Hello!

HappyStack

I've posted a few times without ever thinking to introduce myself, so here we go.

I'm Rachel (almost everyone calls me Raye), I'm 23 years and one month old, and I live in sunny old Wales, UK.

I'm 5'4 (much to my surprise, I'd always told people I was 5'5) and currently around 145lbs. I used to weigh around 250.

It's taken me a little under 2 years to get where I am... I lost ~45lbs in my first year, and then kicked it up a notch to lose another ~70lbs this past year. The difference between my starting weight and my weight a year ago was already amazing; I felt so much better with myself and more confident in myself, especially around other people. Then I caught sight of myself in photos from my 22nd birthday and realised I was still horribly overweight.

Instead of just walking and eating right, I started exercising at home, doing both cardio & resistance training. I learned along the way that the resistance training is essential for dealing with loose skin (and luckily I have youth on my side in this scenario; I'd only wish I'd started sooner) and now I'm looking to lose as much body fat as possible, to leave myself with only the essential stuff, so I can put on some lean mass and hopefully drastically reduce the amount of loose wobbles I'll have left over.

I've done it by myself so far, but my progress has stalled over the past couple of months and now I'm looking to really make use of MFP to give me that extra boost of motivation I've been lacking.