Nearly 60 lbs gone since February 2012

I have always been overweight. When I was in 6th grade I weighed 180 pounds. When I was 13 years old I developed Graves disease and had to have my thyroid removed. If my unhealthy lifestyle as a child contributed to the onset of this illness or not, I still do not know. What I do know is that I continued to be overweight after my operation and thyroid replacement hormone treatment.

I was convinced that I was simply destined to be an overweight individual. I've lost weight once before. When I was 14 I got up to 217 lbs, and my doctor feared that I had developed diabetes. I was so scared that I got myself into shape and got down to 156 lbs in about a year. However, When I was 16 I found my life becoming increasingly busy. I got a job, starting having more of a social life, and simply lost focus on my health. Over the next few years, my weight would creep back up to 215.

So here I was in early 2012, 5'6 215 lbs pants size 14-16 at 21 years old. Unfortunately, I have a very apple shaped body and much of my excess weight went straight to my midsection. As you may know, this is the most dangerous place on the body to carry one's weight. I already had high cholesterol, had a couple of glucose scares, and was generally just very sluggish and depressed with my weight. Of course there were the aesthetic reasons. I wanted to be an attractive young woman. However, the health reasons were very real to me as well.

So over the last 10 months I got serious about my health and lost nearly 60 lbs. The difference between this time and last time? I did my research. I read up on how nutrition and fitness really worked. The other difference has been that I have been able to find some balance. I am a full-time student in my senior year of college, I work about 20 hours a week at a part time retail job, and I carry on a pretty active social life. I am still able to work out usually 5-6 times a week and focus on my nutrition. The key has been keeping myself accountable through calorie counting apps such as this one and a contract I established with myself that stated that I was to work out AT LEAST 4 days a week unless there was some injury or other emergency. This contract, silly as it might sound, made me get my butt to the gym on days that I would have otherwise missed.

I hover around 150 lbs now with a pants size of 7-9, and would like to get to around a lean 135 lbs. I have developed a love for fitness that I never knew I could. I love running and weight lifting, and you can actually see the muscles in my arms and legs now. I also love healthy food, even more surprisingly! I mean, I still love pizza, but I also love green beans, tofu, broccoli, brown rice, almonds, peas, green peppers, cucumbers, and lots of other healthy foods that I would not have dreamed I ever would.

My goal is to keep getting better. Keep setting goals. I know that if I don't I could easily revert back to what I was in a couple of years or less. I'm not exactly sure what my "uh huh" moment was this time around, but I really want to keep this weight off permanently. This is my new life.

Here are some before pics:





I don't have too many after pics, but here are a couple!