Someone told me to stop lifting heavy yesterday.

Yeah, that's not gonna happen until I stop seeing results.

Short story: 35 lbs & 10 inches lost from my neck, waist and hips in 4 months. I'm still a work in progress, but I thought I would post a thread for the first time

Here's the long story. Until a couple of years ago, I had never eaten a fruit or veggie in my life. I just refused. I'm not kidding. I lived off of processed food, a lot of junk food, meat, bread, pasta, and a LOT of sugar. I loved candy, cookies, all desserts; everything. I ate horrrrribly. Sometimes, I would have fast food for more than one (sometimes more than two, don't judge) meals per day. I ate entire cans of cake frosting by myself for dinner. I drank 3 liter sodas by myself with lunch. I ate dessert with every meal. Entire boxes of girl scout cookies or oreos several times per week. How I did not become 400 lbs I will never know.

One day at work, I was not feeling well so they decided to check my hemoglobin A1c, which is a finger prick to tell the average of your blood sugars over the last three months. It came back as prediabetic. At 22 and with a BMI of 27, I was shocked and knew something had to change, like now. I was not THAT overweight and "too young" to be diabetic. My diet was absolutely...terrible. (Well, I say I was shocked, but honestly, I knew, because I could and still can feel my blood sugar highs and lows.)

That was in early 2012. It took me almost a year of crash diets, fad diets, starving myself, hating myself and fighting with myself to finally figure it out. In that time, I think I joined MFP three times. I also joined loseit.com among several other websites and bought six different diet books. I joined Weight Watchers and did Nutrisystem. I did a weight loss doctor and sure, I lost some weight here and there, but gained it right back after I stopped whatever diet it was at the time. Nothing lasted more than 7 days, I always ended up caving to the hypoglycemia (headaches, dizziness, shakiness) because I didn't know how to FEED my body. I never had before, I didn't know what to eat, when to eat, how often to eat, and fruits and veggies still weren't in the mix; neither was exercise.

Boom. January 1 of this year. 180 degrees in my life. I made a new MFP account (for some reason, it had to be a new one every time lol). I gave up alcohol, fast food, and soda entirely. I started eating glycemic index-ish/paleo-ish/17-day-diet-ish (a mixture of all the books I had read in the year I had tried to diet before haha, I picked and chose what I liked from each of them). The key for me was eating frequently, like in the beginning I ate every hour. I eat high in protein and FINALLY added in the veggies. I started running and lifting. I exercise almost every day and find so much clarity in exercise... I am completely and totally, 100% addicted.

So here I am. Almost 4.5 months into this "diet" and still going strong, thanks to the 150+ people whom I've "met" on this site (pals, if you're reading this, you all are my saviors, you all keep me going every day and I can't thank you enough!!!). While I am still symptomatic with my blood sugar, my A1c's are now within normal limits. I know this change is for life because I have no choice. I can't go back to my old ways or I WILL become full blown diabetic. I still do not drink soda and in over 100 days, I have not had one bite of fast food. (I did recently start drinking a little alcohol again but hey, it's baseball season...nothing like beer and baseball and the deal was get to your goal and you can drink again). Coming from a legitimate fast food addict, that is a huge accomplishment.

Who would have thought, that all you needed to do was eat healthy and exercise?! No need to spend obscene amounts of money on all of that crazy stuff like I did!! I'm living proof that it works!

And now for everyone's favorite part!! PICTURES!!!

Height: 5'8''
SW: 176.2
CW: 141
GW: 130

I apologize in advance for the huge photos!!!!

BEFORE
Christmas party 2012:


That's my belly hanging OVER the counter. OMG. Thanksgiving day 2012, before dinner.






DURING
I weighed approximately 155 in this pic?




AFTER
Currently 141








I have baby biceps!!!!




And of course, face comparison pictures!