My Success Story with Only One Photo :)

This is me tonight, reading out on our deck, very little makeup, no body pics, but I am really pleased with my weight loss thus far and wanted to share. So, thank you for reading

Back in 1995, I was a young, overweight mom of 2 kids who weighed in at 235 lbs (5'9"). My younger brother was visiting, and as I was making dinner one night, he very gently told me that he was worried about me and did I know how unhealthy it was to be so overweight? I was super embarrassed that my LITTLE brother pointed this out. A few days later, I approached a group of (what I assumed was) friends after church and thought I heard them say something about meeting at another friend's house for dessert. I was like, "Dessert? We're doing dessert?" and they said, "Oh no, another time." I called that friend later on and she answered the phone to the sound of what was obviously a house full of people

Last item that caused me to lose weight back then - I went for fitting for bridesmaid's dress for my baby sister's wedding. THEY DIDN'T HAVE A SIZE THAT FIT ME I told the woman to order a size 18, and that I would lose the weight to fit into it.

That began a 5 year long process of losing 95 pounds (I had another baby during that time as well). I started eating 1800 calories or less per day, and discovered Jazzercise, which is the love of my exercise life to this day. All was awesome! Super! I was soooooo skinny!! A size 4!!! =O

Then my marriage fell apart, for many reasons. Fast forward to meeting my (now) husband, falling in love, and spending the first 8 years of our marriage happy, eating all of the time, drinking like a fish, and gaining 75 (!!!!) of the pounds back that I lost!!! SEVENTY FIVE, people!!!

This past January, I decided enough was enough, and started using MFP. I have had the exercise thing under control for YEARS, but my eating and my drinking especially was out of control. I've logged my eating & drinking every single danged day for 265 days. I've learned something that SHOCKED me, which is that my weight loss and soon to be maintenance is all about WHAT I PUT IN MY MOUTH. I continue to work out every day, and am super pleased to see my muscle definition again - but this time, I understand that I need to continue to eat less to keep it off. And not drink a bottle of wine per day.

I'm down 40 pounds as of today, and have just 15 more to get to my goal. And, my goal is NOT the skinny starving person that I was before, but a good 15 pounds above that. I need to be able to maintain for the long term, and 139 pounds at my height and age (almost 50, gulp) is just not sustainable for me. So here I am, happy and ready to take on the next 15!

And thank you for reading!