Ooh, my turn now! PROGRESS so far! ^_^

Before we begin, let me introduce you to Emma from 4 years ago.
At 19, I accepted that I wouldn't be a good looking young lady. I blamed genetics and didn't really care about health. I didn't care about exercise but LOOOVED having a good drinking session!


(come on, tell me I don't look like a sweaty Meat Loaf!)

During my second year of uni (in 2011) I got really ill. After many blood tests and visits to the doctor's, I was finally diagnosed with T2 Diabetes (I was only 19 at the time!). They said that if I wasn't going to work hard to lose weight and make healthier choices, I would be on insulin in no time.

So there I was with my 29.4 BMI (75.5kgs, 5'3) and an irrational fear of exercise... I kicked my butt into gear and joined a bootcamp! I knew nothing whatsoever about body composition, strength training... I was just desperate to get the number moving off the scale. After 4 months of hard work and 1200 calories a day, I got myself down to 61kg/134lbs and BEAUTIFUL blood sugar test results... looking back at that now, I realise that that's a lot of weight to lose! But still, I wasn't really happy with how my body looked. I fit into smaller clothes but still looked incredibly "doughy"....

That was back in Autumn 2011... so what happened? I floated between 61kg and 65kg, went on 1200 calories a day for a few weeks here and there, lost weight, put it back on.

In 2013 there was A LOT going on at university and life in general... managed to graduate, get a job, blablabla... of course, full time work meant I stopped caring about my diet, exercise, sugar levels... and that's when the weight came creeping back. The thing with high blood sugar levels is that you get EXHAUSTED, resulting in junk food cravings, resulting in getting exhausted, resulting in MORE junk food cravings - it's a pretty vicious circle!

One morning in Feb 2014 I woke up and was fed up of constantly feeling crap about myself. Weighed myself in at 72.2kg. Kept a food diary in a little scrap book. Limited myself to 1200 a day, exercised a few times a week. Got down to 64kg. Still not happy.

In April 2014 I discovered this little gem of a website :bigsmile: I got LOADS of support from members, and realised that fitness is actually pretty cool! The more I read into weight loss and body composition, the more I realised that, all this time, I'D BEEN DOING IT WRONG. 1200 calories for a lightly active person who exercised is nothing. No wonder I was grumpy :laugh:

Here are my pictures from April 2014 after getting halfway to my GW, before strength training existed in my life. (excuse the granny pants, I had no idea I'd be sharing this with the world back then!)




Fast forward to August 2014! After setting myself loads of challenges, completing Jillian Michael's 30DS and RI30 and focusing on lifting heavy things, I'm at my FINAL goal weight of 55kg. I had an original GW of 58kg but kept on pushing it back... after chatting with my lovely MFP friends and asking for opinions, they persuaded me to stop (thanks guys, I'd be a twig now otherwise! ). During this time, I learnt three main things.

1) It's incredibly cool to love working out... here's me all proud on the beach after my first "beach jog"!

2) EAT GODDAMNIT! I ate back my exercise calories and made sure I was netting at least 1350 / 1400 calories average a day. Of course my progress slowed down, but I didn't set myself a time frame. I wanted to change permanently!

3) It's perfectly acceptable to own a 1kg tub of peanut butter while losing weight. none of that "restrict yourself" crap, eat what you want, just don't eat it all in one go UNLESS it fits your macros!

Alright, here goes: here I am now! :blushing:... actually no, no blushing. HERE I AM NOW! :drinker:




I wanted to post this weight loss story because it's now time for me to close the door on "calorie restriction". I'm gonna eat at maintenance, lift heavy things and set myself more challenges than ever ^_^ I want to be STRONG, not skinny!

Thanks for reading! Keep well MFPers! Oh, one more thing: quick before and after...:laugh:




P.S. My diabetes? What diabetes?! My HBA1C results came back at 31mmol/mol which is bang on normal! Let's see if I can get off this damn medication once and for all