Down 30 lbs, going for bonus!

(OK, trying this again! Sorry, my first time trying to load pics)


If someone had told me back in May that I would look like this by fall, I'd have laughed in their face. But here I am! I started using My Fitness Pal and exercising 15 weeks ago (May 31st). My goal was to get back to where I was before I started having children and maybe lose a few extra pounds (as I was not satisfied with my weight back then either - lol.)

I'd have to say I'm a typical mom. First kid, I lost most of the baby weight and came within a couple of pounds of where I was pre-baby. Second kid, the weight didn't come off so fast and then suddenly we were pregnant again! After 5 kids (plus one 2nd trimester miscarriage), I found myself frumpy, overweight (154 lbs, 5' 4"), facing my 40s and not knowing how to get out of this funk. I tried several times over the past 3 years to follow my husband's P90X program to lose weight. But I just couldn't keep up with the long workouts on top of doing all the things I had to do as a mom.

Then I talked to a friend from work who had recently lost 17 lbs. She told me about MFP and Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. I was so excited, I bought the dvd that night after work and started two days later. I wanted to lose weight as quickly as possible since summer was quickly approaching. After I plugged in 2lbs/week weight loss, MFP set my calories at 1200. I started out eating only the 1200 it allowed, but I soon realized that was not enough to keep me going. As many have advised and I now understand, I needed to eat back my workout calories too. So for the past 3 months I've eaten anywhere from 1400-1500 calories a day and burned off about 250-350 in exercise.

I wish now that I would have taken a "before" picture this spring when I started, but I didn't. I did have one though from one of my failed attempts to do P90X a couple of years ago. I weighed about 10 lbs more in this picture than I did this past May when I started.



The jog bra is different, but the swim bottoms are the same. You can see how stretched they were by the "belt" and how loose it is today.







Here I am in the first bikini I have worn in 20+ years. Though I still have some toning to do, I'm pretty happy with how it fits )



Couldn't resist showing off the muscles I developed. Thanks to Jillian Michaels!!!! Can't say I've ever owned a set of biceps before - lol!

I've reached my goal of 30lbs and am now going for a few extra so that when I move to maintenance I'll still be at or around 123. To all the moms out there, it really is possible )

My best diet advice is to remember that you are human. You will have bad (binge) days, your weight will fluctuate, there will be days you don't have energy to workout, and there will be days where life just happens and you don't have time to think about diet or exercise. Just don't let those occasional days throw you off your game!! Wake up the next morning and start anew. I used to think that one screw-up would just completely blow my diet and so I'd give up whenever I had a day that was less than perfect. Then, thanks to a friend, I discovered MFP and learned what dieting was all about. I realized that you can lose weight and still have human failings. It is how you handle those failings that makes you stronger the next time )