70 Pounds Lost! With Pictures!

Hi! I am so close to goal, I can taste it! ;-) Just 2 (and a half) pounds away. Back in December 2011, I weighed 207 pounds. Today I weigh 137.5

I am a stay at home mom of three young children (ages 6, 3, and 10 months). My husband works a bajillion hours/week, so I am on my own with the kids. I do not belong to a gym (I tried it but my kids did not like it) - and I do not have a chef. I rarely have time for exercise - so I try to incorporate activity into all that I do. I can often be seen carrying one or two of my children, which I count as weight lifting. Ha!

Back in December 2011, I started tracking my calories using notepad on my computer - I used that system to get from 207 to 188. Then, at 188 pounds, I found another site and used that until I got to 173. Then, on March 15th, I found My Fitness Pal, and the rest is history. I started here at 173 pounds - and have not looked back. I LOVE My Fitness Pal and feel like I have found my home. :-)

So, in honor of my 35th birthday (my goal was to get to my goal by my birthday, which was on Friday- I almost made it!) - and in honor of 180 days of logging on My Fitness Pal (today!) - I thought I would post my little "success" story.

I still very much feel like a work in progress (and I suspect I always will)...but I know how much these posts have inspired me along the way, so if I inspire just one person, then this post will be worth it.

My "tips" are:

1) Log everything
2) Don't eat too little (I always eat 1600 calories/day or more)
3) Allow yourself time to go off program every once in awhile, knowing you'll get right back on
4) No black or white thinking
5) Figure out what you're willing to give up to get where you want to be - and if you're not ready to give up something, then take baby steps to get there (this is how I cut out soda)


The main things I did were (this is not a suggestion for anyone else- it's just what I did personally):

1) Give up soda completely (I used to love to drink Coke, but now I am an unsweetened Ice tea girl!)
2) Mostly go vegan...I am not perfect, but my diet is MUCH more plant based than it used to be
3) water, water, and when in doubt...water
4) get active
5) if something isn't working to help you meet your goals, it's time to say bye-bye to it (i had to give up Kashi because I found I couldn't control myself when I ate it!)
6) Be patient and gentle with myself and see the BIG PICTURE (where do I want to be in a year from now...5 years from now)

So, here are Before/After pictures - the Befores are from Feb. 2012 - I had already lost about 20 or 25 pounds from my highest weight in these pictures...all my pics from my "highest weight" involve me hiding my body behind something else, or are just head/neck photos...so these are the only full-body ones I've got. C'est la vie!









This is me on my 35th Birthday - 2 days ago:




As I said, I am a work in progress...and I like it that way! Thanks for reading and thanks for being a great support to me these past 6+ months! :-)