1 year, 100 lbs lost! (w/pictures)

In about 4 days, I will have logged into MFP for the 365th time, which means I'll have been doing this new healthy lifestyle for exactly one year! Luckily, today when I stepped on the scale, I realized I had hit my first major goal just a few days before hitting that 1 year mark. When I first started trying to lose weight on MFP, I was skeptical. In the past, I've always been the sort of person that 'tried' to diet for a week or so or gave up, or maybe made it to a month on a really good try. I even tried the calorie counting thing in the past, with Sparkpeople. So when I started on here, I set my goal to 100lbs, thinking that was a tough-but-reasonable goal that I could reach eventually. I don't know if it was MFP entirely, because I think a part of it was that I was finally in the mindspace where I wanted to really try and push and do this. (Because if YOU don't really want to, it'll never work, despite how much other people try and push you.) ANYWAY, thanks to cutting down majorly on my calories, eating better, drinking lots of water, and trying to work out (I'm still bad at that), while also not completely cutting myself off from things I love... I've done it! I've lost 100.8lbs and hit my first goal! I've also gone down about 3-4 clothing sizes, possibly more since it's so hard to tell with women's clothing. Two weeks ago I went clothing shopping and ACTUALLY ENJOYED IT. Wow! Anyway, here are some progress pictures... with my actual weight listed, which I still feel weird doing but here goes.

A few months before starting, at... somewhere around 397lbs. This is actually a few months before I started my weight loss journey, but it's pretty much the only body picture I have from that time. I used to hate taking pictures of myself:



I started my journey in July, so here I was in November, having lost 45lbs or so:



Moving on to a fun animated gif I made when I'd lost about 75lbs total:



And finally, here I am in the last week or so, just shy of the 100lb mark! I was about 298 then, and I just hit 296 or so today! (Sorry for the slightly blurry picture quality of the first one, it's the best I have!)





And just for comparison, here is a before and after face shot:




You know, it's so amazing to me looking back at those older pictures. I never remember being so big or FEELING quite so big, but when I look back at them I'm just like... holy crap! I still don't feel like I've come so far, but pictures help. So anyway, onward to my next goal of 250, and then maybe 200, and after that we'll see... because to be honest, I like myself with at least SOME curves, and I've never wanted to get super thin. (I already feel super thin, comparatively!)

Good luck to all of you on your journeys, too, and feel free to follow me! (And please be gentle if you can, this is one of the first times I've posted my actual weight numbers online rather than just the loss amounts, it makes me so nervous! I know I'm still big, okay. Thanks!]