Ever have one of those days?

I'm fighting with my scale a lot lately, and my mirror, and my tape measure, so I thought it might be wise to take a trip in the wayback machine and see how far I've managed to come. Back in highschool I wasn't Fat per say...but I wasn't slender. Always with an abundance of T&A that really I didn't want. I grew up on a farm, throwing hay bales, wrestling with animals, shoveling ungodly substances etc. I didn't watch what I ate, but didn't need to because of the magic of teenage metabolism and all the work I was doing. I was about a size 10/12 when I went to college, and I've no idea what my weight was because we didn't have a scale for humans.

College came and I stopped wrestling animals and haven't spent a day working on a farm since 2000. Moved to the city, flunked out of school, worked retail, walked everywhere. Metabolism slowed down as it does, appetite did not. Add in problems with stress and depression and a couple of years living in a suburb and having to drive everywhere....I wasn't no size 10/12 any more.

It really hit home when I went into David's Bridal (know for being big girl friendly) and they couldn't find a dress in the store that would zip. Everything had to be clipped into place, nothing looked right, and between my lack of height (5'1), and weird proportions (ever seen an overweight hourglass?) the whole experience was so many layers of awful it was ridiculous.

I ended up making my own wedding dress rather than deal with that again.

As you can see it worked out anyways, but I was not a skinny bride on my wedding day.

Here I was on my honeymoon...


And then I started getting fit. The first time I weighed myself in ages I was at 202. That is the picture on the left, and after already having lost some weight. I was probably around 175-170 in the 2013 photo.


And here I am about a week ago, at about 163.


I've been running, lifting, swimming, yoga-ing etc and generally being a more active me. I watch what I eat, but try not to deprive myself.

I'm getting stronger and faster. My 5k time started at 39:24 in 2012, in 2013 it was 37:28, and earlier this year I set a personal best of 31:19. My time for my first 10 mile race was 2:07:11 in 2013, and this year the same race I did in 1:53:51. My first half marathon last year was 2:48:43, and the same race this year I finished in 2:24:29.

I'm still not happy with where I'm at, but even the most negative voices in my head can't deny the progress that I've made. I have all sorts of data and photographic evidence to back it up. We will see where I end up, but for now just seeing the progress helps. Who knows...maybe next year I'll finally be at a healthy weight, break a 28 minute 5k, have a 1:45 10 mile race, break a 2:15 half marathon.

All it takes is hard work and dedication.