One year down a lifetime to go! 96lbs down PICS

Hello fellow MFPers! My name is Tessa I'm 27 from Minnesota! I'm so excited to share my first year and my success thus far in my journey. My starting weight was 350 pounds, yes you read that right 350 pounds!
Was I always fat/overweight? No I wasn't I use to be very athletic and loved to play sports. That's until we moved to a new city when I was in middle school. I was immediately bullied beyond belief. I'm naturally very shy and reserved and I was an easy target. I joined different sports in hopes to make new friends in this new city. Instead my self esteem was continuously crushed by my peers. I distinctly remember the girls on the volley ball team serving the ball on purpose to my head instead of over the net,then laughing uncontrollably at me. I soon quit all sports and began being very sedentary. School over all was a huge nightmare for me and I barely graduated. Fast forward years later my self esteem was still low and I never fully got back into being active again. I had tried but nothing ever stuck for long. I continued to do what I knew and found comfort in food. The day I knew I had to make a change for good was the day my son was born(he's now almost 2). My mom growing up was what I described as a SUPER MOM. She did everything. She took care of 4 young kids and did day care all on her own. She is the best example of a mother I could think of and I knew I wanted to give my son the same kind of mom. I also knew there was no way I could be that kind of mother at 350 pounds. I decided once I was done breastfeeding and could truly commit I'd once and for all lose the weight and become the person I've always wanted to be.
My new life began January 18th 2015. I started with Jillian Michael dvds, walking, and counting my calories. It was NOT easy at first. Trying to workout with almost 200 extra pounds on my body was rough but I knew I had to do it this time, this was my time. I continued to push and push and push and pounds kept coming off. When I started I could barely walk 20 minutes at a pretty slow speed. I'm now able to walk at least 40 minutes 6 days a week and I can do intervals of running for minutes at a time during my workouts. As far as my diet goes I try to mostly eat healthy. But as long as I'm within my calories and maybe I want a piece of candy every once and while, I allow myself to have it. But I have much healthier and better portions. I've still enjoyed every holiday and every party which we have many eating what I want during those then getting back to it. Right before Christmas this year we lost my beloved Grandpa. The combination of that and Christmas resulted in a gain for me. But I picked myself back up and got back to my workouts and eating healthy and before I knew it that gain was gone.
This journey has been amazing. I feel better than I've ever felt as an adult. I know everyday that I'm a healthy happy example to my son and that's truly priceless. Now has my journey been perfect, NO far from it. But I continue to work everyday on bettering myself. Thanks everyone on MFP for the support! And to those not on here that give me support everyday such as my amazing fiance. I want people to know they can do this with out special pills, fad diets or things like that. Set up a schedule for yourself and stick with it no excuses. If I can do it you can too, and it's so worth it!

Me at my starting weight 350 pounds




30 pounds lost





46 pounds lost

70 pounds lost

85 pounds lost

96 pounds lost