Before and After pics NO STARVATION

Good Job! You look great!

Starting weight 297 pounds
Current weight 213 pounds
45 weeks
46 yrs old
Still a work in progress, but im in no hurry
Not as impressive as alot of these inspirational people, and my congratulations to each and every one of you, but im happy with my progress :happy:

Not as impressive? HAH!! VERY impressive! You look 10 years younger, and so healthy. Your success is every bit as impressive as any I have seen.
Keep up the great work!!:flowerforyou:

And my tablet cut my post in half

I come from a parent who was always overweight and blamed it on having babies. I had a baby and feared getting fat. I am now thinner than i ever was. My fear of weight gain escalated to an eating disorder. I have always wondered how people let themselves get so far overweight. Like if my pants feel tight i panic! Some people just go buy new pants. Why do people let themselves go so far? I beg that nobody be offended by me. Its just an honest question that i have always wanted to ask.

Food addiction is also an eating disorder--it's just that many people don't see it that way, preferring to think that the person is merely "undisciplined". It has its start in malnutrition (and I think all eating disorders have that in common).

I ate a lot of junk food when I was a child--BUT, I was also well nourished. I came from an area of family farms and we always ate, year round, from our own vegetables and fruits. The farm down the road brought fresh organic eggs (there weren't any other kind, in those days), raw organic dairy and naturally raised meats, in addition to a fair bit of wild game. If we hadn't eaten a lot of sugary treats, I suspect that I wouldn't have developed a weight problem at all. As it was, we were pretty active and athletic but I put on a bit of chubbiness in high school, after I quit growing. Even then, I was only about 30 pounds overweight. In college, I slimmed down through cutting out the junk food. I was trim and athletic. Then, after graduation, I moved to the city, got a sedentary job and put on about fifteen pounds. I was living in a neighborhood that was close to the inner city and there were many fewer opportunities for athletics. And I was lonely so I returned to eating a bit of junk food as a comfort. I then decided that I had become "fat" and went on a severe calorie-restriction and low carbohydrate diet. I stopped eating vegetables and fruits (because they had carbohydrates, after all). It was the kookiest 500 calorie diet. Oh, I lost "weight" all right--my once firm flesh had become flabby and sallow and I while I thought that my bony face was wonderful, one of my friends told me that the way I was beginning to look made her think of WWII pictures of concentration camp survivors. And that is when my weight problems and yo-yoing began in earnest. I met my husband and I went on another severe diet so I would look good in the wedding pix. I went on the birth control pill and that was a real problem--couldn't seem to stop the weight gain and was depressed as well. And my weight problems and my up and down eating got worse. I would lose 20 and gain back 30. My husband begged me to "eat right and exercise" but I thought I knew better how to deal with my problems.

I didn't understand that I was doing real damage to my body. And I was feeling lousy and getting sicker. It wasn't until I started to really study nutrition and discover what I was doing to myself that I started to eat much better. The weight gain went to a trickle but the health problems had started to accumulate by that time: gall bladder attacks and surgery, arthritis (which made me much less active) and then high blood pressure and then high blood sugar. When my doc wanted to add yet another blood pressure drug to the two I was already taking (and feeling extremely crummy from), I had had enough and decided that I was finally going to take off all the weight and do it healthfully this time. I still have about 30 pounds to go, but I am feeling very well. No more E.D. for me (and I guess I was anorexic for a time).

ETA: P.S. I now have normal blood pressure without medication and I have no more problems with high blood sugar. My arthritis is greatly improved through good nutrition, supplements and pool exercise.

AMAZING THREAD!

Your awesome! That is the best repose to the comment i've seen yet. And you are exactly right, this is about making positive changes, not being nasty and obviously passing judgement in a very offensive way!
And you look fantastic by the way, you've done an amazing job!

i have eaten 1800 calories for most of my journey. I started at 380 pounds and still have 40-50 pounds to go....my current photo was taken about 3 weeks ago....my thighs are horrible as I have a lot of excess skin and dont normally let anyone see them but this is my most recent pic...so before pic is at 380 pounds and current photo at 200 pounds


Before pic:



Current pic:

You are looking FABULOUS!

Kaz u r amazing

For me I always was told I needed to finish everything on my plate regardless because of the starving children in *insert country here* and also we didn't have a lot of money so there was going to be no wasted food. Just as you have a negative relationship with food, so do I. We just go in opposite directions. I have honestly never understood how people could starve themselves but I always loved food. Now I'm working on gaining a healthy relationship with food and learning that it is there to fuel my body not feed my indulgences.

My parents-in-law are like this and I am not. I can usually tell the difference when my kids aren't clearing their place because they're full or because they just don't feel like eating whatever it is I cooked. I never make them clear their whole plate. If they ate most of it, I am happy with that. If they only took a few bites of their pork chop because they don't feel like eating the pork chop, then I tell them to eat x amount of pieces.

I have had a weight problem MY WHOLE LIFE. I am finally in a place mentally where I feel I can truly conquer it. When I had children, I decided that I would encourage healthy eating from the get go. Whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, natural peanut butter, jelly made with only the necessities and not with all the extras. Sure, they are not perfect eaters, and they do get junk food occasionally, but certainly not all the time. And healthy eating is stressed strongly, as well as not having to clear their entire plate.

Bump!