New to MFP, 35 lbs lost (lots of pix)

I'm Britton, 22 years old, and my weight has gone up and down in a huge way since I was 13. I've done every fad diet under the sun and had pretty good success with almost all of them. But the weight always came back because it was a DIET not a LIFESTYLE.

Then, on Mother's Day of last year, my best friend and I came home, exhausted from our ridiculous weekend at work (we're waitresses and it's one of the toughest weekends of the year) and we plopped down on the couch to drink some beer, eat a ridiculous amount of fried food, and ***** about our crazy customers. The thing is, though, instead of doing that- I had a meltdown. I was weighing in around 170 lbs at 5'3" and my BF% had to have been WAY up there. I was SO tired. I started bawling on the couch and finally reached that point where I KNEW I couldn't live like that anymore. I couldn't hop on a diet and lose the weight, knowing that it was just going to come back, and I couldn't keep sticking my head in the sand like I had been doing for the six months leading up to that moment, eating and drinking whatever I wanted and pretending not to care what the result was. So my best friend, being an "action-oriented" person said, "Okay, so we'll start making changes." And we did.

It was important to me to not count calories at first. I just started making healthier choices. I know that sounds so simple... and it really was. I started going for walks with friends, and not eating cheese-fries, burgers, and bar food for all of my meals. I knew that if I went crazy with it and lost a lot of weight really fast, it would mean putting myself in the same cycle of up/down that I'd been in since I was a kid. For the first time, I didn't want to try the newest LOSE FAT FAST plan, I just wanted to lose it at a steady pace.

In about a year's time, I lost 35 pounds just by making a lot of small changes. But I wasn't in good shape by any means, just slimmer. Then I went to Rugged Maniac (a 5k obstacle race) to support my friends, and I realized that I wanted to be able to do that! I wanted to be able to participate, not just take pictures and cheer on my fit-friends. So I found a race I wanted to do as a goal-- Warrior Dash, which will be near me in November, giving me plenty of time to get ready. I started talking to my friends about it, getting myself psyched up, and then I started training.... hard. On April 10th, I hired a personal trainer who I now workout with 3-4 times a week, and I've started watching my diet very closely. The whole "just make healthier choices" thing worked for me to slim down, but now I'm beginning a new leg of my journey-- the fitness leg, I guess-- and it doesn't make sense to me to work so freaking hard in the gym, then fuel my body with complete crap food. So I'm trying a lot harder, while trying to remember how going overboard always ended up screwing me in the long-run. I'm hoping to find like minded people in these forums and keep motivated. A little less than a month in with my trainer, and I'm already seeing HUGE differences in my body... but I'm not quite ready to share pictures of that yet.

However, here are a ton of pictures from my journey (since apparently, I'm a freaking narcissist). I don't REALLY have pictures of me at my highest weight of 170, but I found some from before/around that time that somehow made it into digital history. So here's a bunch:

eating cookies at my sister's wedding April '10

posing with my thin mother and sister at her wedding April '10

with my dad, the other "chubby" family member. April '10

December 31st, 2010

drinking beer at my best friend's wedding April '11

being chubby in my work uniform April '11

Now here are some "during" pictures, I suppose... I like comparing pictures from certain festivities and things... Like NYE to NYE, Halloween to Halloween, etc. Does anyone else do that??

See how my work shirt is baggy around my midsection? It's actually a size SMALLER than the work shirt that is tight on me in the other picture.

December 31st, 2011 (The biggest difference is that this year, there were LOTS of pictures taken, and I was okay with it.)

December 31st, 2011. This is the best friend who said "Okay, so we'll start making changes" when I had my meltdown. She's in the picture from NYE last year, and as you can see, she's also lost a lot of weight-- almost 30 lbs!

Here I am at Rugged Maniac with my friends that ran! This picture really made me say, "Do I want to be the spectator forever? Is thin good enough, or do I want to get fit?"



My face is shrinking! These are pix from when Dustin has visited, starting a year ago and ending yesterday.

&The first time I've worn a bikini since I was 12.

I know I've got a long way to go, but seeing progress helps push me now that I'm working on getting the TONED and healthy body I never ever ever thought I could have. Please feel free to add me as a friend if you're working toward similar goals or whatever... I'm new to this place so IDK exactly how everything works.

EDIT: I think I've gotten the pictures resized as best as I can for the moment...