Very nice. You added to the butterfly right?

I just recovered the old one actually. It was my reward when I reached my goal size 8 back in August.

Okay I'm going to see if the pics will post here.

Me in my early 20s at size 4 probably around 145:


This picture is what prompted me to get serious - at 197 lb, size 14 in Sept 2011:


And progress pics:

Thanks everyone. Everyone is always surprised at how little weight I've lost but how much smaller I look. It's why I often give advice to IGNORE the scale - only you see that number.

What I love most though is my strength. My 4 yr old son is really tall and weighs about 50 lbs and my daughter is 5 and weighs just under 40 lbs. I am able to pick them both up and carry them around without any problems. I can toss them in the air or put them on my shoulders. I can carry groceries (all the bags at once) and move furniture myself. I can help my husband with the heavy lifting around the house and it's incredibly empowering.

And for reference here is another before/after of the change in muscle. The picture on the right is from Nov 2008 before I ever did any strength training. To be honest I didn't do much between then and March 2012 when I was finally able/wanted to strength train. I had tried and stopped things like 30DS and P90x.