50 lbs down in 5 months! Pics

I’ll give a little back story, here goes nothing!
Also I never mentioned before my height! I am 5'3.

So I got laid off from my factory job and found out I could go to college for free! The only thing I wanted to go for was nursing, so that is what I did. I got through the first two years of generals and kept gaining weight, and then I needed to get my CPR in order to take the core nursing classes. I was so disgusted and upset that day because I was on the ground trying to save this dummies life and I could barely lean over enough on my knees to do mouth to mouth. I thought to myself “oh my gosh, when I am a nurse no one is going to take me seriously and I might end up not being physically able to save them if an emergency happened.” Within that same month my sister graduated high school and when I went to add the pictures on Facebook I literally got sick at how heavy I was and would not post a single photo with me in it. I knew then and there it was time!
At first I completely changed my portion sizes, I was eating so many calories it was ridiculous. I didn’t want to spend the money on a gym membership if I wasn’t really going to be dedicated to a healthier lifestyle so I got a couple work out videos (Flirty Girl Fitness, Just Dance for Wii) and danced in a mirror to my Ipod. I did great and dropped 40 lbs (got to 250 lbs) so I treated myself to a gym membership. I lost about 40 lbs more, never getting under 207 lbs, and that is when I had my heart issues and then had to have surgery.
The year after that was my wedding! I gained and lost over that stressful time, I graduated from college, passed my nursing boards (RN), got married and bought a house all within the same year! After everything calmed down I decided I needed to get serious and that’s when I really kicked my healthy lifestyle up a notch.
I started doing yoga every day and just danced with my iPod to music (I am training to do the splits). After a few months of badgering my hubby for us to go get a gym membership, (where he works we actually get paid $12 a month if we both go at least 8 times) now I have a gym membership and also go to a FIT camp class that's free at a local business. When at the gym usually I do cardio like elliptical and treadmill or bike, the class is more strength training and that has helped with the last 10 pounds I’d say.
I recommend taking progress photos and measurements! Whenever I was thinking I wasn't losing weight, or that I couldn't even tell that I was losing I would take another picture and I would check my measurements and I could ALWAYS tell a difference! I had a full body scan (where I do my FIT camp) and it calculated how much body fat percentage I had, the number of calories I am burning at rest and how much protein I should eat and so on. After I practically doubled my protein intake I noticed a huge difference in the way I looked, I was flatter and not so fluffy, and it was a little hard to wrap my mind around because I didn't lose any weight, but people kept telling me I looked like I was melting (in a good way!)! I do cardio at least 500 calories burned), yoga and strength training to vary up my routine and it has been going amazing! I try to stick around 1500 to 1200 calories per day, and I do not eat back my work out calories. If you have any other questions just ask!

Here is a face comparison from 290 lbs and 200 lbs (Monday)


And here is the Picture that started it all, me at 290 lbs, and then me at work today, 199.6 (yay!!!)