It's my birthday & I'll smile if I want to!

Annalisa419
Annalisa419 Posts: 64 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hello all my MFP friends! Today happens to be my birthday so I thought I’d use it as an opportunity to give myself some motivation for the year to come.

I’m 27 today, 5’3”, and started out here on MFP at 190 pounds (though I never took an actual number as I usually avoided my scale). I was a normal BMI in high school (135-140 lbs) and started to gain weight towards my junior/senior year when I started dating my first boyfriend and my mother got sick. She was on dialysis three nights a week. My dad and I would go after school/work and sit for several hours, then get fast food after she finished at nine. My parents always had fairly good eating habits, especially my mother as she watched her diet very closely due to her health issues and her previous weight loss before I was born, but food became more about convenience at that time. This habit carried on for several years after. The before photo I’m posting is from my cousin’s wedding in 2007 at my heaviest.

I have always been lucky enough to be one of the rare women with high self-confidence so my weight bothered me but I tried not to let it affect my mood; though I admit it always hurt when I had to go up another pant size. Last year, I got laid off from my previous job after being with the company for over five years (which, I might add, did not help my situation as it was a store that sold many incredibly tasty, high-calories candies/cakes/etc. that we were required to sample). I was fortunate enough to only be unemployed for four months and then found a great job that I love. I went from retail and being on my feet for eight+ hours a day to a desk job. I also started to realize that I should take control of my weight not for vanity but for my health and my future.
I started to do hot yoga and lost almost thirty pounds from June – September. I then switched to a different job in my office, doing the typical nine-to-five and lost the flexibility of my previous schedule. I still ate well but have been slacking on my exercise. I’ve been maintaining between 161-165 so not the end of the world. I’m starting to get back into at home workouts (as my yoga membership expired) and doing C25K and a lot of walking. My after photo is not the most flattering, my dress is very flowy and you can’t see my curves very well, but it’s one of my favorites (I always feel like I should be in an episode of I Love Lucy, hehe) and is a size 12. I can fit into a ten if it’s semi-stretchy.

My first goal is to get back down to my previous weight of 140, and my ultimate goal is to be at 120 which I hope to accomplish by my Jamaican vacation in January. I’m going to make it a great year!!

This unintentionally became a mini-novel, thanks for reading!

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