Today is my 44th birthday and 5 year maintenance anniversary! (with pix)

In December 2012 I decided enough was enough and got my act together to lose weight. I lost 17 lbs on my own by walking and “eating better” then plateaued. A coworker mentioned this site and I started using it and losing weight again. I began hiking as well as walking, luckily I live in a hilly area with many trails. I had promised myself I’d be a healthy weight by my next bday in October 2013 and ended up losing 43 lbs over 10 months to achieve my goal! I did stop using the app for 2 years after reaching goal to take a break from logging and did ok but regained 13 lbs when I had a change in activity at work but just started logging again and lost those pounds (don’t remember the timeframe but it was slooooow) and got back to my goal weight of 167 lbs (I’m 5’11”). I became a runner and discovered my passion for trail running! After a lifetime of being sedentary, now I try to stay as active as possible by running, walking, hiking, biking and swimming. And I count my calories, I’ve become quite good at guesstimating food’s caloric value, portions and exercise calorie burns but this has happened only through trial and error and waiting and watching how my weight reacts as well as being completely honest with myself. Patience is definitely key! I weigh myself once a week and only allow myself a 3 lb buffer and adjust my calories/activity accordingly if needed. For me, activity has become an absolute necessity to keep my weight in check and feel my best. Currently I’m maintaining at 167 lbs and feel fantastic! I can hardly believe it’s been 5 years!

I’ll add the pix as comments...