My "1 Year on MFP!" post (with pics)

Today marks one year that I've been logging my food and exercise on this website. I have not reached my goal weight yet, but so much has changed in the last year that I thought I'd share.

Here's me about a year and a half ago, at 250 pounds (I'm 5'8"):


I did a lot of sitting. Most of my work and hobbies could be done sitting. Eating, watching movies, knitting.



My depression had gotten really bad after my kid was born, I didn't own a scale, and didn't really care about losing weight, so the weight crept up on me.

Then one day in January of 2013, a friend invited me out to ride her horse. OH MY GOD YES. I grew up riding horses, I am a card carrying horse nerd for lyfe y'all, but I hadn't ridden since before my son was born. Would my breeches still fit? Could her horse carry me? Yes and yes.



Unfortunately, I only lasted 10 minutes in the saddle before I pulled nearly every muscle in my lower body and felt like I was having a freaking heart attack. Ten. Minutes. Oh my god.

So there was my wake up call. A horse named Finn changed my life.

I decided to just start with running. Runners are fit, right? If I run, I'll eventually get good, and the weight will just fall right off. That's how it works, right? So I got the Couch to 5K app on my phone and obeyed the nice robot lady voice that told me when to walk and when to run. I kept at it through some pain and some hate, but something happened about 6 weeks in and a switch flipped in my brain. I loved running. I looked forward to it. This was great.

Unfortunately, I was still eating massive amounts of food, so the weight was not, in fact, dropping right off me. Dang it. I hated to admit it, but I needed to lose some weight. To get lighter so I could run faster and ride better. So, despite having quit dieting in a feminist rage back in the 90s, I got a scale and started on MFP. :grumble:

At first I just estimated a lot. I didn't have a food scale, and I bought convenience food groceries with food labels and serving sizes that could be easily logged. Not a lot of meals from scratch at first. It was easier for me that way.

By the fall of 2013, I had dropped 20 pounds. Yay!


I was starting to get fitter. My running got better. I started taking taekwondo classes twice a week.



I also felt confident enough to start riding again.


In February of this year, I got sick with endometritis (an acute infection). Plateaued/maintained for a month or so just above 200 pounds. It was frustrating. I was really sick for a while, but eventually able to resume working out, and was able to keep going with taekwondo.



Lurking around on the forums and searching for plateau threads got me through my recovery. I had been trying to gross about 1700 calories per day, with daily workouts of running, aerobics, taekwondo, biking, swimming, and strength training. This led to binges which would erase my deficit. The scale went up and down.

I figured my TDEE and it was about 2800-3200 calories per day. So I decided to shoot for about 2300 daily, no matter how many calories MFP said I had left for the day. I bought a food scale and started weighing my food. (Man, was I wrong about a lot of portion sizes!)

The scale started going back down. At about 197, I was able to fit into my old riding breeches. The smaller ones.



May 1st of this year was my anniversary. 194. Size 12 dress. Cut my hair. Wearing Spanx and sucking it in...



192. It's weird, but at this point, I'm starting to not recognize the reflection in the mirror. It's so weird. I don't look like I did. I've changed so much. In the last 10 years I've come to think of myself as the awesome fat chick, and now that the fat part has been taken out of the equation, then who am I? Hm.



At 187, I got myself a new taekwondo uniform because the old one was too big. I also earned my green belt.



Now it's July, one year of counting calories, and I am down 67 pounds. I went from a tight size 18 to a loose size 12. From 250 pounds to 183.



I want to get to 160, and at that point, I'll re-evaluate my goals. If it takes me another year to get there, so be it. I'd rather go slowly and have lots of food than try to lose fast anyway. I eat a lot and work out a lot and love it. Here's me after I kicked my husband's butt riding 13 miles on the bikes this morning (he's napping right now, bless his heart)...



So that brings us to now. Thanks MFP for helping me get here.




I hope the pics post nicely the first time (ohpleaseohpleaseohplease)...