93 lbs down & excited to share a new before & after pic!

Thank you all for the compliments and encouragement! It's been a long but satisfying few years, and I am so much more confident now. The pounds always come off quicker when I'm in a good place mentally, which, as someone who has dealt with depression for 15 years now, is not something that comes naturally for me.

Aside from addressing the surface problems of low activity and overeating, I have spent a lot of time addressing the reasons behind these behaviors. I went to cognitive behavioral therapy in 2007-2008 to learn healthier ways to deal with emotional situations that would inevitably pop up in the future, as the only way I knew to deal with them at that point was with substance abuse, cutting, and binge-eating. A side effect of that therapy is that I started to feel like I deserved to be a healthy, beautiful person on the outside as well as in. The therapy enabled me to change the way I viewed and lived my life, and I would recommend it to anyone dealing with depression, anxiety, PTSD, or anything similarly debilitating.

Not everyone needs therapy - I understand that. However, a severe weight issue is usually a symptom of something larger, rather than just a disease in itself, so work on your inside as much as your outside. We all need to be honest with ourselves about the reasons why we do the things we do. Assess your situation, make a plan to change, and use that plan as a net to catch you whenever you start to fall off the wagon. Your plan should be a friend, not a burden.

I hope this helps you all. These are the tools that have helped me succeed thus far, and I want to share them with whomever possible. We all deserve it and we are all equipped with the ability to change. Let's keep going.