Progress. Lifting. Pics. Lots of Them.

I first have to say that I love reading threads about women stepping out of their comfort zone and stepping into the free weight area. It can be intimidating not knowing 100% what you should be doing, if you're doing it right and feeling like you look like an idiot. There. Got that out of the way.

Rewind to 2008. I went on a cruise in Alaska with my family and afterwards i stepped on the scale (which was really old, and I’m questioning its accuracy) and stared down at 173lbs. I was wearing size 14 jeans that were probably a little tighter on me than they should have been, so I'm thinking that i weighed more, but like i said, accuracy of that scale was questionable. I was 23, my son was almost a year old, and I had no idea how to lose weight the right way. I figured, eat as little as possible, and exercise as much as possible. This is me on the cruise.




So I started cutting calories and working out like my life depended on it. I did an estimate of how many calories I was taking in each day, and it was easily under 1000, but I was also spending 2+ hours a day doing cardio so how many calories I was netting scares me a little now that I think about it. I managed to lose 30 lbs in about 2-3 months. It was easy right away, but as time progressed, it took more and more to be able to see a loss on the scale.




I had surgery the following Feb. and wasn't able to exercise for a while. Because of the damage I had done to my metabolism, my body just stored EVERYTHING. The gradual (or not so gradual) weight gain began.



In Vegas. I was a little bit in denial about the weight i had been putting on. This was just over 6 months. I had been down to a size 4 jean, and I specifically remember getting ready to go out, and I ripped my size 7/8 jeans just trying to pull them up. And look at the start of that belly!





Then I got pregnant with my 2nd son. I don't really have any pictures of me throughout that. Heck, I didn't even want my nurse to tell me my weight when I went in for my prenatal appointments. After I had my son, I didn't really get into losing weight until the end of March or beginning of April. I stepped on the scale at 195lbs. Yikes! That's when it kicked in. I then started MonaVie RVL system. I drank a shake for breakfast and lunch and then ate a reasonable dinner. I was taking in around 1200 calories and had finally signed up for MFP. I had lost about 20 lbs from watching what I ate and doing mostly TurboFire, Zumba or Cycle classes.



^ bad picture.. I know but ehh.



This was me at my sister's wedding in September of 2012 probably weighing around 172-175.

Then I started creeping around MFP forums. I read up on heavy lifting, BMR/TDEE, macros. The whole works. I decided that I was going to start doing Stronglifts 5x5 in February. Fell in love with the barbell. I just switched from doing that to doing Wendler 5/3/1 and I can already tell that I’m going to love that too. Here is a whole photo bomb of progress and stuff. Keep in mind, the above picture and the following pictures; there is ONLY A 10 LB DIFFERENCE.







Now I get the best compliments ever. "You have a nice deep squat" "With your squat form, you won't have to worry about working your calves at all" You get the idea. I try to stay around 1700-1800 calories per day and I have my carbs/protein/fat set to 40/30/30. If I have a bad day of eating, I don’t stress over it because it’s only 1 day.

I'm still a work in progress. I want to get leaner, and stronger, and awesome-er.


tl;dr version - I got fat, got skinny, got fat again and now getting fit.