I've been part of this wonderful EM2WL family for a year now.

I'm nowhere near my goal weight...in fact, I'm actually farther away from my goal now than I was when I joined this group (thanks Christmas 2012!!!)

But even though the scale hasn't shown much weight loss, my body has obviously been changing....something I failed to see with my own eyes until my daughter pointed it out to me one evening.

When I joined this group, I began strength training and eating more. Lots more. I increased my calories slowly and it took almost 6 weeks for me to even drop one measly pound.

I hung in there though. Through the highs and lows (and trust me, there were plenty of lows).

When I took the picture from today (on the right), I was shocked by what I saw in comparison to my picture from last year at this time (on the left).

How did this happen? How could I have not seen how much my body had been changing over the last year?? Even going by my measurements, I still would never guess I had this much progress in my abs.

This is why you NEED to take pictures! This is why you cannot rely on the number on the scale!! This is why the measuring tape doesn't tell the whole story!!

Believe me when I tell you that I weigh 6 pounds more now than I did a year ago but I'm obviously much leaner. I would've never even realized how far I had come if not for these pictures.

I didn't do hundreds of crunches or sit-ups. I didn't log endless hours walking on the treadmill. I'm not one of those people who was blessed with awesome genes.

I'm someone who has had to fight every moment to get to this point. I'm someone who lifted heavy and pushed herself to failure. I'm someone who stopped starving herself, while expecting miracles. I'm a busy mom of 4 young children who works out at home to DVD's....not someone who spends hours in the gym. I only have 30-60 minutes a day to commit to my workout.

Just trust this process. It does work. Just a little while ago, my weight stalled and I was stuck gaining and losing the same 2 pounds but I took some wonderful advice from the people here and increased my calories from 2000 to 2200 and reduced the amount of cardio I was doing and....BAM....the weight is coming off again.

Granted, I still have a lot of weight to lose but I'll get there. These pictures are proof that I can and will do it.

And you can too!!!

Oh and TAKE THOSE PICTURES!! Hopefully, a year from now, you will be so happy you did!!!