Before & After LIFESTYLES!!!

NewMe80xoxo

I know a lot of us on here love to look at before and after pictures. So I thought it would be nice if we had a thread to look at and read people's stories about losing weight.

If you have lost weight we would love to hear your story. About your struggles, happy times, what your lifestyle was like before you lost weight, what changed about your lifestyle, how long it took you, how much you lost, do you have anymore to lose?

Anything you would like to share people like me that need that hope to go to every now and then!!!

Thanks

jamie31

I started out my new lifestyle at 6'1" and 325 lbs!!!!! I am now down to 195lbs and have about 10 more to go. I used to be a size 22 and now wear a juniors size 9. I am at a good size now and have a low body fat percentage so the last 10 lbs are pretty much vanity weight. It took me 15 months to lose 130 lbs.

My lifestyle before consisted of FOOD! I ate fast food at least once a day and would go out to dinner almost every day. I now dont bother with fast food and only eat out once a week.

My biggest struggle was giving up all the junk food that I wanted. Plus I didnt want to feel extremely deprived of all my favorite foods so I have allowed sunday to be my cheat day. Or i guess I should call it my cheat meal. I allow myself to eat what I want for dinner on Sundays but even then I still find myself ordering a salad instead of a burger and greasy fries.

My savior in this whole journey was exercising. Exercising kept my mind off food and and made me feel better about myself.

I will warn some of you that even if you lose a bunch of weight you may still have low self esteem. I am currently working on this. I am the thinnest I have ever been and still feel like I'm not good enough. What has helped me through this journey is the compliments from people who have not seen me in a while. I treasure those comments and when I look in the mirror and still see myself as I was over a year ago I will think about how people have said that I was skinny and looked great.

The key to changing your lifestyle is to become a healthier you and learn to love yourself no matter what. But as you can see some of us still need to work on this

FitJoani

Before: Would take a bus less than a mile, drank regular soda, drank humungo lattes/smoothies/fraps, Dad(with a heart murmur) was in better shape than me, Thought gyms were for jocks and roid heads, loved southern and fatty fare, drank and very very very very rarely smoked, would order insane amounts of takeout and inhale them parked in front of TV, little hills would be cause for stopping and gasping, was a size 22, was well into the 200lb range, would eat an entire package of oreos in one sitting, Pringles flavors meant i must eat the entire can, any candy bars I could consume I would, Id eat entire small pans of brownies within an hour my version of cardio was running to answer the door to get said takeout, if it were processed id inhale it

After a mini health fair at work and watching biggest loser!!!!!! My life changed DRAMATICALLY

After: Joined a gym, started eating the way u are supposed to(lean protiens veggies water), started running again(ran cross country and distance track in hs), started racing(10ks now marathons), lost almost 100 and dropped to a size 6(which is almost big on me), drink occaisnally, wont even go near smoke, not even sure why takeout is legal, whole foods/trader joes/farmers market is LOVE,organic makes me so much happier, chemicals are not food now and food is not chemicals, natural is my motto for food.

So in the path to fitness my life probably gained 15-20 years. I would take a bus a mile and now I ran(even if I got injured) my first marathon and am hungry for more. I like waking up at 4 am for a run instead of passing out at that time. I may look like a diva when i go out with my friends to dinner but im the healthy one(no offense to them i love em dearly), I love sushi to the point it becomes the one food I crave, dark chocolate replaced the goofy fake stuff i used to eat(and just a teeny bit), Im going to try a duathlon, next year a tri...I for once dont hate my body!!! I almost have the six pack i used to envy!!!


YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!

mellers1313

I started my journey in Janurary after seeing a horrible picture of myself at a party.

I used to go for breakfast most morings with a friend, it would almost always be a fry up, I'd then have lunch, followed by snacking and then dinner, huuuuuuuuuuuuuge portion of dinner, then nibble for the evening on crisps and chocolate.
On the weekend if I were sat at home I'd drink a bottle of wine fri and sat. If I went out I'd drink beer.And te weekend was when I indulged in takeaways, I rarely walked at all.

So the pic that done it turned my stomach, I was completly disgusted with myself. So here I am. Four months later, 28lbs down, I'm delighted with myself and am going to keep on going.

aippolito1

TOTAL: I've lost 19 lbs so far - I'm currently retaining water but I'm not going to log that as weight gained since it'll go down soon enough.

BEFORE:I started January 1st officially. Before, I would eat lunch everyday at Subway, almost always got chips and ALWAYS had a Dr Pepper - and most days it could add up to about 60 oz. of Dr Pepper in one day. For breakfast, it was usually nothing or TONS of cereal. Snacks would be peanut m&ms or chips from the vending machine at work. Dinner would be heavily pasta-laden with a lot of protein. I would snack at night... eat ice cream every now and then. I didn't work out. The most I got was walking around at work and even that didn't equal what I have now (it's increased JUST from walking to the bathroom & refilling my water bottle, lol)

A big struggle has been living with my bf (just dating him helped me 30 lbs.) because he works late hours and I like spending as much time with him as possible which kept me up til sometimes 3 in the morning, talking, watching tv, and EATING. I ate a lot of Taco Bell and pizza. Domino's is cheap so if we were broke, he usually wanted pizza or Taco Bell, so that's what we ate. A lot of days I had 2 dinners because of this.

STRUGGLE:When I moved in with my bf, I didn't work out for about 5 days straight and my eating wasn't too great, either. I didn't gain weight but I didn't lose for a week and a half and I thought it was the end of the world. I whined a lot on here about how I wasn't losing.

WHY:The thing that really made me want to lose weight was my first OB-GYN appointment last December. My highest was about 175 when I was 16 but had gotten down to maybe 140 and kept it off a little and then got up to 150 last summer but was in pretty good shape endurance-wise, but not body fat %-wise. I was 150 when my bf and I got together and at my appointment I weighed 180.

HOW:I stopped going to Subway, cut out sodas, started eating more veggies, started eating off the Fresco menu or going to Chick-fil-A (when I HAD to eat at my 2nd job, those were the best choices) or bringing my dinner. I started bringing food to my main job and eating healthier there, drinking a lot of water, and peeing a lot.

I lost 12 lbs. in 2 weeks (I didn't weigh until 2 weeks after I started) and after that, it's been steadily 1 or 2 lbs. per week.

I have 20 more lbs until my goal "weight" but really, my goal size is just to be toned, no more flab, HEALTHY BMI range.

So, it's been 4 months, 19 lbs down, 21 more to go... and I'm excited about it. I just started a new strength routine and after only being on it maybe a week, I'm super sore, I can feel muscles I definitely wasn't using in my other strength routine and I can feel my body is tighter than before. I can't wait to see the results!!

MEASUREMENTS (since late February):

Bust: lost 2 inches
Abs: lost 1 inch
Thighs: lost 1 1/2 and 2 inches (R & L)
Arms: lost 1 and 1/2 inchces (R & L)
Chest: lost 2 1/2 inches
Waist: lost 2 1/4 inches
Hips: haven't lost any yet (I'm focusing more on my hips with this new routine so I expect a change next month!!!)
Calves: have gotten bigger! damn jumping rope, lol.

Body Fat %: lost 1.8%, BMI has gone down 3.6

oliveoil7979

My husband and I are about half way though our weight loss journey.. We have each lost about 40 pounds. The other night we were talking about how much energy we have now. There was a time, not very long ago, where we barley had enough energy to get off the couch to go to bed, and now here we are, up at 6:00, (even on the weekends), filling our days with bike riding, and swimming, and running. And with all that activity, and less sleep than we were getting, we have more energy!

I think the funniest part of all this, is that it took us 2 weeks to figure out our cable had been accidnetaly cut by a plumber. :laugh: I think that was the defining moment that our lives had been completley changed, and we were never going back.

For me personally the biggest struggle was getting over my fear. When I started running, I did it after dark so no one could see me. I was afraid people would think "what does she think she's doing? She is too fat to be doing something like this!" or the scariest "Look how disgusting that woman is trying to run" Admiting that now just seems so silly, but it's exactly how I felt, and that's what kept me on the couch for so long. I still remember the first time I ran in broad daylight. Every single person that I encounted smiled at me. I felt so encouraged that I did it again the following day, and the day after that. And now here I am and I am training to run a full marathon! And I have ran 3 races. Two 5k's and one just over 4 miles.

I feel better now at 31 than I ever did at 21. I can't even imagine how I will feel when I reach my goal weight 70 some odd pounds from now, but I KNOW I am going to get there. I am NEVER going back to the person I used to be.

NewMe80xoxo

thanks for sharing your stories hopefully other people will find this helpful!

msbanana

I have a before, after and really after story...

Before: I suffered from and in some part still do suffer from a very distorted self image. Once upon a before I didn't eat (1 cup of rice in the evening as it turns out doesn't constitute a meal) and I ran 5 miles or more a day on top of the sports that I played. I claimed that I was just a fitness fanatic until I nearly killed myself running with garbage bags on under my sweats to lose a couple pounds of water weight that I had gained. I was hospitalized for being malnurished at 5'10 and 140 lbs (about 35 pounds less than what I should have been.)

After: I got closer to a healthy weight my girl parts started to "function" or malfunction which was more the case. I found out I had polycystic ovarian syndrome AFTER I packed on about 60 pounds in about 4 months. I thought "Well... to hell with it I'm fat. I guess I just can't win." I found a love affair with beer (none of that frilly light bs either... guiness was the lightest I'd drink) and meat and all the other terrible foods I hadn't eaten. I would get depressed and I'd sit down with a box of wheat thins and a can of easy cheese and plow through the whole thing in a night. I would go out drinking at least 4 nights a week and eat bar food while I was out. I would skip breakfast and have fast food for lunch. My freezer was filled with food to bbq or microwave and my fridge was full of beer... My habits left little to be desired. I would get commited and lose some weight and then I'd quit, I'd get depressed, I'd decide it was time to party again, whatever... I hired personal trainers, I paid thousands of dollars for supplements and pills that didn't work... eventually I got up to 282 pounds. That was Oct. of '08.

After AFTER: My doc (my over weight male obgyn) called me fat. Well, not in so many words but it was basically a do or die. The pack a day I was smoking, the beer, the fast food, the fat it all had to go. I conceeded to make small changes. I cut fast food to once a week. I would eat at home before I'd go to the bar. I cut the bar to twice a week... little by little I made changes and by my next visit (a year later I had lost 20 pounds). I thought "ha! if I did that with out trying..." and then I started to try. I found out that I'm allergic to wheat barley and rye (along with a slew of other things) and quit drinking beer. I quit smoking in January. As of yesterday I'm down to 228 lbs. I've lost 54 pounds. 34 of that in the last 6 months... It's been a lot easier this time. I threw out my scale I've been eating the way I know i should have been this whole time and I've spent a lot of time reminding myself that I'm worth it. I let myself cheat occassionally and i'm learning to accept my body. I'm glad I'm taking the weightloss slow.

I have my moments when I feel like a cow and I just want to be thin and I want to throw in the towel and give it all up and eat a double bacon cheese burger with an extra large fry with a side of thousand island and follow it with a 5 pound bag of chocolate covered gummy worms... and then I realize that it won't fix it. It will only make it worse. So I call someone and talk it out or hit the gym... It's a process and I still have at least 25 pounds to go.

We'll see where I end up... one thing I know for sure is that more oft than not I enjoy where I am now much much more than the sad fat girl with the box of crackers.

lina1131

My story is simple. I always thought I wanted to be thin, but I never wanted it as bad as I do now. I started 9 months ago the day of my 29th birthday, and I refuse to be fat in my 30s. My biggest motivator is for my sister's wedding in 2 months. I won't be at goal, but I won't be too far from goal. Then, the ultimate gift to myself is a great self esteem and awesome health.

To date I have lost 33 pounds, and I have 36 left to get to my ultimate goal. I want to lose 16 by July 4, 2010 for my sister's wedding. We'll see, i'm not putting pressure on myself. This has become a lifestyle for me and i'm just enjoying the weight coming off.

The truth is, if you want it bad enough, you will make it happen. I want it bad, but I want it bad in a good way. I'm doing it the RIGHT way this time. I don't deprive myself, I don't spend time on negative BS like "omgwtf, I didn't lose 5 pounds in one week" and I sure as heck enjoy the exercise part of it even though it hurts so good.

The best part of this all is I love being me. And that is all that matters!

aippolito1

msbanana - That's an incredible story!! I'm glad you're healthy again and I can't wait to see your before & afters! :happy:

Happyoceangirl

Great thread - bumping to read later