1 year. 70 some pounds.

some of you may know me on the forums (ive been around awhile ) for my no nonsense, take no prisoners ' call it like i see it ' attitude. People tend to love me or hate me. either way, i really don't care But like me or not, I do know what I'm doing and have had a huge amount of success using MFP. I'm vocal and opinionated and leave my diary public so people (especially those just beginning their journey) can see you do not have to eat 'special' foods, or restrict anything or have a super crazy regimented routine. If you want to, great. But I firmly believe that your long term success is dependent on having a lifestyle you can maintain. For me, that lifestyle is a lot of eating out, chocolate (mmmmm chocolate) and sometimes copious amounts of alcohol (believe it or not i really typically only drink on the weekends LOL)

People make excuses for not losing weight. I've been there, and so have you, most likely. When you stop making the excuses, and simply decide that you are READY for a change... you will make that change. But it is SOLELY up to YOU. My current logging streak is 380 days (been a member of mfp much longer, though lol). And in those 380 days, I have had 2 deaths in my immediate family, moved twice, had untold weekends of drinking and partying, holidays, birthdays, family drama, work, kids,pets, vacations, friends, in the process of separating from my husband and all the other crap ALL of us have. but every day, no matter what, I logged in. I may not have logged my food every day (though 99% of the time i did) but I always made a point to log in.

I eat exactly what I want. Just a lot less of it. Everything i make at home, is weighed in grams on a food scale. eating out is (obviously) estimated. I work out at the gym on average 5 days a week. I do mostly cardio but also some weight/ strength work. When the temps are above 40 degrees, I take a jog in the evenings. not far - between 1.5 and 3 miles. I eat 1500 calories a day and follow a modified tdee plan. i do not eat back gym exercise calories but will eat back ones from my jog if i want. If go over my calories, I don't mind. I may step on the scale every day, but I only log and care about my weight once a week.

The old photos are from 2011-2013. I got larger than that, but there was (deliberately) no photographic evidence of that. Funny how that works I am 5'1 (maybe 2 if i stretch my neck) and at my heaviest, weighed around 250 pounds. I am currently at 180. My (for now) goal is 150, as on my frame, its a really cute weight. I wil re-evaluate when I get there. I (purposely) maintained from october through december (so really, the 70 pound loss was in a 9 month time frame). I've lost 5 or 6 pounds since the beginning of the year.


and now..... for the pics (really hope theyre not too big)....

then ...











and now....