De-Lurking to Post my One-Year Success Pics!

I've been lurking on these forums for the past year, and since the success stories have been so inspirational to me, I wanted to pay it forward and make a post of my own in the hope that I could inspire just one other person.

I found MFP and started my healthy lifestyle on March 11, 2011. Something clicked that day, and I simply decided it was time to stop eating and lazy-ing myself into an early grave.

I gave my habits a complete overhaul: I started as someone whose portions were out of control and who thought take-out, cheese, and carbs were the three main food groups. I never got off my butt and was one of those people who likely would only have made a token effort to run during the zombie apocalypse.

I now go to the gym 4-5 days a week and walk or work out at home most other days. I bought a heart rate monitor and Vibram Five Fingers and like to tell everyone about them. I've run my first 5K. I own almost all of Jillian Michaels' DVDs. I'm familiar with most of the machines at the gym and have just started using barbells as I try to lift heavy. (I've bought NRL4W, and I'm getting calluses on my hands!) I now feel antsy if I don't get a workout in and sometimes need to remind myself how important rest days are.

My stats: I'm 5'4" and started out with a BMI of 34.5 and a weight of 198.2. I reached my lowest weight of 118.4 (BMI 20.3) in February of 2012 and have been trying to maintain since then, fluctuating between 118 and 122 (BMI 20.9). I'm not so worried about the scale these days and am focussing on trying to decrease body fat and increase lean muscle mass. According to my hand-held fat % analyser (not the most accurate thing in the world, I know), I've gone from 44.2% fat to 25.1%. I've lost a combined 74 inches across my body, including 15.5" from my hips and 14" from my waist! I've gone from eating 1200 calories/day when i started to over 2000 these days in order to fuel my body for all my workouts.

I buy loads of fresh foods (shop the perimeter of your grocery store!) and cook many things from scratch. I love to experiment in the kitchen, something I rarely did in the past. I've added whole wheat, quinoa, Greek yoghurt, nutritional yeast, flax seed, almond butter, PB2, and edamame to my diet, just to name a few items off the top of my head. I make my own pizza, pitas, mug breads, and tortillas, and I enjoy them more than I did the store bought versions.

I've never felt better. I've never looked better. And here's the part you've all been waiting for:

This is me starting out (around 194 pounds, size 18-20). Sorry for the headless pics, but I don't like sticking full pics of myself on the internet.



A year later, this is me in the same top and comparably-sized trousers (at around 120lb):



This is me standing in one leg of those old size 20 jeans:



This is me in clothes that fit. (It might be vanity sizing, but it says size 2 on the label!):



And this is what I have to show for my strength-training efforts so far:



I still eat the foods I love and still do activities I enjoy, but I've done my best to constantly push my limits and discover new definitions of those things. I've slipped up more than once, but I just get going again and remind myself that this is a healthy lifestyle that I need to figure out how to maintain for the rest of my life.

I look in the mirror these days and still see all the changes I want to make BUT I also see how far I've come. I see that anything is possible, and I know that we've all got it within us to change our lives and be happy and healthy! Best of luck to all of you on your journeys. ^_^