What a difference a year makes!

CynthiasChoice

You are very impressive! You made a decision, you formed a plan, then you stayed with it until you accomplished your goal. Each step along the way, you grabbed the bull by the horns and and just kept increasing your effort and building your strength. Wow!

What were some of the things you said to yourself along the way to keep yourself motivated and on track?

When I visited my doctor after an 80 pound loss, I had a lower abdomen issue which my doctor said was excess skin. He recommended surgery, but I'm not brave enough. Maybe once the kids are grown and out of the house...

CJsf1t

What an inspirational story!! Amazing transformation!! You show that if there is will there is away!! Truly motivational.

lapierrecyclist

"Bond. James Bond." That's what your very last photo reminds me of. Congratulations--you worked hard to get to your goal and you totally deserve that success!

RNfitgurl

You are nothing short of amazing! such an inspiration Great Job (*)

astrose00

Congratulations! You should be so proud of yourself. Awesome!

sbrookes9

beautiful and inspiring story. Congratulations!

GoneGirl50

I really liked this story, especially because different exercise was right for different phases of your weight loss and fitness level. I see a lot of younger people describing programs that would injure or discourage someone with physical conditions, older persons, and people with a great deal of weight to lose. Also, you quickly recognized and accepted that this was a two year project for you. It was all done in a healthy and safe way, and your results are outstanding! Great post!

flatlndr

Many thanks for all of the kind comments. MFP has played a key part in this journey, between the logging, the support of friends, and the wealth of info and success stories in the forums.

Someone mentioned the "loose skin" topic. I'll give an update on that one, hopefully tonight. Preview - yes I have some, which after a 105 lb drop in 8.5 months, is to be expected.

Local_Atlantis

Thank you for sharing your story! I really needed to read this today.
You're an inspiration!

fitterforlife

Wow !!! very inspiring, you look like a whole new person, hard to recognise. Keep up the good work and keep motivating the rest of the clan.

zeeland5

You sir, are truly an inspiration. Congratulations!

JaneECS

You look fab, very sexy and strong. You are right to share your story - reminds me what we are doing it for.

1pjah7

I can't tell you how much I appreciate you sharing your story. The knee x-ray could be mine. I've got a long way to go, but dropping 25 lbs. has helped with the pain some. Your success (and dusty ibuprophen bottle) has given me hope that continuing on my journey will lead to a similar outcome for me.

Congrats on your dedication and hard work. It has certainly paid off - you look fabulous!

Kate7294

Outstanding! You look very nice in your tux. Not all people do. LOL. Very bond-ish.

mz_getskinny

Wow! Talk about impressive! I am officially motivated now

karenj_m

WOW! get out! you look amazing....you don't even look like the same person anymore

brightsideofpink

Well done!

tropic80girl

Fantastic!

flatlndr

Folks ... many, many thanks for the very kind comments. As much as my story has motivated some of you, your responses are helping to drive me forward. Thanks again.

Now to answer some of your questions. If I miss any questions, please post again, and I'll get to it as soon as I can. If you have a question you'd rather not ask publicly, send me a PM, and I can anonymize the response here.

flatlndr

shadowjack1965 wrote: »

Excellent job! Our stories are very similar. I've got my own knee problems and began my own journey after reaching 307. I'm down 67 so far with an ultimate goal of 187 (or further if I can make it).

Congratulations. Living proof we can achieve and maintain our goals.

Definitely keep at it. Every few pounds lost took noticeable stress off my knee.

When I was down ~30 lbs, I grabbed 20 lbs in weights and tried to walk up the stairs. The pains of old returned. It was obvious by that little experiment how much stress the excess weight was adding to my knee joints.

flatlndr

lefty421 wrote: »

What were some of the things you said to yourself along the way to keep yourself motivated and on track?

I'd have to give all the credit to my knee ... it's been a blessing and a curse, I guess you could say. It's been a curse in the sense that I will always have some trouble with it, but a blessing in that it motivated me to stick with it all the way. I haven't had to say too much to myself ... the knee kept thanking me for the positive progress, and kept reminding me that eating cookies while sitting back on the couch is what got me into trouble in the first place.

After that, I'm a bit of a data nerd. Between tracking the data in spreadsheets - and seeing the resultant progress curves, such as this:



and doing all the food and exercise logging into MFP, I kept very motivated.

Beyond that, it was self-sustaining. Losing weight allowed me to be more active, which helped me to lose more weight, which helped me to be more active, and so on.

flatlndr

lefty421 wrote: »

When I visited my doctor after an 80 pound loss, I had a lower abdomen issue which my doctor said was excess skin. He recommended surgery, but I'm not brave enough. Maybe once the kids are grown and out of the house...

Excess skin was something that I worried about at the beginning. Given that my belly was hanging over my belt at the outset, I figured the empty skin would be flopping about as well.

When I was on holiday in July, even though I looked and felt better, there was loose skin. I remember putting on suntan lotion, and feeling like it was loose enough to push my navel up to my chest! It was especially noticeable when I did push-ups or planks when not wearing a shirt. This marsupial-like pouch was hanging down from me.

But since then, I've lost another 10 lbs, and a few more inches, and the skin as pulled back somewhat. It's still a bit floppy, but if I drop another 5-10, and continue to reduce my overall body fat, it may get to a point that it's much less noticeable.

From everything I've read, I should give it about 2 years from the point at which I reach weight, as that's about as far as the skin will pull back. I don't think I'll go for surgery in the end, but I certainly have considered it from time to time.

flatlndr

BodyScience wrote: »

I really liked this story, especially because different exercise was right for different phases of your weight loss and fitness level. I see a lot of younger people describing programs that would injure or discourage someone with physical conditions, older persons, and people with a great deal of weight to lose. Also, you quickly recognized and accepted that this was a two year project for you. It was all done in a healthy and safe way, and your results are outstanding! Great post!

Thank you. I've learned from past mistakes, where I've gone out too hard and too fast, and just wound up exhausted or injured. I now know how to push myself hard enough to be challenged and to improve, but not so hard as to cause damage. It only took me a few decades to figure it out.

flatlndr

1pjah7 wrote: »

I can't tell you how much I appreciate you sharing your story. The knee x-ray could be mine. I've got a long way to go, but dropping 25 lbs. has helped with the pain some. Your success (and dusty ibuprophen bottle) has given me hope that continuing on my journey will lead to a similar outcome for me.

Congrats on your dedication and hard work. It has certainly paid off - you look fabulous!

Best of luck with your journey. I hope you can make your knees as happy as I have made mine.

northlandmum

Congratulations on all your hard work. You look amazing

flatlndr

karenj_m wrote: »

WOW! get out! you look amazing....you don't even look like the same person anymore

Thanks. With my new job, I'm working with people who didn't know the "before" me; they've only see the last 30-40 lbs drop. When they ask about it, I show them the before picture, and the response is typically "What?!? That's you?!? No way!!!". I smile every time, and it motivates me to keep at it.

opalsqueak007

This is such a great story to read. I'm so happy for you! I had very bad knee pain and only a 34lb loss made a huge difference. I wish you all the best with your new self!

DigitalDiana

Entirely inspiring!!! Thanks for sharing!

Rangerfied

Great work. Plus keeping the self control to stay on track. That's my biggest problem is not having the self control to stop myself from snacking when I don't need too. Plus exercising when I should. It's great though seeing that other people are doing it.

flatlndr

Rangerfied wrote: »

Great work. Plus keeping the self control to stay on track. That's my biggest problem is not having the self control to stop myself from snacking when I don't need too. Plus exercising when I should. It's great though seeing that other people are doing it.

Thanks. Whenever my self control was lacking, and I was thinking about snacking, a little voice in my head piped up and said "you know, you're going to have to log that", and that was usually enough for me to stop.