My before and afters (70lbs +pics)

Hey everyone - So I've joined MFP quite recently because I had hit a plateau in my weight loss and was looking for an additional way to keep track of what I was consuming.

Here's how everything started...
I had been overweight my entire life. I would turn to food for comfort every single time there was any sort of stress or conflict, or when I felt lonesome - which was most of the time. My siblings and parents were all very slim, so I felt like an outcast at home, but I didn't really realize just how big I was until I entered high school.
At 12 yrs of age, I was 5"11 and close to 200lbs. How could I not have noticed? Everyone else certainly did and tormented me because of it. I was so embarrassed, ashamed and in complete denial about my size until I stepped on the scale one day and saw that I had ballooned to 220lbs. I also suddenly noticed that I had these great big, deep, red stretch marks covering my hips, breasts, stomach, the backs of my knees, backs of my arms and my thighs. It was time to get in shape!!! Had I been blind?

So at 15, my mother signed me up at a gym. I put in 100% effort, every single time. Even at the gym, I always felt like I was the youngest and heaviest for my age, and a few snide remarks were made which made me feel as if my goal was unreachable.
Funny how bullies will notice your every flaw and never care at all about your efforts to change!

Slowly but surely, the weight started to drop as I changed my eating habits. But the REAL change of lifestyle, for me, happened when I thought to myself "It isn't what I'm eating that is the true problem.. it's what's EATING ME". I had to discover what it was in my life that made me turn to food and unhealthily bottle my emotions instead of dealing with them.

That was definitely the most difficult part - realizing that I wasn't alone in my struggles, that I didn't have to put the world on my shoulders all the time, my family's problems were not all my fault and that my intense fear of social rejection was causing me to have such awful anxiety that I would constantly turn to food instead of dealing with my problems.

TODAY - I am down 70 pounds and fitter than I've ever been before. I've bumped into some of the nasty people I used to go to school with and they don't even recognize me. I'm done with letting people like that rule my life!

I went from 220 pounds to around 150, give or take 5 pounds. I refuse to step on a scale since I hit my goal, because I feel like I can measure my progress in other ways and not feel bound by a couple of numbers.
This was NOT an easy or FAST process. Real weight loss takes time - meainly just to get to know yourself as an overweight person and realize what drove you to that point. I am still getting to know my slimmer self .



This is one of the few surviving pictures of me when I was at or near my heaviest. I must have been 16 in this photo. I was extremely unhappy, as you can tell by my fake smile!


This is a photo taken of me last year, in my first bikini. I've lost maybe another 10 pounds since then.



This photo was taken of me just the other day. I am almost not recognizable.


I just wanted to let everyone know that your goal is achievable, no matter how hard it may seem. But please please please, get to know the reasons behind WHY you gained weight. Doing so changed my life completely.

Good luck to all of you!