Finding Motivation is Key! Lost 80 pounds in one year :D

It's about time that I wrote this considering I've come a full year around (plus a month) since I started this adventure and accomplished something that I thought was impossible. Hopefully it will inspire others who have had similar doubts and help them realize that the impossible is VERY possible if you just stick with it and have a goal beyond seeing the scale go down!

For a long time my problem was finding the right motivation to do something about the weight I was gradually packing on. You would think that the weight gain alone would be enough of a wake up call but I was pretty stubborn about it. For one thing, food was a source of comfort to me and the mere thought of exercise was a total pain in the *kitten*. I was also under the impression that it would take years of hard work and eating bland/boring food to get in shape, so why bother? Food is too delicious dammit! I'd try motivating myself here and there, but typically lasted no more than a week before falling back on old habits.

At first I was able to conceal my weight, although in retrospect I wasn't hiding it nearly as well as I thought. I started to avoid having my picture taken as I seldom liked what I saw. My shirt size had reached XL and (amazingly) started to move into XXL. And I would often opt to use the elevator more than stairs as going up just a few flights would make me sweat and I'd have trouble breathing. I knew all of this wasn't good considering my age and that in part led to the realization that there was no way in hell I was going to let this continue before I hit 30. However that alone was still not enough to get me started.

Something you should know about me is that I'm a total geek. This culminates in Dragon*Con (a huge geek convention in Atlanta every Labor Day weekend) which I've attended since 2008. I wear costumes when I go and it's there that I've had more pictures taken of myself than anywhere else (at least until lately). As I said, I hated having my picture taken but at the same time I wanted to show off the costumes I'd wear and remember all the fun I had with my friends. After the convention of 2011 it finally struck me just how bad I had become. There was no denying it anymore.



That would be me on the right as a chunky 250 pound officer from Battlestar Galactica *facepalm*

I couldn't believe I let myself get that bad. It was embarassing. But not just because I was in poor health, although that was certainly a big factor. It was also because I looked awful in that uniform.

Therein was the key to my motivation.

I realized that simply wanting to lose weight wasn't good enough. That's just too broad and there's nothing else to look forward to. I needed something to really strive for that I'm passionate about in order to get me started. As goofy as it may seem: I love Dragon*Con. I look forward to it more than most people look forward to Christmas (or whatever holiday you enjoy the most). It's essentially a huge geeky costume party and I want to enjoy myself and look good doing it.With it being an annual event that motivation became clear: to bust my *kitten* and get into shape before the next one came around!

Beyond that I also needed structure. That's where My Fitness Pal really came in handy. In the summer of 2012 (yeah, I got a late start) a friend introduced me to the MFP app and that changed everything. It opened my eyes to calories and all the other nutritional info I had ignored for so long. In fact, I was horrified at many of the foods (mostly fast food and other junk) that I once consumed so casually. At the same time I was discovering MFP I was inspired by my aunt and uncle who are in their 50s and had started losing a great deal of weight by running as well as keeping tabs on what they eat. If they could do it, I certainly could. Finally, I went to my doctor's office and asked for the records of every time I checked in. Going as far back as the 8th grade I have a checklist of my weight which I use to see what I weigh now in relation to the last time I was at that weight. It's another great motivator for me when I can see that I'm essentially turning back the clock and erasing over a decade of weight gain.

With that all in place I changed my diet up completely and eventually started running on a treadmill. Before Dragon*Con of 2012 I lost 30 pounds in two months. Although it wasn't as much as I had hoped for, given the late start, I still showed some improvement.



Following that convention, DC2013 became my true objective. Over the course of the past year I've lost another 50 pounds, bringing me to 169; a weight I haven't seen since my freshman year of highschool in 1998/1999. My shirt size is a medium and my waist has gone from a 36 to a 34 (although even the 34 pants are getting saggy without a belt).





I've had my lazy moments. I'm pretty sure we've all been there. For three months at the beginning of the year I stopped running and that was a big mistake. I didn't gain back a lot because I was good diet-wise (for the most part) but it did set my progress back enough that I'm not quite where I should be now. But don't get me wrong, 169 is incredible!!! While I still have some weight to drop (pretty much in my belly), and I need to work on muscle, I've made tremendous progress. Being below 200 is surreal, and it's crazy how close I am to losing a total of 100 pounds! I've been told by family and friends that I'm an inspiration and I really just can't express how much that means to me. I really didn't think that from the summer of 2012 to now I'd be where I'm at. I feel great. Dare I say... I look great too! I have a feeling that, having just turned 30 earlier this month, I'm entering a new chapter of my life and things are going to be totally different from here on out.

And of course, I'm definitely looking forward to Dragon*Con next week ;D