Halfway!

Hello! I wanted to share my story because I love reading success stories from people. I have been significantly overweight for almost a decade. I gained weight during grad school because of stress and lack of time, then more weight dealing with infertility/miscarriage stress, then more weight having 3 babies. I am 31 and have tried multiple times to lose weight in the past few years, but I never make it more than a couple weeks before I quit and go back to my old bad habits (mostly way over-eating). I joined MFP last spring and started out strong, lost a few pounds, but then got derailed after a weekend vacation and quit again.

I started logging my food again on January 5th so it's been almost exactly 3 months. Usually I change everything really quickly all at once, but this time I was much more laid-back about it. I wasn't even particularly motivated! Just figured I would see what happened.

I started out at approximately 210 pounds at 5'2", so significantly overweight for my height. I was wearing a size 18. I had no energy for my kids and was mortified every time I saw a picture of myself. I can't believe that was only 3 months ago?!?!

Currently I weigh a little over 180, halfway to my goal of 150 (though once I reach that I may want to lose more). I have lost 3.5 inches around my bust, 4.5 inches around my waist, and a whopping 6 inches around my hips! I've gone from a size 17/18 jeans to a size 11/12 jeans. I know I still have a ways to go, but I feel so encouraged with the quick progress I've made.

Below are "before" and "during" pictures. The first picture, someone snapped of me while on vacation over Christmas. I almost instantly deleted the photo but for some reason stopped myself. I couldn't believe how awful I looked. I also can't believe I'm posting it on the internet, lol. The second picture I took today while in a dressing room trying on jeans that fit, that I never thought would fit. For the first time in years, I didn't see a fat person looking back at me in the mirror.



What I have done:
1. Exercise! I work out 5 days a week at home doing mostly fitness blender exercises on youtube, though I also do yoga once a week and run on the treadmill sometimes. I haven't been in such good shape in a really long time!

2. Eat chocolate! Ok yes I eat healthy too, but I indulge in a significant amount of chocolate EVERY day. And not just like 4 m&ms or something. This is the first time I've ever done that before, and I swear it's one of the things that has allowed me to keep this up for longer than 2 weeks. Usually I feel like I have to cut ALL of that out.

3. Weigh my food. At first it seemed a bit obsessive, but I was surprised to find out how easy it really is and how much more accurate.

4. Cut out processed stuff. Yes, we still occasionally eat at McDonalds or buy frozen corn dogs, but the majority of our meals are made from scratch. Partly because of my weight loss, and hubby's blood pressure. It is more work but worth the effort.

So thanks for letting me share my story! Like I said, I still have a ways to go but it really is therapeutic to type it all out and think about how far I've come!

Edited because I can't figure out how to get the picture to show up! Grr!