Time to share

I hate photos so have been avoiding doing this for a few months now but think it's probably time to share, if my story can encourage anyone then it'll be worth it.
My lifestyle change began on January 1st 2017, my 39th birthday. I suddenly realised I would be 40 come my next birthday. I was a heavy smoker, overweight, unfit and extremely unhappy with myself. I had my last cigarette before bed on January 5th 2017. I employed pure will power and a lot of hate (OMG did I hate pretty much everyone in the entire world, and once I started restricting calories that got even worse!). Now I can finally and truely say I don't still wish I could light up every time something upsets me. I go for a run instead now lol.
Initially I swapped ciggies for sweets and cake, obviously that didn't go very well at all. I did however invest what I wouldn't be spending on smokes in a treadmill and forced myself to get on it every day, first of all for 30 minutes and then a few minutes longer each week. In March 2017 I tried to start C25k on said treadmill and ended up in tears from the pain in my shins. The penny dropped that I was going to have to go on a diet.
I had used MFP before to lose a few kilos so I came back and on March 18th started logging. I weighed 83.3 kilos. I work from home at a computer so set it to sedentary and it gave me 1,200 cals per day. Needless to say after a few weeks I was miserable as hell, hated the world and I think my husband and daughter were trying to sell me on Ebay.
I chucked an extra 100 calories on, made my own pre-C25k plan which involved a few seconds running every 5 minutes and gradually increased the running and reduced the walk breaks until I was at a point where I could start the programme itself. I also started eating about half my exercise calories back and was much happier.
It took time. A lot of time. There were days I wanted to give up, days I got depressed thinking even if I got my weight down what would be the use if I would then have to be hungry pretty much all the time to maintain it. However, my clothes started getting loose, my wedding ring was suddenly too big, the way my husband looked at me started to change..... little things that all added up.
I changed to maintenance calories after Christmas, although I'm still trying to master maintaining.... the scales are still dropping very slowly but I'm happy enough at the moment as that lets me allow myself the occasional guilt-free 'cheat'.
I currently weigh 54.9 kilos and have just signed up for a half marathon in December. It's going to be tough, it's going to be ugly, I'm going to have to train my backside off and..... I CAN'T WAIT.
I hope someone who is feeling the way I did, that they would never lose the weight or get fit, reads this and believes me when I say if I have managed it, ANYBODY can.
Summer 2016
May 2018