2013 Goal Reached and My Success Story - 118 Pounds Lost

I am so happy to be writing my success story. I hope that this serves as inspiration or motivation for others who have struggled for so long, like I have.

I've been overweight or obese since I was a child. See this chubby cheeked little girl? This is the oldest photo I could find of myself - I guesstimate it to be about 1st grade. This squishy faced, innocent child was depressed, self-deprecating and grew up way too fast due to your run of the mill “bad childhood”.





Fast forward several years. This is me in 8th grade (it was my 8th grade graduation). During all those years, I ate excessively. It was certainly unbeknownst to me at that time. I was kid with little to no adult direction or supervision – I got myself up every morning, got myself ready for school, prepared my own meals, put myself to bed, etc. No one bothered to tell me that I was eating too much. This eventually snowballed into a full on binge eating disorder because of my increasing depression, low self-esteem and bullying at school. Once I could drive, I would regularly go get fast food – I remember a phase I went through where I would go to McDonalds and get 10 sandwiches off the dollar menu, and eat every single one of them in one sitting. Sometimes it would be a whole large pizza. A whole box of donuts. At that point, I knew it was wrong, but I did not stop – it was the only way I had learned to cope with my issues (aside from being a juvenile delinquent and getting arrested a couple of times, but that is another story). Long story short – my teenage years were catastrophic.





In these next photos, I was anywhere from age 19-21 (in pretty good order timeline wise). It looks like my weight fluctuated quite a bit, but I had no idea until just now looking back at these pics. I never weighed myself nor did I care to. Any weight that I lost was unintentional for sure – so I guess I may be different than most, because I had never yo-yo dieted or even attempted to lose weight. I was a size 18 most of my young adult life. On a positive note, things really turned around for me when I got my first “real” job at 19. I had my own place, a nice car and enjoyed life for the most part. My confidence was up and I actually made a couple of friends. I still ate excessively though, and I was so lazy! I had a desk job and when I was home, I didn't do anything but sit on my butt.
















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Then I met my husband (boyfriend at that time). I was surprised that he was really into me. He was in good shape, but revealed to me that prior to us meeting he had just lost 70 pounds. So, when you have two people that like to over eat and they spend every waking minute with each other, what do you get? We indulged together and both gained a lot of weight. These pics are from October of 2011. Notice there is no body shot – I would never allow one to exist, but you can tell I was much heavier because of my face.






And then, shortly after the above photos were taken, I got pregnant. These photos are from July of 2012 when I was about 8 months pregnant (I know, I looked awful!). Being pregnant was sort of a turning point for me. It forced me into a doctor's office where I had to see and hear the details about my health. I had high blood pressure my whole pregnancy and a very long, difficult labor and delivery. The day I came home from the hospital, I weighed in at 269 pounds.









During my pregnancy, especially the last couple of months when I realized I was miserable because I was so out of shape and overweight, I sort of made a loose promise to myself to lose some weight. These pics are from October of 2012, and I weighed about 230 I think (please note that I am wearing like two layers of Spanx) – so I had lost some weight, but I was doing it completely wrong. I was trying to eat less of all the calorie dense things I normally would eat – which left me hungry and cranky all the time.











By January 2013 or so, I had managed to get all the way down to 219 with no exercise – then my weight started slowly creeping back up. I realized I had no idea what I was doing and needed to educate myself. That's when I found MFP. I started truly making goals, changes to my diet, and most importantly – exercising.

Here are some “during” pics in pretty good order from the beginning of 2013 to recently.



























And finally – the “afters”! Most of these I just took this morning after I rolled out of bed so please forgive the bed head and no makeup.




















Stats:
SW – 269 and size 18/20 XXL, 8/2012
GW – 150 and size 8/M – achieved 12/2013
UGW – 140, maybe. More focused on BF% now.

I know a lot of people wonder how others did it, but I personally find all those details superfluous because nothing works the same for everybody. Eat at a deficit and be honest with yourself, is the best advice I have. I think I can attribute most of my success to being so rigid and consistent with my eating and logging. As of today I have 239 consecutive days logged.

As far as exercise, do more strength and less cardio!

Thank you so much for reading (or simply looking at the pics). I think using the word “journey” to describe the period of self-improvement is soooo cliché, but..... what a journey it has been!

Also, I posted this on my Facebook page and thought I would include it here too.

“Looking at the massive collection of presents under the tree I can't help but think how, in just three days, they will all be open and the build up of anticipation and excitement surrounding Christmas will be relieved as we all proceed to go about our normal lives and grow indifferent to our new treasures until we do it all over again next year. Material things are often enjoyed fleetingly, so why not bestow upon yourself a different kind of gift? This year, I have given myself the best gift I could ever ask for. It's something that can't be bought in any store or conveniently purchased online with free shipping. This year, I have given myself the gift of health. The gift of being active and energetic. Of long life and time to spend with my family. Of TRUE happiness and content within myself. Of confidence. Of improvement. The gift of change.

Was it a lot of work? Yeah. Was it easy? No. But after the wrapping paper is torn off these boxes and days, weeks and months go by and the high of the holiday is a distant memory - I will still have my health. It is a present that I get to open every single morning as I spring out of bed with energy and enthusiasm. It's a present I get to open every time I lift a heavier weight, run a little bit further or push a little bit harder. Or when I go shopping and try on that itty bitty dress and look amazing - yep, it truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

Caring about health is the most important thing that anyone can do for themselves and their family. You are never too busy, too broke, young, old, fat or frail to simply make good decisions that support a healthy lifestyle. I no longer believe in lack of motivation. Only lack of self discipline. If you take the time to care about yourself and your health, everything else falls into place. And I mean everything. You see the world differently.

So, here is to 2013 and the coming year. Here is to continuing to educate myself about the benefits of nutrition and fitness. To setting a good example of a healthy lifestyle for my daughter. To feeling great, looking great and walking with confidence. But mostly - here is to constantly challenging myself to become better... faster... stronger. Because that's what life is about. Not sitting on the couch, missing out on everything going on outside your front door. A little change goes a long way. “