My success story! with (hopefully) pics!

So I am about 6 months into my journey, and I never wrote a “success story” cause I didn’t think I was at the end of my journey (and therefore, successful).
But looking back on everything that’s happened and how far I have come (and looking at my own before and after pictures even I’m amazed).

My heaviest weight was 272 pounds. This was me, right around that time, almost exactly one year ago at my mom’s 50th birthday party.

Holy crap right?

About a week or two before this picture, I had fallen at work and because of a back injury, had to be bussed out to the ER. You know what I was thinking?
“Oh my god these poor emts having to lift my heavy *kitten* into an ambulance…”
Jesus… I’m tearing up thinking about it

I digress. In july/august of last year, I decided I wanted to try to get healthy again. I started watching what I ate a little bit more, did a little more walking around, and generally tried to be more active and conscious of everything I was doing. THEN, the greatest thing happened.
Because of my injury that previous January, I had “qualified” to participate in a program called Work Strong, which has the general idea that if employees are healthier, they will not suffer as many at work injuries and call out sick less. The coordinator had been trying to get ahold of me since that May, but emails had been redirected and I’d never gotten them. After finally talking to her, I found out that this program would allow me a personal trainer for 12 weeks, access to the University gym for 6 months, meetings with the coordinator once a week, and fitness assessment tests along the way. This was just what I needed to get started…

I began the training. I began meeting with the coordinator. I joined MFP at my trainer’s suggestion and started doing everything I could do to change my lifestyle. I got my blood drawn, did a fitness test, and took body measurements.

My official starting weight was 259. My body fat percentage was 43.6% . My fitness rating (the recovery rate of my heart after a 3 minute step test) was “below average”

At 6 weeks, my weight was 244. My body fat percentage was 38%. My fitness rating was “excellent”

At 12 weeks (the end of the program) my weight was 237. My body fat percentage was 34.2%. My fitness rating was still “excellent”

Today… Roughly 5-6 months after starting.. my weight is now at 224. 24 pounds away from onederland…. I am blown away at how far I’ve come. 35 pounds down from my “starting weight”, and 48 pounds down from my heaviest a year ago. CRAZY!
On that note, one of the things that I would do with my coordinator was to set goals. And one of my long term goals was to run in the annual Stampede 5K. Not walk it, RUN it.

Here I am crossing the finish line (in pink!)

And not only did I run this, but I ran it in 41minutes, 39 seconds. Almost 10 minutes sooner than I thought I would finish.

And here I am, happy… healthy… and glowing prior to the race.


I’ve still got a journey ahead of me… but with MFP, and my own desire to someday get into a bikini again….. well, I’m gonna do it!