovelling and sand bagging at the local SES, and the rest of it getting ready for my birthday dinner in a shopping centre bathroom, using their electricity.  It was too dangerous to shower at my house and I didn't want to bother any friends, so I washed myself a little in the public bathroom basin as well!

The year before that, as midnight rolled into my birthday, I was getting a needle shoved into my arm in the hospital Emergency department.  I remember it literally being midnight as this happened, and thinking "Happy Birthday to me!"  I was released later that morning, but I spent the day in a daze, exhausted, having to inject myself and being an emotional wreck worrying about my mortality following a scary hospital stay earlier that week.

Not that I believe in anything along the lines of those kinds of things happening again just because they did twice, but I hadn't been having a great birthday day track record, and I dearly wanted to have a happy day on my birthday instead of feeling crushed. I lowered my expectations for the day so that I wouldn't be disappointed and upset again.

So to have such an amazing morning even before 2:30am, was even more special. :)  I knew that it didn't matter what else happened that day; I had given myself the best present I could

2:30am selfie

ever ask of myself.

I put my new TBL shirt on and went back to sleep for an hour or so, wearing the shirt. :)

And then, it was time for Kate Day :)  I'd taken the day off work and had planned to spend the day just doing things that made me happy.  In fact, Kate Day was one of my goal / challenges for this round!

My day started off with boot camp - which I was so excited about.  I'd been excited about doing boot camp on my birthday last year, but the field was flooded so I wasn't able to.  This year however, boot camp was on!  And I went!

They were all sweet and sang Happy Birthday to me and were so excited about my 50kg. :)  Afterwards I threw my stats up everywhere - on Instagram and the forums and on 30+.  I was so excited and proud of myself.  And then I did something really big.  I shared my weight loss on my personal Facebook account.  I've mentioned here a lot about how I keep my two lives very separate.  When "Kate

I've never had so many likes on my personal page!

Does Life" came out, so did a lot of exposure about my weight loss, so I have been fairly open ever since then.  Even still though, never have I shared my weight loss or a before and after photo, or anything like that.

But this morning, that changed, and I shared this status.

I have the most amazing friends and family and I had messages and comments of congratulations and support lighting up my phone all day.  Coupled with it being my birthday, and me sharing my stats elsewhere, my phone stayed lit up for the entire day.  It took me literally hours to reply to everyone a few days later and I haven't even touched on or read my messages yet!

I raced home and had a shower as I had planned to go to see a movie that morning.  Going to the movies is one of my very favourite things to do :)  Yet I can't remember the last time I went.  So it was so special to go on my birthday.  I saw "Saving Mr Banks" and it was just awesome - I have a huge soft spot for Disney and it was just great.

I then ran to meet one of my brothers for lunch.  On the way I saw I'd had the most beautiful

The most beautiful post

Facebook post written about me, by my trainer Margie.  What she wrote blew me away, it was so kind. I had amazing, supportive messages like this all day.

I had lunch with my brother; I had wanted to have a pub lunch, so we did.

I then did a bit of shopping ;) I had my Rewards jar $ that I had been saving every day, all round. This money meant so much to me as I specifically remembered how hard I worked for each $1 - every day.

I'd been wanting a new bag as a reward from a while ago, and I managed to find 'the' bag on the day. I got a few extra treats too :)

I then did something a little strange but something that meant a lot to me. When I was 12, I went on Summer Camp. Just locally, for a week in the school holidays. I remember begging my parents to let me go. I think I'd seen one too many American movies...

I adored camp. I made amazing friends, got my first real crush, got my first boyfriend, visited the haunted cabin, learnt camp songs, ran amok and had THE.BEST.TIME. I declared the camp as My Favourite Place In The Entire World.  I begged my parents again the following year and went back to

Road leading to my childhood favourite place

camp at the age of 13 and had the same amazing time. 

When I was 14, I organised by myself to go back there as a junior camp leader. I had to put my case forward and push for the camp to allow me to do this, because at 14 I was the youngest leader they'd ever had. They ended up allowing me but I actually found it tough as I was the same age as the oldest campers, yet so much younger than the late teens / early 20's camp leaders I was supposed to be one of. I spent a week of feeling like I didn't belong anywhere. But aside from that, this camp remained in my heart as My Favourite Place In The Entire World (as a kid).

A couple of weeks ago a friends son went to this camp with school, and it occurred to me that it wasn't too far away...and that I could go back to visit! When you're 12, everywhere seems like a long way away, and you can only get there if your parents drive you. However I realised that, I'm an adult with a car and a license...I was now able to get there myself! Haha! So, I planned to visit there on my birthday. It may sound like a strange thing to do. But it was Kate Day and my birthday on which I only wanted to do happy things. Why not choose

At camp

this day to return out there?

I drove up and as soon as I arrived, I was overcome with emotion. It was so unexpected. It had been an overwhelming day and I guess returning to a special place from my childhood just added to this. I stood at the front gate and burst into tears. It looked like there was a camp that was on so I just stayed around the gate and took it all in.

As I was leaving, my friend Cathy texted me. She asked what I was up to as she wanted to see if I could come and meet her and another friend, Julie, as she had something for me.

I was only on my way home, so I did a quick detour and went to say hi. Cathy handed me an envelope and started filming me. Hmm this was strange...I decided it must be a very special envelope, and went along with it and opened it.

It was a Cinderella card and the front said "Happy Birthday Princess!" There was a blue bracelet attached to the card that played a song when you pressed it "....every girl can be a princess....any dream can be....close your eyes and see...." it played. It made me grin - if you're a long time follower/reader you'll know how perfect this was. :)

Wondering why Cathy thought it necessary to film this moment, I opened up the card.

Inside, the handwriting read:

'To my darling Kate Beck, 

Wow!! You are totally a ROCKSTAR!

Happy Birthday darling lady. You inspire us all. Love, hugs + support, Mish xx <3

HAVE A GREAT DAY! 

Love Mishy xxx'

Ummm....

To say I was a little in shock was an understatement. I watched the video back (quite a few times) and all I think I said was "are you serious?" LOL.

I listened to the song again:

"....every girl can be a princess....any dream can be....close your eyes and see...."

And that was me, gone. I couldn't do it any

more. Apart from the little moment at the camp (oh, and in the movie, it was beautiful!) I had held it together all day.  There's only so many perfect, beautiful moments I could take in my stride by acting calm and collected, and that was it.  I burst into tears.

At the start of my 12WBT journey, I made a mindset video for a weekly challenge, where I declared that I was Cinderella, trying to transform, and Mish / 12WBT was my Fairy Godmother. 

It was a bit of a jokey thing but underlying it was kind of true.  And so, to lose 50kg on my birthday and get a Cinderella card and bracelet from my Fairy Godmother herself, on the actual

day...could this day have been more perfect? :)

It was so special.  I have no idea how Cathy pulled this off - she was with Mish that day and I believe there are some pretty beautiful magic fairies around who helped. :)

So that was pretty much it!  I celebrated my birthday on other days but the actual day itself was just all for me, so happy and so perfect.  I could not have been more proud of and so thankful to myself for putting the work in.  It was the most amazing feeling and it reminded me of how special things feel when you put in the work.  I swear, I didn't think my day could get more perfect after the 50.0kg in the morning but it just grew.  The day made up for the previous two years one hundredfold! :)

Oh yeah, and it rained on my birthday (I adore the rain!)  And in the morning I fit into a pink dress for the first time that didn't fit when I bought it!  And I had 3 amazing cakes made for me...my friend Rachel made me a pavlova (my favourite) and decorated it with butterflies and princess pictures, my

Julie, Cathy and I

Mum made me a running track (!) and my friend Courtney made me a pink butterfly!!

My favourite birthday to date :)

So that is how it happened.  #operationbirthdaysuccess #operationbirthdayoverandout

Goodbye 50kg :)

P.S. It's the most exciting weekend this weekend!  Tomorrow is Mish's "Get Real" book launch, and myself, my beautiful friend Tracey and another lovely lady who is also in the book will be modelling One Active wear up and getting interviewed by Mish up onstage!  It's happening tomorrow and I am soooooo excited!  If you happen to live on the Gold Coast, Australia, come and say hi! :)  Saturday is another insane, awesome and pre festival day and then Sunday is the 12WBT Summer Festival!  I am so so so excited.  This sounds weird but if you're coming along please say hello...after each finale I always get a couple of beautiful girls messaging me to say that they were too shy to say hello to me.  It's overwhelming to hear that someone would be shy towards me, I am just Kate, so I feel like a knob for acknowledging it but please please say hello!  I get so disappointed when I find out I didn't get to meet people.  I promise I am not scary :)  I absolutely love meeting people so if you're shy or whatever please don't worry, I'll just hug you! :)  I'll be onstage with Mish during the 9:30am mindset lesson answering mindset-ty type questions so if you're in that session keep an eye out!  And to everyone going to the festival, have the best time!  Enjoy and savour every moment - finales / festival weekends are just amazing!  Soak everything up :) xxx

The sun setting on a perfect day :)

Crop top I bought with some of my reward $

My reward jar at the end of Round 4!

Cals burnt at my birthday boot camp!

I went to the movies!

Lunch with my littlest bro

My birthday splurge...reward bag!

Cake #1!

Perfect decorations!

Cake #2!  Running track!

Cake #3!  Pink butterfly <3

It's true!

I will spend the rest of my rewards jar on joining marathon school!  I enrolled in MARATHON SCHOOL!!!  How cool is that?!

parkrun on my birthday week...a random runner called this person fit on Margie's FB page ... she was talking about me!!!

Crying to Cathy... "is this really from her??"

I bought myself a banana smoothie on my birthday :)

Childhood love

Happy Birthday from my Polar!

Birthday rain <3

The dress that fit me!

Dreams can come true xx