One Year MFP and Weights, 0lbs Lost (pic)

I have been lifting heavy for a year now, starting last May (22). I didn’t join up MFP until June 8th, when I decided to use it to track my calories and macros. I thought I would “celebrate” my one year anniversary to lifting and MFP by adding an update to the Success Story Forum – even though I am still a work in progress.

The Quick and Dirty: Skinny (super skinny – ate like a horse but was really active) all through H.S., joined military reserves in college and got “toned”, graduated college and had physical job in construction. Stayed “toned”. Continued to eat like a horse. Got another job – very active during training, ate like a horse and got even more “toned”. Never thought twice about weight/exercise/food. Got sedentary, stopped working out, continued to eat like a horse. Gained 20lbs.

Freaked out, ate 1200 calories, did a lot of cardio, got cranky and fed up, quit. Rinse. Repeat a couple more times, through in some Weight Watchers. Lost 10lbs but didn’t like the way I looked. Picked up something heavy, put it back down. Fell in love with said heavy things. Picked them up and put them down a lot. Did that for a year. Watched what I ate (watched it go in my mouth, lol).

So, while the scale says that I have not lost any weight since I joined MFP about a year ago; I am ok with it. I know I complain to my friends on here that the scale doesn’t go down – ever, but that really shouldn’t matter. It takes a while to train yourself to stop focusing on such an arbitrary number and focus on the important things: health, fitness, happiness, etc.
I currently do full body strength training three times a week, cardio three times a week (or more if I am feeling frisky), usually brisk walks, sometimes a jog, and yoga a couple weeks.

My main goals are to deadlift two times my body weight, squat one and a half times my body weight, and bench and overhead press three quarter my body weight. My secondary goals are to run a sub-30 minute 5k and pump out some pull-ups and my tertiary goal is to wear a bikini and not feel self-conscious.

Thanks to all my MFPals that listen to me blabber about weights and food all day long! You guys are the best!