Hit my goal weight - I've lost more weight than what I weigh!!! (159 lbs gone)

I can't believe it's time for me to write about my own success story. I remember checking these stories myself off and on during my first year of losing weight and wondering "Will I get there? Will I be a success?".

Yes, I will. Yes, I am.

Just letting you know now, this post will have A LOT of pictures.

I started this journey in February 2013, weighing 309 lbs. I hadn't weighed myself in years for fear of what the scale would say, and when I finally did, it was nothing short of heartbreaking. But my god did it make me desperate to change. Seeing that number made it impossible to continue living in denial. There are virtually no photos of me from that time, but I'll share a couple here even though it is very hard to look at them now.


Ouch.


December 2013, 235 lbs (75 lost)


Who's face is that in the first picture? Not mine, surely...

As you can see though, in a year I reached a major milestone and dropped over 100 lbs. I can't even describe the difference in my life from before and after. No more constant fatigue, crippling social anxiety, depression, and so on. I was back in college and making good grades. I could actually see myself having a happy future for the first time in a long time. But I was damn sure not done yet. I felt better, but I was still 50+ lbs overweight. I was determined not to let myself get comfortable and stop before I was done.


Dropped another 20lbs, down to 180. I ended 2014 at 173 lbs. At this point I had gotten rid of 8 years worth of weight gain, putting me back at the same weight I was at the age of 19.

And now for 2015:


170 lbs, and one of the first times I didn't immediately delete a full body picture.


Annnd then I dyed my hair blue. You might not think this is relevant, but let me tell you, nothing can demonstrate how drastically my self esteem had improved more than this. I went years desperately NOT wanting to be noticed in public, so doing something that causes the complete opposite felt like I had truly overcome some major obstacles.


165lbs


155lbs, and the first time I'd worn shorts in a very, very long time.

And now, ending 2015 at my initial goal weight of 150 lbs.




Which included an NSV that I was seriously hoping to achieve one day - seeing a picture of myself that someone else took, and actually liking it.


Sidenote: I'm 5'6 and my current measurements are 38-28-38.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading my story. I really could not have done this without MFP. It's helped me understand my body's relationship with food and given me a tangible way to manage my calorie intake. It's been a source of encouragement, through the forums and feedback, and things just as small and simple as getting "likes" after completing diary entries.

I'll end this with a few tips I've learned along the way:

- It really is important to drink a lot of water
- Log everything as accurately as you can, as much as you can
- But also realize that if you are on top of things 90% of the time, the 10% won't matter
- When you're in a rut, changes in routine work like a charm (food, activity level, etc)
- If you binge one day, the increase you see in your weight the next day is NOT actual weight gain, it's water weight. Get back on track immediately and you'll see it disappear in a matter of days.
- You do not have to kill yourself exercising to lose weight. It really is as simple as calories in/calories out. But of course, doing anything you can to increase your activity level will only be a good thing
- You can still eat what you want, you just have to work it into your calories. The only things I have "given up" are regular soda (haven't had one since April 2013!) and milkshakes (my god, have you ever looked up how bad milkshakes are? they just aren't worth it! I'd rather have pizza and chocolate)

If you have any questions feel free to ask and of course friend requests are welcome as well, I'm still going to be logging in daily.