1 year. 100 lbs. (wordy, but pictures!)

Wow! Thanks for all the kind words & support! I'm a bit overwhelmed by the response

I've had a load of questions in PMs and such and, while this is buried at the end of the post, maybe others with similar questions will stumble upon it...


My Height: 5'3-5'4 (it seems to vary)

Weight history: I was not always overweight. I wasn't very athletic as a kid, but I was fit enough and loved the water - swim team, life guard, etc. I went to college a size 5/7. I left college a size 13. I continued to gain through my twenties & thirties. Didn't do much yo-yo dieting or anything. I did try to lose a few times. I did South Beach in my early 30s and went from a size 18/20 to a size 22. I swore off dieting at that point and just resigned myself to always being fat. By 40 I had had enough of that... mostly had enough of finding excuses to not do things I wanted to do and decided to "get healthy". Started walking in December (got a pedometer for Christmas) hit 10k steps six weeks later and looked for a walking/running app to track my walks and discovered MFP in the suggested fitness apps.

Calories & What I Eat: I don't really care what I eat (carbs, processed stuff - none of it is "off the table"). I do try to keep it somewhat healthy (seeing as my goal is "get healthy") but I do eat ice cream just about every night. The last few weeks have been atypical in that I've only been eating 1200-1500 calories. I honestly have not been that hungry (I think it was a mental thing as I approached the big milestone? I hope that's all it is.) and didn't feel like I should eat just to eat. I need to improve my relationship with food and that seems like a quick way to make it worse. Throughout most of the year, I was probably averaging 1500-1800 calories when I was logging and probably 1800-2200 when I wasn't logging and just trying to maintain.

Exercise: I started out by walking. I was super out of shape and anemic to boot (makes you get tired and out of breath quickly). For the first couple of weeks, I was happy to manage walking around the block. Then I walked a short multi-use trail adjacent to my place (so handy!) - out and back was 3 miles. I started walking in January. In March I was in good enough shape (mentally & stamina-wise) to do fitness DVDs/wii fitness games. I would walk or do fitness dvd/game (usually biggest loser wii) every day. Some days I would do both. I got a bug to do a half-marathon and that led me to the elliptical because I was still 220 lbs and it was low impact on my knees. I was very worried about my left knee (it was sore after some long walks). By the fall I felt confident enough (stamina wise & weight wise) to try pavement running. My knee buckled. After a rest to let it recover, I continued with the elliptical (which I really do like). I do it nearly every day for 30-45 minutes at a pretty intense level. Next step is to start strength training with some emphasis on strengthening my leg muscles to help my knee out. I have not given up on the half-marathon. I'm thinking about one in November. Fingers crossed.