20% loss of body weight

Today I am going to shout it out: I have lost 20% of my body weight!!! In January 2012 I weighed 388# and am 6 feet tall. It was my highest weight ever. I was short of breath all the time, tired, depressed, and horrible aches and pains everywhere. I have PCOS, infertility, and asthma. I'm an emotional binge eater and struggled with weight my entire life. I've been on numerous weightloss plans losing 20-30# only to gain it all back and then some, again. I even lost 70# once 10 years ago, got pregnant, and gained it back, and then some. And my body really hated me working night shift (16 years of it). I got off night shift a few months prior to that (ER nurse) and started sleeping regularly, and began to make some changed in my dietary habits. Over the next 14 months, 60# melted off. I was beginning to feel better, but then became stressed out over a plateau so I took a small break and decided to maintain for awhile. Then starting in June, I decided I needed to start working out and work on nutrition. It was so hard! I forced myself to get up in the mornings to workout because I knew, I would make-up every excuse I could to avoid working out after work: family, tired, busy, etc... I took it one day at a time. In August I added in weight training, and I love it!!! I feel empowered. My weight loss this year has been much smaller (17# since June so far) but my NSV have been amazing!!! I've lost inches around my waist, my shoulders are beginning to show some definition. I can plank, I'm learning to do burpees, I can move and bend better now than I could in August and even more so in June. So, I'm continuing my routine I have set up for the next 12 weeks (I started last week).

My Spring goals are:
1. To start training to run (Which will take awhile because of shin splint history, bad knees, and plantar fascitis)
2. To be able to do good, low squats without knee pain so I can start doing deadlifts.

So, for anyone out there who is making excuses to staying on track with food choices or exercising, please listen to me and what I am learning. I am learning to love myself, which means I talk nice to myself, and I give myself grace when I mess up. It also means I don't sabotage myself, I encourage myself to make the right choice. Sometimes it means taking it one step, one choice at a time. You can do it!!!!