Success story....with a twist! (pics)

qstneverything

Hello all. I apologise for what's coming ahead! I've been wanting to post this for so long, but never had the guts to. I'm now procrastinating from an assignment, so why not?

So, I was always a chubby kid. I have lots of examples, but I'm going to just post one, because I was fifteen and it seems mean to pick on fifteen year old me. So this was me:



Yeah, as a teen, I definitely did not like the way I looked.

So I did something about it. My living arrangements changed, and my father let me join a gym. It was Curves - a circuit training gym that is criticised a lot for not accommodating progress, but it was exercise none the less. I also walked to and from school each day (30 mins round trip) and ate healthy. VERY healthy. Dinner was usually a bit of chicken breast with sauce, a HUGE salad and two bits of toast.

Which turned me into:





I looked a lot better, right? So where's the twist?

That's the thing. "looked" is past tense.

After high school, I went to uni. Late night classes, and late night work meant it was easier to just buy dinner on the way home. Having classes all day meant it was easier to buy lunch at uni. Hell, some early morning classes meant coffee and a muffin was for breakfast.

Throw in lots of personal dramas, lots of self denial, and apathy and four years later, this is what happened:



(Excuse the draw over my chest, the original photo showed off a lot more than I intended to, I became one of "those" girls, who wore low cut tops to try and distract from my weight gain, urgh)

Suddenly it wasn't like my late teen years where people didn't recognise me because I had lost lots of weight, it was because I had gained lots of it.

On the upside, I have lost five kilos since that photo was taken. This is me now, a few weeks ago. This is square one officially:



So I'm not here to moan about my weight gain, I'm here to celebrate my past success and give a warning to those close to maintenance or those maintaining. But mainly I'm here to motivate myself. I've done it before, dammit I can do this again. I looked good, and with a bit of hard work I can go back to that.

I might have lost the battle, but I'm going to win the war.

crazyjerseygirl

Good for you getting back on the wagon! Uni is tough on healthy eating precisely for what you said. Do you sit down for a healthy oatmeal, or grab a muffin and run to your 8am?

What it is is good practice. I have far less time now, but my goofs in Uni taught me what not to do, and I feel like I have WAY more time!

Superstar_81

Hell yes you can do it!! Pics are proof
Your first pic made me think to when I was 15 and overweight (continual struggle), we had lots of land and every night I would lie in bed and think 'tomorrow i'll run round the croft and lose weight' Turns out I was too lazy lol!
Never mind, am on it now, we can defiantely do it, we've both proved this!! Lets go!!

qstneverything

crazyjerseygirl wrote: »

Good for you getting back on the wagon! Uni is tough on healthy eating precisely for what you said. Do you sit down for a healthy oatmeal, or grab a muffin and run to your 8am?

What it is is good practice. I have far less time now, but my goofs in Uni taught me what not to do, and I feel like I have WAY more time!

Tomorrow I'm getting up at six to go to the gym, after I eat a bowl of muesli Glad someone else understands the uni struggle hehe

Superstar_81 wrote: »

Hell yes you can do it!! Pics are proof
Your first pic made me think to when I was 15 and overweight (continual struggle), we had lots of land and every night I would lie in bed and think 'tomorrow i'll run round the croft and lose weight' Turns out I was too lazy lol!
Never mind, am on it now, we can defiantely do it, we've both proved this!! Lets go!!

Haha thanks! You're the best x

irenehb

Sounds like you are on the right track.
Hey, you got the Chasers backing you, can't go wrong with those guys

GreenIceFloes

That's pretty much my story. Good luck!

crazyjerseygirl

qstneverything wrote: »

crazyjerseygirl wrote: »

Good for you getting back on the wagon! Uni is tough on healthy eating precisely for what you said. Do you sit down for a healthy oatmeal, or grab a muffin and run to your 8am?

What it is is good practice. I have far less time now, but my goofs in Uni taught me what not to do, and I feel like I have WAY more time!

Tomorrow I'm getting up at six to go to the gym, after I eat a bowl of muesli Glad someone else understands the uni struggle hehe

Superstar_81 wrote: »

Hell yes you can do it!! Pics are proof
Your first pic made me think to when I was 15 and overweight (continual struggle), we had lots of land and every night I would lie in bed and think 'tomorrow i'll run round the croft and lose weight' Turns out I was too lazy lol!
Never mind, am on it now, we can defiantely do it, we've both proved this!! Lets go!!

Haha thanks! You're the best x

Ha! Yes I remember it though it's been awhile (I'm 35!). Currently my son wakes up at 6am I wake for the gym at 4:30! There is almost always time, sometimes you just have to stretch to find it!

Rockcity85

Great progress! Sexy!!

vanessalillian82

Yep, I was one of "those" girls. If the b00bs were out then I figured nobody would notice everything below that! And how bad is uni for weight gain!!! LaTrobe had SOOOOOO many food options, plus the on-campus bar. The good news is, the weight comes off pretty easily once you're no longer exposed to all of that. Good luck losing the weight again - you can do it!

qstneverything

irenehb wrote: »

Sounds like you are on the right track.
Hey, you got the Chasers backing you, can't go wrong with those guys

Haha, yep! I hope they don't mind me using a fan pic as a benchmark for my weight loss story

GreenIceFloes wrote: »

That's pretty much my story. Good luck!

You too! We can do this!

crazyjerseygirl wrote: »

Ha! Yes I remember it though it's been awhile (I'm 35!). Currently my son wakes up at 6am I wake for the gym at 4:30! There is almost always time, sometimes you just have to stretch to find it!

Good on you! That's amazing. That's some of my biggest inspiration right there!

Rockcity85 wrote: »

Great progress! Sexy!!

Thanks!

vanessalillian82 wrote: »

Yep, I was one of "those" girls. If the b00bs were out then I figured nobody would notice everything below that! And how bad is uni for weight gain!!! LaTrobe had SOOOOOO many food options, plus the on-campus bar. The good news is, the weight comes off pretty easily once you're no longer exposed to all of that. Good luck losing the weight again - you can do it!

Yeah I've become my biggest enemy. To this day I still roll my eyes whenever an overweight girl will arrogantly put other girls down for having "smaller boobs" than them. Boobs are boobs, we should love them all!

Swinburne is so bad for junk too because it's right next to Glenferrie Road and there's stuff everywhere, including bars. But now I'm never at uni anymore, and have healthy options at work you're right, it's becoming much easier! I also don't have the same time to grab a bite to eat at work.