Finally my Story Female 130lbs Lost with LOTS of Pics

It has been a very long journey and I am often reading these message boards for motivation and looking for those people out there who have successfully completed their journey. I am hoping that this will motivate someone else. Pay it forward.
First a little about my journey. The pictures will follow. At my heaviest (non-pregnant weight) I was 278.2 pounds. While I was pregnant I hit 295 and then refused to let the doctor weigh me any longer because I would not let myself believe that I would ever weigh 300 pounds.
I come from a very beefy family. Food is everything. When is the next meal? Every day, every night, weekend, vacation, every spare moment was spent worrying about what was going to be eaten next, what new OMG delicious food can we make or come up with? It was food food food. I love food. Still do. I tried dieting before. Well pretty much my whole life. I was a woman’s size 12 in elementary school. I tried to diet when I was a fat kid. I tried to diet when I was a fat teenager and I tried to diet when I was a fat college student. The last time I tried to diet was in 2006 when I was planning my wedding. I wanted to be thin for my wedding. Well, that didn’t happen. I did lose some weight, but then quickly gained it back after the wedding. In 2008 I gave birth to my son. This is when I realized that I had to start making a change in my life. I did not want to be the fat mom on the sidelines of my son’s life. I wanted to be able to be active with him and most importantly show him that he can life a healthy lifestyle. I would never want to make a child suffer through everything that surrounds an obese child (and adult) like I did. That’s another message board.
It took me 2 years into this journey (Started fall 2009) to realize that I would never make my goal if I kept dieting. Dieting does not work. You must make lifestyle changes. I used to hide my dieting. Not tell anyone what I was doing. I was embarrassed to tell others that I had joined weight watchers, or I was counting my calories. Things had to change.
I joined weight watchers. Again, as I stated before, it was just a diet. But it got me started. Weight watchers is a great program that not only teaches you to eat healthy, but it also now encourages making routines and changes to your lifestyle. In the last few years it has also started to encourage activity. I was athletic up until college so I started out with walking and that was easy. I signed up for a 60-mile walk (the Komen 3-days for the cure) and used that to motivate me to walk more. I bought an elliptical machine so there was no excuse to skip a day walking. Ellipticals have incline options, resistance options and lots of ways to burn calories. I tracked my calories and food. I stopped going to weight watchers when my support/team member (Mom) stopped going, I was not going to keep paying the $40 a month to do it alone. So, I joined my fitness pal. The weight did not come off easily at first. Again, I was not changing habits, I was dieting. I could eat well for 6 days and binge after I weighed in on day 7. That obviously had to stop. I took baby steps.
Fast forward to today (If you want to know more about the rest of the journey, please just ask). I eat mainly whole food. Lean meat, veggies, low fat dairy and a LOT of water. I cut out diet soda (I lived off of this stuff) reduced processed carb intake, and I reduced the number of coffees a day (try to keep it to 3 cups or less now instead of a pot or two). I get 7 hours of sleep a night minimum. And most importantly, I am active now. I hike, mountain bike, swim, walk, job, run, do P90X and I still have the same old elliptical machine (after a belt replacement). I also have my family active with me. It is so much easier to remain focused when you have people to support you and enjoy the activity with you.
Now, I hit goal November 5, 2013. Of course that was the absolute worst time of year to hit my goal. Next was Thanksgiving. I managed to not gain any weight. And then my son's birthday party. Only gained a little. But then Christmas. I gained a bit back. I now almost have it all back off. Things get in the way, but in the end, as long as you have the healthy lifestyle that you have created, you can get back to where you were!
So now the pictures. I am a photographer. You know what that means. I am taking the pictures and I am not in the pictures. I had to ask my mom to see if she could find any “before” pics and of course that means I do not have a lot of “along the way” pics. I do have some after pics to share.
First the before pics.
Starting weight 278.2
Womans pant size 24
Womans shirt size XXL
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And now the end product!
Current weight 148.2
Womans pant size 4
Womans shirt size S
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I hope that my short story and pictures will encourage you to get to your goal.