2 yrs of MFP - 130+ lost, 9 months maintaining (with pics)

I read something on Nerd Fitness awhile ago: "Quietly and consistently work towards building a better you." That describes my story in a nutshell. Unfortunately for you, I'm no good at telling short stories that would fit into a nutshell, so cozy in for a novel or skip down for pictures.

You know that rock bottom that gives people a wake-up call and the impetus to change their lives? This will not be one of those stories.

I didn't have a health scare and I wasn't eating fast food three meals a day. I hadn't tried "everything" - in fact, other than a few lame "I'll diet today!" thoughts that passed quickly and a two week stint with the South Beach diet (sweet potato chips are diet food!), I hadn't been doing anything, for years.

I was happy, for the most part - fat and happy. I have a great husband and child, career, and friends. I'm not sure anyone would have described me as unmotivated, but that's how I felt. Directionless and just...bored.

Two years ago, I joined a gym for kind of a silly reason. I registered here June 16, 2011. I began tracking my calories sort of half-heartedly as the idea started germinating in my head: "Hey girl, maybe you could lose some weight?"

I wasn't expecting much. I didn't announce my intentions to friends and family. I didn't take "before" pics because I didn't consider that I'd post a success story eventually. There were certain things I refused to do: go on a diet; mainly. I *love* cooking and eating great food is one of the highlights of my life; I'd rather be fat and eat well than thin and deprived. I thought this was a set-up for failure.

I also didn't tell MFP, or my friends here, how much weight I truly had to lose. I'm just shy of 5'11" and I weighed 308.5 when I started here. Do you know what it feels like to know you need to lose 130 pounds to even reach a healthy BMI? Some of you do, but for those who don't: it's incredibly, astoundingly, overwhelming. The idea of not reaching "goal" for more than a year? I didn't want to wait that long for my life to begin.

So I told MFP I wanted to weigh 275. I didn't think I'd ever weigh under 178, the healthy BMI range for someone of my height, but what the hell - I could lose 33, right?

And that's how it started. I reached my first goal. Oooh, I was into it by then, so I made a new goal, 249. Hit that one too and felt unstoppable because, well, I was. I got bold, then, and my next goal was 208 - no longer obese, but merely overweight, which was worthy of celebration. Then the milestone of 199. Honestly, that was all I really wanted, to weigh under 200.

But I kept going, and in September of 2012, I weighed in at 175. A healthy BMI. The lowest weight in my adult life. A weight I thought I'd be "too skinny" at (lol). And I've been maintaining around this weight since then.

I write this today directed at those who just signed up. Maybe you feel like you can't do this. Maybe you feel like it's not your time. Maybe you don't feel that your heart is fully in it. That's okay. When I joined MFP, I wasn't really expecting anything magical to happen either.

But the magic? You guys, it came.

I have lost more than 130 pounds. I am at a weight I wouldn't have dared input into MFP as my ultimate goal when I joined. I buy size small shirts and size 6 jeans. I am going to wear a bikini this summer if it ever gets warm in Minnesota. I lift weights like a real weight lifter. I run like a real runner. I didn't play a single sport in high school, but now I consider myself an athlete. I'm the same person but fundamentally changed; there's no word for it but magic.

I've learned so much about what to eat and how to find balance. Most importantly, I've learned that it's really not that complicated: eat plenty of real food. keep track of that food. lift heavy things. move around more. build a support system. never let perfect become the enemy of good. There's magic to these realizations; I never understood them before, but now they feel downright foundational.

There was magic to numbers too. I hit 100 pounds lost on my son's second birthday. I ran a 10-mile race on exactly my 500th day of MFP. And I hit my goal weight on my husband's birthday. I'm kind of black-hearted and unsentimental, but the way these numbers aligned with such important times in my life makes it hard even for me to deny that maybe everything happened exactly as it was supposed to.

I'm proud of my mental and physical strength and of who I have become. I can accept my body, flaws and all, and realize how beautiful it is. I am floored with gratitude for how it moves and what I can do. I don't hide from the camera or avoid life because I don't know what to wear or I feel ashamed of my size. I can set a good example for my son; I run and bike and hike and still have energy to get on the floor and play with trains. I don't approach challenges with "I can't" but rather "I can't right now, but if I follow this plan, by next spring...."

How did I do this? I've written lots of blog entries with specifics, so I'll be general.

Tomorrow morning, my MFP profile will greet me with "ShannonMpls has logged in for 730 days in a row!" Two years ago, I registered here and just...started.

Did I log my food every single day? Ha. No. But I tracked it most days. And my morning ritual of logging onto MFP, even on days when I ate way too much because it was my birthday or a holiday (or sometimes "Saturday") reminded me of my long-term goal and what it would take it reach it.

Did I exercise every day for hours on end? Nope. But I was consistent with weight training, and I got cardio in too. Exercise became one of the regular parts of my day, something with priority like "eating" and "sleeping" and "watching Breaking Bad."

Did I wake up every day with motivation to eat perfectly and exercise? I wish. I have days where all I want is donuts. I still longingly watch coworkers get their food truck lunches while I hit the gym at noon then eat my packed lunch at my desk. I remember having bags of salty treats at my desk and oops! eating the whole bag - I miss that mindless eating now and then. Sometimes going to the gym seems like the Worst Thing On Earth.

But once I get there, it's not so bad, you know....

And that's the secret, your magic bullet, right there. I've been successful because I ride the high of motivation when I have it and fake it when I don't. It's been waking up every single day knowing that I am in charge of my choices. It's been refusing to let a bad day become a bad week. It's been differentiating between needs and excuses. It's been learning dedication and commitment - but also learning when to give in and indulge.

Last week I reached a major goal: I loaded a barbell with 45 pound plates for bench press. I stared at it for a few minutes - could I really do this? - then got to business and lifted it 6 times. And then I did another set. 135 pounds for reps, you guys. I've been steadily working toward this goal and I did it. WHO IS THIS SUPER-SHANNON?

Oh yeah - it's me. Someone who started out here without expecting anything much, but changed her whole life in two short years and had so much fun doing it. I'm not kidding when I say that I loved the process of losing weight, that the journey was as great as the destination. Fitness has become a hobby that has given me drive, confidence, and health. I have new friends. I always have goals. This is what I was missing, the piece of the puzzle that turned a good life into a great one.

So what's ahead? There is no diet to go off of. There is no "ultimate goal" anymore. There's just me, and though I am already (and have always been) good enough, I'll keep forging ahead. I'll quietly and consistently become a better - stronger, faster, more awesome - version of myself. And when I fall down, as I inevitably will, I'll brush myself off and get right back up.



tl;dr version: Start, and then don't stop.



Now for pictures. To reward you for reading all this, I plowed through the photos on Facebook my "friends" tagged me in over the years to find perfectly unflattering but brutally honest shots.

This beauty was taken the summer I started at MFP. I can hardly believe this was just two years ago, because it feels like another lifetime.


To be fair, I was like 19 weeks pregnant in the "before" shot here. The after shot was taken a couple weeks ago.


Friends are so precious for taking photos like this, aren't they? But at least I have a perfect butt comparison shot. Jean size of 22/24 vs an incredibly vanity-sized 6.


No wonder the DMV woman did a double-take when I went to renew my license:


And finally: me, my kid, and the photobombing goat:


Thanks for reading. Shout-out to my MFP friends; I fricking adore you.

PS If you want to read more specifics on how I ate, exercised, and approached weight loss, check out my blog here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/ShannonMpls