84 Pounds gone, 4 more left to hit my goal

I wish I had done this 10 years sooner, but given my own tendencies, (Translation: I'm lazy as hell when it comes to taking care of myself.) it makes sense that none of this would click for me until now and with today's technology. It's taken me a year and a half to lose this weight and the journey was totally worth it.

Growing up I was never fat. I was never skinny or athletic either. I just had a mom who cooked really healthy so I never had to think about what to eat. She always made those choices for me. And because I had chores, rode my bike a lot and even walked to school instead of riding the bus in my early teens (thank you, bullies), I always was able to burn off a lot of calories without thinking about it.

Then I went to college where I could have pizza for breakfast and pastries for snacks. I was on a budget so I bought the cheapest foods - ramen and Rice-a-Roni. Having never had to think about nutrition or my weight and given that so much of my clothing at the time was stretchy or oversized anyway, I did not notice the weight gain right away.

Even when I finally realised that I had gotten fat, no one ever made a big deal of it. It never seemed to be an issue with anyone. Guys hit on me and I had dates and boyfriends so I never felt obese. My doctors did worry about my family history of diabetes and I knew I was bigger than I should be so I would join a gym, lose a few pounds and then struggle to lose more after that and gyms were so expensive. I wanted to run like my sister did to lose her weight, but struggled due to joint issues with my knees and ankles (all caused by my weight).

Then I moved to Los Angeles where I became even less active. I transitioned from retail jobs where I'd always been standing and walking and carrying things to desk jobs. I drove a lot more and didn't have a bike anymore. And money was tight so I couldn't pay for a gym and ate whatever was cheap. And I got fatter and fatter. When I was doing better in my career and could afford a gym membership and a trainer, I would workout so hard only to injure myself and be told by a doctor not to workout at all until I healed. So any bit of weight I did lose, I'd gain back and then some. This became a cycle and by 2011, I'd pretty much given up on ever getting back to my high school weight or anything below 190 ever again.

And then I got this app and using it made me realise that what had been missing for me this whole time wasn't lack of exercise. It was rather a lack of realisation about what I was eating. I mean, I knew veggies and fruits were good and pizza and fast food were bad, but the more I'd go into nutrition, the more overly complex and confusing it got. Having to calculate the percentage of fat vs. protein vs. carbs and what was from where and don't get too much sodium and remember fiber and... I'm lazy. I don't want to sit around all day doing math problems just to figure out what to eat. And even the stuff I ate that I thought was good for me turned out to have all these hidden calories. Just realising what the true serving size was for all the foods I ate was a big step for me. I'd eat something thinking it was one serving only to find out it was four or six servings.

June of 2011 I weighed 243 pounds (240 pounds when I started on MFB). The picture on the left was taken on May, 2011 just before I started on MFB. The picture on the right was taken on October, 2012 when I hit the 70 pound mark.



I lost all this weight myself. Just using MFB at first and counting calories, and then later joining a gym and starting to work out 3 times a week.

And then I hit a plateau and was struggling so I splurged on a personal trainer (maxed out a credit card for that one) who put me on a strict meal plan (that I totally broke every weekend) and I worked out 6 times a week. At the time of the picture taken below, I ended up getting within 2 pounds of my goal weight of 155. (Those pants my trainer is holding were too small for me when I was at my heaviest weight.)



After the holidays I gained more weight and then lost some of it again so I'm now at 159; just four pounds from my goal. I'm getting myself back on schedule after the holidays and am determined to hit my goal by the end of this month, but after that I'm putting away the scale and just using my jeans as a barometer for how I'm doing.

My trainer would love for me to try for 140, but honestly seeing my ribcage and my bony hips now kind of freak me out a little. And though my friends have promised to force feed me mac and cheese should I ever start looking anorexic, I'm pretty happy with my current size. (I'm a size 8 now, something I never thought was attainable. I used to be a size 22.) Now I'm thinking of training for a half Ironman triathlon because I think focusing on improving what my body can do versus what it looks like will be of much better benefit to me in the long run.