2 year anniversary, anything and everything is possible

1mumrevolution

Two tears ago today I started my journey on MFP. I weighed in at 12 stone 7lbs that morning. I am 5'8" tall. At my heaviest I weighed 13 stone (see pix below). I was particularly heavy in my tummy, had large upper arms, a fat face. I hated how I looked. Mirrors made me shudder in disgust so I avoided them. I hated how I felt about myself. I was 46 and felt old, fat, disgusting, ugly, invisible, worthless. I remember being on holiday (both pix below) and catching sight of myself in a summer skirt in the lift mirrors, literally bulging at the seams. Fat, flabby overhanging belly, chunky arms, and wondering how my husband could still fancy me. That was my lightbulb moment. In Feb 2014 I tried slimming world and lasted 6 weeks with just 1lb off. Terrible, dispiriting, disappointing experience. The day I decided SW wasn't for me, I opened an account with MFP, signed up with my local gym and the magic began to happen.
My progress has been slower than some and my loss maybe not very inspiring to many but I wanted to take a moment to honour myself, my hard work, my dedication and my commitment to me.
It's taken me two years to lose 43lbs. Slow and steady with many plateaus and troughs. Some low points and some highs too. My goal was 2 stone, in half stone increments. I've now crashed through the 3 stone mark. I have learned so much about fitness and nutrition I'm actually considering retraining so I can inspire, motivate and help others.
My life is very different now. I work out most days, usually in my pole studio. I watch calories, I watch macros. I'm semi vegan, very little alcohol. Rest days are not on my radar. I'm used to it now. My favourite ways to train are pole, weights, body conditioning and walking.
I'm 48 now. The last picture was taken at my pole photo shoot yesterday. I am so proud of it because it shows hard work, determination, focus and being proactive with yourself works. I'm also proud of the six pack.
My words of wisdom: Believe in yourselves, trust the process and you will see results.

JButlerEagle

WOW! Thanks for sharing your story. I'm just beginning and have about 40 lbs to lose.

Big5BigChange

You have done brilliantly well. Congratulations. You are inspiring for all those people out there (like me) who just sort of slipped into bad habits, until one day, you look at yourself and ask "what happened"? Something I am interested in (as you are extremely lean looking now) - how did you maintain motivation when there must have been a point (well in excess of what you weigh now), where you already looked good and it would have been easy to say "Right - I'm done". As somebody with not a huge amount of weight left to lose (and so, not obviously considered "fat", albeit, I am at the very upper level of BMI), I'm interested in how you kept the discipline to keep pushing it to not just lose weight, but also get the physique you were after...?

Penthesilea514

Wow- so inspiring. Thank you so much for sharing

Jussilu

Wow.........you look amazing. Congratulations to you.

sparklyglitterbomb

Wonderful transformation!!

TxTiffani

Beautiful transformation!

lisa77marie

Thank you for posting this. I'm disgusted because I've gained back my weight and I need to see people who have committed to losing for good. I'll be 48 in May, so thanks again for the inspiration. You look amazing!!

1mumrevolution

Thank you everyone above ⬆️ for your lovely words.
I wish you all buckets of motivation and success on your journeys. It does take time and there are days when you'll feel like chucking it all in but just remember where you started and where you are going. That helped me stay focused when I started to flag or stumble. I look at those fat pix and I know I'll never let myself go there again. We can't be perfect all the time but we can trust ourselves to fix it if we do lapse, knowledge is power!
I've had great support from other mfp'ers so make sure you have support around you too, and in real life, for those 'off' days which will come.
Go smash it peeps

1mumrevolution

Big5BigChange wrote: »

You have done brilliantly well. Congratulations. You are inspiring for all those people out there (like me) who just sort of slipped into bad habits, until one day, you look at yourself and ask "what happened"? Something I am interested in (as you are extremely lean looking now) - how did you maintain motivation when there must have been a point (well in excess of what you weigh now), where you already looked good and it would have been easy to say "Right - I'm done". As somebody with not a huge amount of weight left to lose (and so, not obviously considered "fat", albeit, I am at the very upper level of BMI), I'm interested in how you kept the discipline to keep pushing it to not just lose weight, but also get the physique you were after...?

Very interesting question and I'll do my best to answer. At the start my end game was to lose scale weight, 2 stone in fact, to get me to 10.5 stone. That would've been like winning the lottery. When I hit 10 stone, with that extra bonus of 7 more pounds off I really did think I'd stop. I could've stopped and been happy. But something switched on in me. I discovered macros and fell deeply in love with wanting to sculpt my body. I wanted muscles and big ones. I wanted to look athletic, with muscular definition and popping biceps, triceps, lats etc. So from 10 stone it's been about trying and finding my way through the world of slaying the last of the excess body fat (tummy area in particular) and building muscle. Am still such a newb at it, but I love to learn. I have to say motivation isn't hard for me (most of the time). My sport of choice is motivation enough to stay on top of my game and in the zone. And those fat pictures. I do not want to go there again.

LivingtheLeanDream

@1mumrevolution thank you for posting your success story
You were beautiful before, even when heavier, you are just awesome now perhaps a tad underweight looking (I feel I can say that as a friend ...I hope you won't be offended anyway )

To be able to do the pole moves you do, well most of us just could not manage anything much, so hats off to you - you are there, you have a wonderful body to be extremely proud of.

Congrats

Ruth xo

woznube7

@1mumrevolution, thanks for posting your journey and story! Keep up the great work, you look fantastic!

Big5BigChange

Thanks for answering my question. I guess its all about finding passion within all the work. Well done again.

1mumrevolution

Ah Ruth, no offence taken. You know me by now

Asher_Ethan

Wow! I would have thought you were in your early 30s in all your pictures! Fantastic job! I hope I look that good when I'm 48!

T0M_K

can i just say................ freaking awesome!

leecha2014

Amazing results! Can I ask which macros you follow to build muscle? Do I need to put the bagel down?

brendahughes37679

how did your skin is not hanging, any tips?

lorrpb

Great job, congrats!

jessicastanfill

wow. So inspiring. You are beautiful and strong. I'm in the same place that you were in two years ago - looking at myself wondering what has happened. I want to be where you are. Thanks for the motivation.

brigg9

Very inspiring, great job!

1mumrevolution

I hope seeing my transformation side by side like that is a motivator. I know it would have helped me so much in my early days to see before and after (I didn't know about the community until 12 months ago) to see what can be done, what can be achieved.
@Brendahughes i think my pole training, body conditioning and weights helped with excess skin. Or maybe good genes.
@leecha2014 haha, no. So long as that bagel fits your macros! I can dig out my current macros and put them up for you. They tend to vary with what training I am doing, plus now I'm semi vegan so they needed a further tweak.
Good luck everyone. I mean it when I say anything and everything is possible.
Smash it peeps!