The 4th of july is my independence day as well.

Hey Everyone,

this is my first post and I felt like I needed to do this because MFP has helped me so much I feel. Last year July 4th 2012 I decided to quit with the excuses and go back to the gym. I can't say it was always easy this last year and I definitely had my times where I slipped up a bit but it the end it has been 100% worth it and I'm never going back to the old me.

When I started this journey I was 453 lbs, I can say that my weight never really bothered me to much, I would still go out with friends and all that but I just never realized how big I was. When I got the the gym on this day last year the first thing i did was weight myself and when I saw 453 I couldn't believe it. That was the motivation I needed, right there staring back at me was what made me say "lets do this, i'm never going to see this number again".

Here I am now a year later and 104 lbs lighter at 349lbs. I still have another 99 lbs I want to lose and I will no doubt, within the last year I've run my first 5k and am doing an 8k on Sunday. I am also training for my first half marathon in April as well as my first triathlon in May.

I want to say that you can do this, you don't have to be super strict with your diet and you can take a day off from working out and you should. I tried to stick to my calorie count and I made sure to work out atleast 5 days a week.


1 year progress by tkloss04, on Flickr