Enlisting the Troops

I figure I should record this email here for posterity's sake:

To all my girls near and far (Kristyn, Christi, Alissa, Xianne, Nola, Amy P, Amy C, Kathy, Lena, Lu-En, Rachel, Megan, Amanda, and Briney) ...

I'm officially fed up with being a big girl (the following pic: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30827917&id=22100018 made me realize how big I am ... although I should learn that I should never compare my size to Lena and Nola ... also, I want to be able to look hot in my maid of honor dress at Kristin's wedding). For those of you who have known me a while, this happens every once and a while, but I swear this time it's for good. And to ensure that this time it is for good, I'm enlisting you all - my closest girl friends near and far - to help me out, keep me accountable, and maybe enjoy some exercise with me at the same time (if you live close enough, that is).

My goal is simple: I want to be able to run The Dish (http://dish.stanford.edu). For those of you out-of-towners, here's what you need to know ... it's a 3.5 mile, hilly loop on the outskirts of Stanford's campus. It's a pretty well trafficked area, as there are massive amounts of hikers and runners that use it.

You can read about my day-to-day progress on the following blog: http://oliviavsthedish.blogspot.com/. I'd appreciate it if you kept the link to yourself, as I'm likely to rant about other stuff than just the hike itself and how I'm doing. Also, I'm going to try and be pretty honest about how I'm feeling and the like, so I'd rather that the whole world not read about it ... well, random strangers may be OK, but I don't want it to get leaked to other people I know, if you get my gist ...

I'd appreciate any words of encouragement and some accountability (seriously, I may need a swift kick to the butt sometime, I promise I won't fault you for any harsh words about this, since I'm clearly asking for them).

Also, if anyone wants to meet up with me, I'm going tomorrow morning at 6:45 am. I'm sure you all can't wait to get up that early to hike with me ;).

Have a great day!
Olivia

PS - I should also note that I have some slight delusions of grandeur with this one. I've always wanted to write a book (seriously, since I was like 12, I've made various attempts to write the next great American novel). The books that I like, however, are always the non-fiction/quasi-autobiographical type ... so I have this idea that I can do this, lose a whole lotta weight, get my PhD in the meantime, and have done it with the encouragement of my best girlfriends. And I'll already have most of it written once I'm done (hence the blog) and records of your words of the encouragement (in the blog, and your comments on the blog). Olivia vs The Dish is not really only about my battle with the hike or with weight, but also my battle to get through the PhD ... blah blah blah. OK, enough of boring you with my delusions of grandeur. But maybe one day, when the book is published, we can all go on the daytime talk show circuit together :). So, save those dates in the future ;).

PPS - Sorry for such a long email, that this last PPS has made even longer.