Woohoo, I did it, I reached my goal!

I’ll give you a little background on how I got to the point where I needed to join MFP and to where I am now 

Back in 2009 I bought a house with my then boyfriend, it was the first time I had lived alone (out of my parents house) and was responsible for all my meals, shopping etc. I was alone a lot due to his work schedule, so I ate a lot and sat around a lot. Before I knew it I went from 120s to 170lb! I remember leaving a basketball game and texting with my sister, we both decided the next day we’d start “dieting.” At first I did the weight watchers point system (I got the food values/points from a friend and used that, so I didn’t actually join) and eventually I switched to counting calories and added in walking 3 miles several times a week. It worked, it took about 18 months and I was back down to my starting weight. I maintained that for a few years, through my wedding and then gaining a little prior to getting pregnant. In 2014 when I got pregnant with my daughter I was 139lb, only gained 28lb during that pregnancy. I lost most of the baby weight quickly after having her.. then just kind of let myself go and didn’t care about what I ate, I was too busy and there was certainly no time for exercising with a brand new baby.

That brings us to my current weight loss journey.. in December I decided enough was enough, I was up to 155lb (which I realize in the grand scheme of things that isn’t too overweight, but on my 5’2” frame it was a lot for me!) So I redownloaded MFP and started tracking calories, didn’t add any exercise at this point. Very slowly I started losing some weight.. by June I had lost 10lb. On June 12th I bought a new digital scale and a digital food scale and got serious, up until then I feel like I was very casual about logging and exercising. I started weighting myself daily, and being diligent about weighing my food! And all I did for exercise was walk, I walked each lunch break during the work week and walked 3-4 nights a week after dinner. I definitely had times where I threw it all to the wind and didn’t care what I ate/drank and just enjoyed myself! I would be bummed stepping on the scale the next day, but just kept trucking along and quickly the pounds started falling off. Between June 12th and today I’ve lost 17.2lb for a grand total of 26.4lb! My goal is 128, I weighed 128.6 this morning, close enough for me to celebrate reaching my goal!

From here I’m not quite sure what to do. I think I’ll stay at my current calorie allowance and see if maybe I can inch a little close to 125lb, but I am perfectly happy where I am today! Eventually I’ll start adding to my calories to reach maintenance, but I am worried I’ll start gaining by adding, so that’s why I want to do it slowly. I've loved being a part of MFP and will continue to log in a read message boards and cheer everyone on!

I’ve attached a few photos, I don’t have a lot of full body shots, and I don’t think pictures look a whole lot different, but in real life and my clothes (went from a size 8 to a size 2/4) there is a huge difference!