100 lbs down! I feel awesome!!! (w/Pictures)

Two things happened to me on Sunday, April 27th. 1) I ran my first 5k of this year and 2) I hit my 100 lbs lost milestone.

So it was kind of a big day for me! Although it was raining the whole time. I was very wet and very cold but it kind of made the whole run a little epic :-)

I'm not done losing, but 100 lbs is no little feat so I decided to celebrate with a success story post. I do not have a magic goal weight number in mind. I'll go probably another 60-75 lbs. We'll see.

February 28, 2013: 337 lbs
April 27th, 2014: 237 lbs

I run. I lift weights. I do yoga. I have a gluten intolerance and a bad thyroid and have found the keto diet is sort of the magic bullet for me, if there is such a thing. My weight loss isn't crazy, about 2 lbs a week on average with some weeks better and worse than others. More importantly, I no longer have to worry so much about gluten. It makes it easy. Or easier, anyway. My skin cleared up, my rosacea stopped flaring up, I went from pre-diabetic to not even close. All my labs look great. I know it's not for everyone, but it is totally for me. I'm so happy :-) And healthy.

I started running at around 320lbs. My first 5k I was doing 22 minute miles which felt like I was flying. I know, crazy, but it was a big deal to me at the time. Now I average 14-15 minute miles. Still kind of slow but I'm happy with it. I've had a little bit of tendonitis in the last month in my right arm, but before that I was squatting 105 lbs. I wanted to cry every time we added more weight. Cry in a good way!

When you go from spending years not being able to climb stairs without hurting to putting your body through challenges and coming out victorious....it's one of the most emotional experiences I've ever gone through. It's life changing and scary and wonderful all at the same time. I still deal with a lot of body image issues, like it is hard to recognize myself in the mirror sometimes and some days it is hard to tell that I've lost anything at all. This is getting better. Talking about it helps, having a strong support system helps. I've also started doing this project for myself where I take a selfie every couple of days and post it to my instagram. I just take one picture instead of 30 trying to find the best one. It has helped me come to terms with how I look and helped me love every picture I take. Now I kind of love looking at pictures of myself :-) Who knew?


With no further delay, pictures!