Flab be gone!

Hello folks:

I'm normally not one of those braggers, but I am now only 3.5 pounds away from reaching my goal weight. I started my journey at a scary 185 pounds. I say scary not because I was overweight, but because I really damaged my heart by eating the way I was eating. I have mitrovalve prolapse (which is common-- I'm sure there are a lot of you out there who share the same heart condition) however, the way that I was eating and not exercising was giving me more chest pain than I ever had. Honestly, the reason I got motivated to change wasn't even my health (even though I told myself it was). Nope, it was because my at-the-time boyfriend was entering the Army, and I am so competitive, I wanted to lose more weight than he did while he was away. (By the way, I won

Ok, so I won't bore you with any more back story. Just know this journey was HARD. And EVERYONE is right when they say, it took you a LONG time to put on the weight, it's going to take you LONGER to take it off. So be patient! I'm ALWAYS here for support.

So here's my "fattest picture".





Yea... check that out... I am 5'8'' and at my heaviest in my life here.

Here is what 185 big ones looks like:



August 16, 2011

I started at the gym, running (well.. jogging slowly) and doing some weight lifting. I didn't see any improvement for about a month, I wasn't gaining or losing anything. Then I figured the key to MY weight loss was my water consumption (believe it or not).. I found the more I drank, the easier it was for me to lose weight!! Go figure..

From August to November I lost about 15 pounds:



TA-DA! Check out the belly fat going down.. kind of...

In November is when I really kick-started my weight-loss. I found the love of my life: Zumba. And anyone who is my MFP friend, knows how much I love it. That is where I saw the most drastic change in my weight loss. I even got certified as an instructor



(She's my idol )

I encourage you ALL to just try a class. Even if you can't dance, or don't think you have any rhythm, or think you're too big or too small or too ..whatever you think you are, believe me- ANYONE at any age can Zumba.

Not only that, but I began racing and running competitively. Now I absolutely love it. I forgot how much I loved exercising until I started doing it again.

My first 5k race ever at 34 minutes and 18 seconds:



Andddddddd this is my final result as of May 1, 2012:



185-138 and counting (excuse the gross sweatiness)



"We think that if we had every comfort available to us, we’d be happy. We equate comfort with happiness. And now we’re so comfortable we’re miserable. There’s no struggle in our lives. No sense of adventure. What I’ve found is that I’m never more alive than when I’m pushing and I’m in pain, and I’m struggling for high achievement, and in that struggle I think there’s a magic. -Dean Karnazes"