Lost almost 40 lbs. (Pictures - )

I was always a chubby kid. When I was about ten I started putting on a little extra weight. By the time I was 12 years old I was a whopping 161 pounds. I was tall for my age, but definitely not tall enough to weigh that much... My mom and sister were both very thin, but since I was a kid it never seemed to bother me too much that I was so much bigger than them. When I started approaching my teen years I started to get a little self conscious about my weight. I noticed other kids my age were much smaller than me, and it began to bother me. My parents noticed that it was bugging me, and told me I could NOT go on a diet, but if I wanted to cut out eating junk food and drinking pop that they would give me 10 dollars per pound that I lost (upto 20 pounds)... That was a huge motivation to me, and I began to cut out sweets, etc. and only eat 3 healthy meals a day. The weight came off slowly, but after 4 months (on my 13th birthday) I had lost exactly 20 lbs. I had reached the height of 5'6", so I was finally in my weight category... After that I began to exercise, etc. and within a year or two lost some additional weight. I leveled out around 125 lbs and have stayed about that weight for several years. I'm still 5'6" and I am 20 years old. I just recently got married this year to the guy that I have liked since I was 14 years old. I'm so glad that my parents helped me conquer my weight issues at such a young age so that I wouldn't struggle as an adult. Here are my before and afters...


I'm the girl in the white shirt. I was about 12 years old.


This is me, June 2011, at my wedding. I had lost a few pounds due to wedding week craziness. Weighed about 121 here. (So, exactly 40 pounds down from my starting weight.


September 2011 before an awards ceremony.

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My husband admiring my dress.