100 pounds down, more to go (pics)

Hi! I'm Melanie. I started my weightloss journey several years ago...before I had a smart phone and new what MFP was When I decided to start my journey, I was miserable physically. I literally felt like I was being suffocated by my fat. I was so uncomfortable. I felt like my fat was squeezing me and I was finding it hard to even breathe. I also had two experiences where I traveled and could not do the fun things physically. A trip to Vegas, I barely made it walking the strip. I almost crawled back to the car. My sister patiently made multiple stops with me on our way back to the car. A trip to the Grand Canyon with my folks, had my back killing me and I was exhausted begging to go home instead of enjoying the beauty...and we were being bussed around the canyon...

When I decided to start this journey, I decided to take it slow and easy, as I wanted to develop good habits that would bring life-long change. This was the heaviest I had ever been in my life. Years early when I was much thinner, I had gone gun-ho for a short period of time. That was all it lasted...a very short time, less than a year. Here's a few pics of the skinnier me days.



Then I gained the most weight I ever had in my life while I lost my job and my house. I kept it on and kept gaining through a bad job working for a woman who has to be the nastiest person to ever walk this earth. I lost any self-esteem I had and struggled with depression. I was for the first time in my life, obese.

And then came the challenge of taking it off. I started seriously in March 2012 with Curves and slowly eating a better diet. Small changes in baby steps. Gradually adding better eating and exercise habits over time. I wanted to be the turtle and not the hare. I had lots of experience of being the hare, which only brought short-term success. In Nov 2012 with my first smart phone I found MFP which added extra motivation I did not have. The friends I connected with on here, the boards and the groups, and the tracking of food and exercise. It was so exciting and motivating. I joined groups and also lead a lot of groups.

I am finally posting this story, because for about the last year I have been stuck in a holding pattern. I got off the weigthloss track and making sure to regularly exercise and eat right. I ended up completely bored of the exercise I had been doing, the foods I had been eating. I have made small bouts of getting on track and the weight does start coming back off when I do. Exercise is the key for me. But it is again only short-term. I have let job changes, health issues and not enough sleep and lack of motivation get in the way of my journey. Sticking with it and being motivated has been the hard part. While I am thankful for not gaining back any weight and maintaining all the weight I have lost so far, I want to finish this thing off. And I want a healthy lifestyle of eating right and regular exercise to be part of my everyday life.

So part of my trying to get back at this and stick with it, is that I'm finally celebrating how far I've come. I'm telling my story on here, and I'm having a party with friends I haven't seen in a while in a couple of weeks. It's time to get this show back on the road.

If I could tell you one thing I've learned from my journey - baby steps. One step at a time. Set yourself up for success not failure. Don't go cold turkey from soda and sweets. Wean yourself off of them. Oh, and one more thing... "No one said it will be easy. But it will be worth it."