Celebrating 2 years of progress and new goals!

Hi everyone! I'm new to the MFP community and wanted to share a bit of my story and state (publicly...commitment!!) my new fitness goals as I move forward after 2 years of falling in love with fitness and nutrition.

Like so many people, I've struggled with maintaining my weight and having good body image since middle school. I was a healthy weight in high school and active in sports and theater, but I still felt fat and entertained all kinds of terrible self-talk for years. I put on weight very slowly throughout college as my day to day life became less active and I wasn't living in my mom's fortress of diet, reduced-fat everything. I must have gained and lost the same 10 lbs. about fifty times as I fell on and off the wagon of working out and counting calories. When I got married at 23, the "happy honeymoon" weight happened and pretty soon I found myself at the highest weight I had ever been.





This was me at my highest (non-pregnant) weight - about 165, and wearing a size 12 jeans. I knew that I wasn't severely overweight by most standards, and I knew how to dress very cleverly to hide the things I didn't like, but I felt very uncomfortable in my skin. I didn't feel toned, strong, or confident. I wanted to make a change but I didn't know how to actually STICK to a fitness/nutrition plan.



Then I got preggers! Being pregnant put my health motivation into hyperdrive, and contrary to the usual stereotype of first pregnancies, I think I actually ate a lot healthier and became more active during my pregnancy than I was before it. I tracked my micronutrients using an app, indulged in the occasional Ben and Jerry's, and did ellipticals at the gym or walked 4-5 times a week.



After having my daughter in August 2012, I got involved with a group of friends who were training in aerial arts. This is where things really changed for me. I hauled my large, jiggly, post-partum butt up onto the trapeze bar for the first time in October 2012 and I was instantly hooked. I knew this was going to be the thing that transformed my outlook on food, fitness, and body image. I began training aerial 2-4 times a week, and suddenly getting to the gym on the other days wasn't a chore anymore. Saying no to a boulder-sized slice of birthday cake wasn't as hard anymore, because everything was in service to my greater goal of being able to DO COOL SH&*%T in the air.

Now, almost 2 years later, I have dropped to a size 6 and lost somewhere around 25 lbs (I stopped weighing myself about a month ago). I have gained a ton of muscular strength and have begun weight lifting in addition to aerial training. My new goals are to achieve 22-20% body fat and to perform aerial for the first time for an audience. I'm joining MFP to help me track my exercise and nutrition to meet those goals.

I don't have a ton of full-body shots of when I was at my heaviest to compare, but I think the best measurement of my progress can be seen in these two photos of a trapeze move called the "angel." The first is fall 2012, the second is April 2014.





And last but not least, this is a photo I took today, as I start my new fitness goals of reducing my body fat percentage and training to be able to perform static trapeze for a real live audience (!!!) in a few months. I look forward to sharing that journey with y'all!