60+ lbs gone. Got some new manly muscles too!

I just want to say THANK YOU ALLLLLL soooooo very, very much!!! Your comments, messages, friend requests....you'll just never know what it did for me today. I was feeling really low and everyone here helped me to see the bigger picture (and quickly!). I never knew my story would be found so inspiring by so many people. I had planned to wait until I really hit my goal (whatever that was) before ever sharing my super fugly fatty pictures. I even got a little sick to my stomach before I hit "post" this afternoon. :blushing:
I really felt the love from you today, MFP, and it did my heart good! :flowerforyou:

I've gotten a lot of questions and I'm sorry if I do a mass reply here...as it may get buried and some won't see it....but here's the low-down. Sorry if I forget to answer something...I'm going off the top of my head from all that I read today (I was super overwhelmed with your responses!!!).

My workout program started with C25K...then I did 30 Day Shred....which led me to Chalean Extreme. You can see how these all kind built on each other in building my endurance, cardio, and eventually strength. I loved lifting weights in CLX and knew I wanted to really focus on getting stronger so I picked up the book New Rules of Lifting for Women. At the time we only had one car so getting to a gym would've been quite tricky...and we were blessed to find loads of AWESOME deals on used equipment from Craigslist (and a few garage sales I picked up some stuff last summer). So we built a home gym in the basement and I LOOOVE it!! There are NO excuses for me not to work out!

As far as diet goes - I can only say this. Everybody has got to find their own balance but I'm a BIG proponent in eating ENOUGH (please do NOT eat below your BMR - this is the number of calories your body needs to function in a COMA state - and if you are reading this, good news, you are NOT in a coma!). For many people starting a weight loss journey, it's safe to say 1200 is FAR BELOW your actual BMR. So please please please, give your body enough fuel!!! All too often we get excited about losing weight quickly and we set our MFP goals to lose 2 lbs a week. This is okay if you are carrying a LOT of extra weight around (morbidly obese) but as you start to lose weight, you need to be realistic and go for 1 lb loss a week. This is safe, recommended, healthy, and best of all, SUSTAINABLE! You will not be cranky and you will have plenty of energy for working out, chasing your kids, romping in the sack, whatever!! You don't want to burn through your lean mass by eating in too large of a deficit (and doing massive amounts of cardio) - that muscle that is in there is precious as it keeps your metabolism going strong!!!

During my loss I set my macros to 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat and I added sodium and fiber to my tracker. When I started lifting I upped my protein goals to 40% and dropped my carbs to 30% and fat 30%. Now I'm eating 35%/35%/30% (p/c/f) but I'm still going over on protein most days and that is fine by me! The more protein the better - my moosles LOVE it!

I include candy or sweets at least once a day in my food journal. I am human and if I don't get my sweet tooth fed, I will go crazy and take it out on my sweet hubby and kids. RAWR! FEED ME CHOCOLATE...EVERYDAY! I'm a big proponent of the mantra - IIFYM - if it fits your macros. As long as my protein goals are hit, I don't get as worked up over including my daily yumm yumm. And...once a week...I indulge in all sorts of junk food (I was "spiking" once a week but have recently decided to cut back on how much I spike because to be frank, I was getting WAYYY out of hand). It's funny, too, because every week I say "ugh, why did I eat that crap?!" because it upsets my tummy or crashes me or something. I can't believe I used to eat like that SEVEN days a week. WHAT, WHAT?!? No wonder I was so plump! :huh:

Skin - I'm 32...so I'm still somewhat young (shhhh if you don't agree with me!) so I'd like to think my skin is going to bounce back nicely. It is bouncing back nicely in most areas of my body. My stomach is still not pretty but I'm not done losing weight either. I didn't share front side pics because, to be honest, most of the ones I have are a little too risque for posting here and out of respect for my husband and myself, I chose not to share those (let's just say the girls haven't exactly gotten the memo yet). :blushing: I have some extra skin/flab in my lower abdomen section that is not the prettiest - but my undies cover it. I imagine the more firm I get over time, the better it will look. I have a LOT of stretch marks and those aren't going anywhere so I need to learn how to wear them with pride (ain't no one gonna see 'em anyway but my hubs and me). I've had two kids (large babies at that - my son came practically crawling out of me at 9 lbs 3 oz) so it is what it is.

Truly I gave all my best advice - eat enough (including protein!), move your butt, lift heavy weights (ladies, this is seriously what has given me the shape that so many of you are inspired by - I am NOT a cardio bunny - I get bored doing it after awhile). I started CLX in late September - finished it up in early January (had a couple of breaks in there for vacation and such) and then started NROL in March. I had no muscle definition prior to CLX. And allow yourself to have some fun!!! You aren't in a race. :ohwell: