I always came to this forum to find inspiration and motivation. Now I'm giving back. Pics inside.

jessieleah

I'm 25 and 5'5". I went from ~230 at my heaviest and I'm currently hovering around 144 lbs. I've been at it for a year and 3 months now. I'd still like to lose another 15 lbs and get more muscle definition, but I'm very pleased with how far I've come!

I went from a size 20/22 pant to a 6/8. I used to wear XL/XXL shirts, now I fit in S/M (I even bought an XS reebok jacket the other day?!?!?). Went from a 38C (I was prooobably a band size 40, but I refused to admit it) to a 34B. I wish I'd taken measurements of my body at the beginning, but unfortunately I didn't!

I started sometime around September of 2012 by cutting out my "problem foods" which were fast food, regular soda (I still drink diet soda to this day) and chips. I started logging everything I ate, regardless of what it was. I slowly transitioned to healthier foods. I ate 1350 calories a day to start. When I got down to about 170 I upped my calories to 1500 per day. I also started doing p90x 5 times a week 6 months ago. I couldn't even do one push up when I started, now I can do close to 20. I couldn't even run a quarter (probably not even an eighth) of a mile a year ago, now I've finished a 5k in 36 minutes.

This has been a long road. It wasn't easy at first. It's still not easy. Eating healthier foods has become a habit now, but baked goods and chocolate still tempt me. I don't follow any strict diet, I eat whatever I want but I pay attention to my macros a bit more now. I love bread too much to go low carb or whatever haha!

I've suffered plenty of plateaus and ups and downs, I've stressed out about the scale plenty of times and felt like I was making no progress. But in the end, there were results. Losing the weight is the best thing I've ever done for myself, but my new passion is getting fit and working out. This is coming from someone who, at the beginning of this year, couldn't even fathom the idea of committing to working out 5 times a week. Seriously. I thought I would never be that person.

You guys can do anything! You all inspired me and kept me going, and I hope I can do the same for you!

P.S. My one piece of advice is to take plenty of pictures. BE A NARCISSIST. It's so damn nice to have an entire library of progress photos to look back on, and it's the best way to track progress in my opinion.

tigersword

TropicalParaMonster

You look amazing! Huge congrats to you!

blankiefinder

You look fantastic! Congrats on your success!!

Go_Mizzou99

blankiefinder wrote: »

You look fantastic! Congrats on your success!!

+1

Wow - you look great!

lunchlady61

Now you are the inspiration!! Congratulations.

shaynepoole

congrats on your success

sbrookes9

You look great! Congrats!

spoiledpuppies

Congratulations and best wishes on continued success!

sistrsprkl

Wow! Great work! Such an inspiration!

p444cod41

You look fantastic!well done.:)

Jesslan_Rose

You look wonderful!!! Great work!!

jeanniebeanie59

great job!!

slimandsmiling

wow.. you don't look like the same person, that is really amazing.. super well done

Delilahhhhhh

You look magnificent!! and thank you for sharing.

JadeRabbit08

This really is inspiring. Thank you for posting this!

BRobertson23

What a great story. Thanks for sharing your success! I completely agree with taking pictures! I just took some more of myself, and hoping to take some more in another month or so to see continued progress. Keep up the hard work!

47Jacqueline

tigersword wrote: »

You look great! Nice to see the pictures. I finally got around to finding some pictures - I didn't have any start ones, but some on the way there and definitely current ones.

Keep it up!

RHPSgirl1984

Congrats!

ElvenSorceress

Beautiful absolutely beautiful

libbydoodle11

Hooray, you rock! What wonderful success, so glad to see pics. You look wonderful.