I never realized....

I never realized how much weight I had gained in the beginning. Throughout my entire life, I was athletic. I was going from volleyball practice to hula (which surprisingly, burns a lot of calories!). But my true love is the ocean. I would surf every weekend with my dad. Eventually I switched over to the sport of outrigger canoe racing, and it took over my life. I was paddling 6+ miles a day and running another 5 miles after we got out of the water, 10 months out of the year. And I was eating like it. My friends called me the vacuum cleaner because I would eat all of their leftover foods during lunch. But with all the exercise I was doing I could afford it... This was me my senior year of high school (I'm the one on the left, next to my coach in the white shirt!):




AND THEN I graduated from high school. Paddling went from 10 months out of the year to 5, and practices were less intense. I was expected to run on my own after we finished paddling... And did I? OF COURSE NOT! I wanted to go out with my friends instead... BUT there was a BIG PROBLEM... I was still eating like I was paddling 6+ miles and running 5 miles every day... And so the weight kept creeping up... I didn't really pay attention to how much weight I was gaining. Yeah, I had to buy bigger clothes, but it didn't bother me. I didn't think I looked that big in the mirror. And then one day, I took this picture with my family: (I'm in the sunglasses!)



It wasn't until I saw this picture that I went, HOLY SH**! YOU ARE GETTING FAT! This picture was about 2 years after I graduated. I finally stepped on the scale... In high school I was anywhere between 130-140, depending on the season. At my very heaviest, I was 185... I knew it needed to change, but it took a while to finally figure it out. I would go between losing weight, and then I would think it would get to hard, and I would quit, and then I would be ashamed and I would try again. I swear to you, I've probably made like six different myfitnesspal accounts. For this one (the one that finally stuck!) I had to actually create a new email because I had used all my other ones!

But last year, I buckled down. I finally caved and got a gym membership (I was one of those people who owned like 20 different fitness DVDS). But the gym finally made me accountable. I fell in love with lifting, and I started cooking my own food (instead of always eating "healthy options" at restaurants/fast food, which often times have much more calories than the nutritional information says). My boyfriend helped me by going to gym and eating healthy foods with me (even though he has no need to lose weight!). I am so proud of what I have done, even though sometimes I still feel like I'm fat... But that's a mental thing! Today, my cousin posted this picture of us with our grandparents and I just had to smile! Sometimes I forget that I've lost 45bs, and am down to a size two... (a size that I actually haven't been since I was in middle school!) (I'm in the pink at the end BTW!)



Having a success story is great, and I hope and pray that everyone on myfitnesspal will soon have their own success story!

PS I am finally going back to paddling this summer, something I had to stop because of work, and you have no idea have freakin' excited I am!