I HIT MY GOAL! Lessons learned...

I am happy to report that in the 9-10 months that I have been using MFP I have lost 43 lbs and 15 inches! I hit my goal weight (actually surpassed it by 1 lb) yesterday. Trust me, this site works wonders!
Unfortunately I don't have any good before pictures, but my profile picture shows pants that fit me when I started. I went from a size 14 to a size 8.:drinker:

My general food menu was oatmeal with ground flaxseed and blueberries for breakfast, hardboiled egg or fruit for snack, frozen lunch (time constraint), more fruit for snack, small pre-workout snack of cottage cheese or banana, big salad for dinner with homemade bread or small portions of something else combined with lots of veggies. I drank a lot of water and green tea. And I never made myself miserable by completely restricting certain foods, which I think was key for me because I never felt like binging. I still had a small piece of Dove chocolate for dessert at lunch. I had 100 calorie popcorn bags during movies at home. I typically had light beer or wine with dinner. I went out to eat once a week with friends to "jump start my metabolism". Of course I had days that I went over, but never more than 500 calories, and I made up for it the next day. I tried to log all my food in the morning so I knew what kind of snacks I could have, and what kind of a workout I should do. I started with low calories and bumped them up at each plateau (and it worked everytime!!) Now I don't really log much anymore, mainly because I can spout calorie info like the best of them, but I will never delete this site from my Favorites list.:laugh:

During the winter I was out cross country skiing or I was in the basement on the elliptical, treadmill or doing cardio videos. Once it warmed up I started hiking A LOT and got a personal trainer to help with toning and strenghening. I started to like running:noway: , and I am looking into buying a road bike. I was doing 6 days a week, and now I am to the point where I can do 3-4 days to maintain which is nice. I feel like I have my life back. And the biggest key was the Polar heart rate monitor I bought. So incredibly helpful for outdoors activities, and to find out the gym machines always overestimate for me.

I have been extremely lucky to have a very supportive fiance throughout everything. He endured all the countless salads, food measuring, pricier food bill, extra workout equipment and babbling about MFP. And he took it like a champ - of course, he does like the results a lot!!

I wish everyone the success that I have had. I will still continue checking in with the MFP family on a regular basis to see others results and because I learn something new everytime. The information shared on this site is amazing! Thanks to Mike and everyone else. Keep up the good work, and keep off the lbs!

Liz:flowerforyou: