Reached Goal - 30 lbs gone

I reached goal today. I've lost 30 lbs since Jan 2013. I'm in my 50's. I weigh 119.8.

I'm wearing size 6 jeans and they are comfy. I bought a couple of size 8 pants and they are loose.

I'm running 6 miles on trails. (Trails is code word for not paved and has serious hills.) I'm taking Zumba and body conditioning classes. Body conditioning means an hour with hand weights and doing exercises like push ups, planks etc. I had no upper body strength so I have to work up slowly. I love running and Zumba is just fun.

My goal is to continue to build muscle and run a half marathon.

I think maintaining my weight will be just like losing it but with a few more calories. I have lost weight in the past but found that I gained it back in a few years once I quit journaling.

Let me share how I did it.

Last New Years Eve I had a fancy party to attend but I was really unhappy with the way I looked. I didn't want to go and thought about going and wearing my sweat pants. I finally bought a dress at a consignment store (New with tags) because I just didn't want to spend money on a fat dress. The dress looked good and I had cleavage for the first time ever, but I just wasn't happy with my weight.

My sister sent me an e-mail and said she had started using MyFitnessPal. I'm a technie geek so I had to try it out. Loved the way it worked.

After I lost 18 lbs and saw that this was going to work, I got 5 of my friends to join. This works great for me, because I get a lot of support from my buddies. Of course as one of them said, (kidding of course), I waited until I was way ahead to tell them about it. (4 of the 5 love itandare losing weight also.)

Having support is huge. It really helped me stick with it. I have great friends that supported me through the effort.

I've lost weight before, but the easy tools for journaling make it so easy to do. I don't have to spend a lot of time figuring out how many calories, it is right there. I generally use my IPAD for journaling because it was with me when I was working. (just retired in July.)

I also read a lot of the success stories and other postings on the message boards. That helped me a lot.

The other thing that helped was tying exercise to more calories for food. MFP really tied it together in my head. Nothing like thinking if I run 5 miles I can go to happy hour and have a glass of wine and a few healthy appetizers with some cushion for dinner.

Last but not least was DH. He was incredibly supportive. He is a runner so we would run together, we go to the gym togehter, we go hiking, he eats healthy food and he was just great. (When we run, we start and end together because he is much faster than I am. When we go to the gym, he lifts weights while I go to the classes; he doesn't Zumba)

I'm in my 50's. I read a lot of people asking if it is possible to lose weight when you are a little older. Yep, no problem.

Thanks MFP and all of you for your help.