Personal NSV Before & After w/ PHOTOS

I wanted to post some before and after pictures. It’s not a huge difference but it surprised me and I consider it a NSV. The pictures on the left side were taken early this year, in March. The pictures on the right side were taken this week. What’s funny is that I am the exact same weight on both sides!!! Here’s the scoop:
This past January, I started building up a base and began training for a Half Ironman. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a triathlon that consists of swimming 1.2 miles, cycling 56 miles, and then a half marathon (13.1 mile run). I did not try to diet all year while training because I did not want to screw around with my fuel needs. I just figured I’d eat like normal and hope the training would take care of the extra weight… well it didn’t do anything to my weight, but as you can see from the pictures, I’ve toned up a bit.
I was pleased to see this because I was pretty frustrated that I had spent all year training for a huge event without losing a pound and all the while my clothes still fit the same. It’s not a big difference, but it’s something, especially since I had no idea that my body was any different from several months earlier. I apparently have put on a lot of muscle from all that training.
The Half Ironman was at the end of September and I am officially in my off season and no longer have to worry about the nutritional constraints of training for a huge endurance event. So, I have started to diet and I will continue swimming, cycling, and running at a level to simply maintain my fitness. I hope to lose 20-30lbs in the next 5 months. I hope I can get there, because starting around mid-February, I plan to go back into my training regimen for a race in June, and it would be so awesome to race the same distance 20-30lbs lighter and in the best fitness of my life!!!

I am 160 lbs on both sides of the picture.