Before and After ... Over 70 pounds lost

Thank you to everyone for your kind words! It means the world to me to hear all the praise and admiration BUT MOST OF ALL to know that I am motivating others to be healthy.

I started my journey in October of 2011 at 197.4 pounds and 5 ft 3 inches. At that time I was a little over 2 years postpartum after having my LAST baby. I didn't have an excuse for the weight anymore. I have dieted before on and off and lost ten pounds only to gain them right back. I think the term is yo-yo dieting. Well, my husbands work has a health screening every year and since this was the first year we were married I was required to particpate. That was the beggining of October. When I got my results back towards the middle of October that was the wake up call I truly needed. I had high blood pressure, high triglycerides, low good colestorol and low iron. All this coupled with my weight put me at a risk for heart disease. These results coupled with VERY HIGH family history of heart disease put me into the EXTREMELY high risk for developing it. I needed to make the change if I didn't want to follow in their footsteps.

I started out just dieting and sticking to the 1200 calories that MFP told me was my target. Most days I tried to stay under even if by just a little. About a month or so in is when I started working out really hard. To begin with I started the couch to 5k program with a goal to run a 5k by summer of 2012. (proud to say I did it and ran the whole thing!) I incorporated some workout dvd's in but never finished a whole program. (like 6 week 6 pack or 30 day shred). I made sure in the beggining I worked out a minimum of an hour a day and did this pretty much for the first 4-5 months. I weighed in every Monday. I LOGGED EVERYTHING. I had to if I wanted to keep myself accountable. I needed to first and foremost be honest with myself. For a long time I kept my diary private but realizing my success I made it public eventually. I DID NOT eat back my excercise calories, at least not intentionally. I can't say that I never did. I can't say that I never splurged. In fact the last few months have been the most difficult. I really struggled with binge eating and not logging everything these last few months.

So that's it in a nutshell. Log everything, stick to the calories allotted, I didn't eat back excercise calories (I know this isn't recommended but it's what I chose to do), and excercise like crazy!