My story was many years in the making, but I finally reached goal! (told through pictures)

Thanks, everyone! I was really on the fence about posting my story here, but figured I might as well. I'm glad it has inspired so many of you! I'm sorry it has taken a while to respond on here; life with kids, you know! ;-)

To answer those of you who had questions:

No, I did NOT continue to do WW. I was miserable and starving. After joining MFP, I entered a few sample days from my WW booklet and discovered that I had regularly been eating 1200 calories or less. No wonder I was miserable and had no energy! I definitely enjoyed losing weight eating approx 500 more per day!!

I got all my equipment at Dick's Sporting Goods, using coupons, sales, etc. Now they have a 'half rack' that my husband said he would probably prefer, but it wasn't an option 2 years ago when we were buying. But I love my cage and barbell!

Regarding finding time....well, I can't tell anyone how to find time to fit in exercise, since everyone's schedule is different. My husband is gone from 5:30am-5:15pm Mon through Fri while I stay home with the kiddos, so I lift Mon/Wed/Fri while my youngest takes her afternoon nap and the 3 older kids watch PBS in the next room. I run about twice per week (when not training for a race) in my neighborhood at night after the kids are all in bed (so around 8:00pm). Those evenings, my husband is lifting while I'm running, so it works well. When I'm training for a race, I still run at night, plus Saturday mornings to do long runs before the kids wake up and to take advantage of my husband being home with them. I just had to make exercise a priority and figure out where I could fit it in and not give myself excuses. :-)