One Year and 77 lbs later :)

I've been on the bigger side of normal for almost all of my life...my dad's side of the family aren't the smallest people in the world and I definitely inherited that gene. I really didn't start gaining all of the weight until I got to college and had the freedom to eat whatever I wanted, when I wanted; the beginning of my consumption of alcohol at this time didn't help either. I started packing on the pounds and before I knew it I was at 255 lbs, my heaviest. I tried so many diet plans and I lost up to 30 lbs at times but I would get lazy, frustrated or hit a plateau and just go back to the way that I was eating before. My dad was always concerned about my weight and told me that I needed to lose some and I only took this as him being mean and criticizing and not for what it really was, which was concern. My mom was always supportive of me and would gently nudge me to lose weight but she knew that I would lose it when I wanted to. About a year ago, I started having some health issues that weren't being resolved by traditional methods and I had read that they could be cured by weight loss. That's when I finally looked in the mirror and said to myself that I couldn't do this to myself anymore...I'm too young to be having the health issues I was and I needed to do it now before it got any harder. I started watching what I ate, portion control, exercising and pure willpower! The pounds started melting off of me and I couldn't even believe the results I was getting! People almost immediately noticed my weight loss and I still get a huge smile on my face to this day when I see the looks on people's faces who hadn't seen me in a while.I haven't met my goal yet and I still have my hard days and cravings (I'm a sweets-aholic) but I look back and tell myself that I never want to be like that again, never being able to find clothes and just feeling completely horrible about myself. I feel so much better now, am beginning to finally like what I see in the mirror! It took me some time to finally realize that I am what everyone says I am...beautiful and SKINNY!!

SW: 245 lbs
CW: 173 lbs
GW: 150 lbs
Previous size- 24
Current size- 14