A Quiet Success Story

I know I’ve been a forum lurker, but I really have been here, fairly devoutly since late March! I don’t have any 100lb loss stories, but I have passed the 50lb milestone and am now lighter than I have been in close to a decade!

Warning, is looong ahead. I’m a story teller But there are pictures!

I started out at about 198-200lbs (depending on water retention). I was the master of denial; I’d dodge photos and when I DID have to have one taken, I’d arrange myself so that all trouble spots were negated.



This was Christmas 2012, no idea how much I weighed, but it was a more candid shot. Ugh.



Thoroughly staged; hand covering double chin and ‘trouble spots’ well below the shot. I was a master at avoiding my appearance. This was taken about a day before I joined MFP and yes, I’m about 200lbs in this shot.

I was told all manner of things, like that I carried it well, no one believed I was that heavy, blah blah and for the most part, I could happily live with my lies. But there were just enough times where I was really mad at myself. I mean, for goodness sake, I was happy to be in pull up size 12 pants. I even boasted at how much lighter they made me look (the salesguy gave me the ‘b*tch please look, but his job forbade him from saying anything). I couldn’t see myself in anything pretty and I wore a lot of blacks and greys.

I’d like to say that I had some sort of awesome epiphany that got me to lose weight, but the truth is, something in me just snapped one night and I looked up calorie calculators to help me rein in my eating. I knew I ate too much, but I had no way to really pin it all down to hard numbers. That’s how I found My Fitness Pal and took the rose tinted glasses off. Yep, I was 200 lbs. I didn’t even do my measurements until a while later, but my earliest measurements were

15” around the neck
41” around the waist
42+” around the hips

I was a size 12/14 and large shirt and felt disgusting. So I signed up with MFP and away we went!

I started out with the 1200 calories/day thing that many of us start out with. And actually, in all fairness to both sides, it worked. With an affidavit: I actually used it as a way to push myself to exercise more so I could eat more. I tended to net under 1200, but I ate more like 1400. This was actually good for me later one because I got into the habit of daily exercise which was something I was rather lacking (save for walking the kiddo to and from school, playing at the school and walking to the grocery store). It also taught me to tighten my portion control (Something I BADLY needed) and to be more creative with replacing high fat, high sugar foods with better alternatives.

Of course, after about three weeks of that, I upped my calories to losing 1.5 lbs/week because even with exercise, I still felt hungry. By then, I had better portion control and more importantly, I was actually listening to my body’s cues instead of just eating everything in sight.

I took 10 pounds off in about two weeks; mostly water weight and shock loss, but hey, system worked. More importantly, I started to feel more confident and I was hitting a bit of a stride.



Blurry, I know. At this point, I was around 190-188, somewhere like that. I was feeling better, more energetic for sure and happier wearing brighter clothing again.



This picture is landmark (if blurry) for two reasons: 1) I was at 175ish pounds which is the lowest I’d been in about three years and 2) this was taken at a night club (the local gay friendly bar to be precise). I was there for my best friend’s birthday and it was my first time ‘clubbing’ ever!!! I had such a blast with my neighbour and chaperone and my best friend. I now absolutely love going out every once in a while and dancing my butt off! I would never have done that at 200lbs.



I was 166 in this picture back in July. It was for a Halloween challenge I took part in.



Aaaannnd here’s me at 150!!! All gussied up for Halloween!

Final measurements (at this point):

Neck: 13”
Waist: 28”
Hips: 37.5”

Size 6/8, small/medium shirts

What did I do? Nothing special. I didn’t eat ‘clean’ in particular, but I didn’t eat mountains of crap. I just ate good and bad in moderation, shrunk my portion sizes, drank lots of water, exercised regularly, and kept reminding myself that the food I love will be there another day if I want it.

I’m about maintenance now, but I’m easing into that too with my calorie limit set at maintenance mode and I just try to eat no more than that, but if I'm under, I'm under as long as I'm not waaay under. No hard stops here, just listening to my body and trying to live my life right.

Eat, exercise, sleep, drink lots of water and try new things!

Thanks everyone

ETA: I'm 5'7", 27 years old and I have a four year old mons-I mean, boy Just for the moms and taller women of the group