20 pounds down, almost halfway there! (pics)

So my weight loss journey started about ten years ago and through a series of fad diets, miracle pills and bouts with borderline anorexia & fasts followed by binging I went from an out of shape 135 to a VERY out of shape 189. Possibly even higher. I have attempted atkins, south beach, windsor pilates, the ab roller, that ab electrocutor thing, body wraps, soup diets, smoothie diets, weight watchers, and even those $150/bottle diet pills they advertise on tv (which work by the way.... if you don't mind heart palitations, anxiety attacks & dizzy spells and you want to take them forever because as soon as you stop you gain it all back with interest).

Through all of this I have gained quite a bit of knowledge about how my body works and how to lose weight, even lose it fast, but I have never learned how to maintain my weight. At the end of last year I joined the Planet Fitness gym that opened less than a half mile from home and started working out sporadically but had just started working for a bank who's training program included fabulous pasta lunches, all the chocolates and pop you can eat and lots of sitting around. My weight jumped up to the highest its ever been (I stopped weighing myself at 189, I'm sure I was over that but I didnt want to know). Once out of my training I started with my new office and one of the women I worked with had lost 50 lbs in the last year and taken up running 5ks and she's over 50! I decided I had to do something and what I had been doing was NOT working for me. Instead of trying to lose quickly I decided to train for a 5k. I re-started couch to 5k (I have attempted it several times before but during borderline anorexia phases and couldn't make it through the workouts) as well as hitting the weights at the gym and adjusted my mfp to lose only .5lbs a week. I ate most of my workout calories back and stopped looking at my diet on a day by day basis trying to stay under the 1700 calories per day I work on staying under 12,000 calories per week which makes it much easier to enjoy my weekends because I can bank a few hundred extra calories through the week to go out to eat on the weekend.

Its working, slowly but surely weight is dropping off. Back in April before my first 5k (finished in 37 minutes!) I took some "before" pics and then yesterday when I weighed myself and realized I was at 168.9, 20 lbs down from my start! I took some progress pics to compare and I couldn't be happier. I'm a long way from my first goal which is 145 but I'm finally losing, and I feel good, and while there have been a few days here and there where I've still fallen back to my "this will never work so why bother" mindset I snap myself out of it and get myself back on track.

My before's are at 187 lbs, and my current pics are 168.9.





oh and my secret? its easy: I eat. I run. I lift. repeat! setting myself at a loss of .5 lbs a week gave me about 1600 calories a day, I recently upped it to 1700 because I've been lifting more. I average between 1400-2200 calories a day, generally I net around 1400-1600. I started out doing 3-5 days of cardio and 2-3 days of lifting but I've adjusted that a little trying for 4 days of lifting, 4 days of cardio and one full rest day where all I do is walk my dogs. I try to eat at least 70% cleanly, nixing most processed and fried foods and cutting way down on more processed carbs like bread and instead eating oats, sweet potatoes rice & fruits to get my carb intake. I have increased my fat intake adding coconut & flax oils to my breakfast every morning and I eat as much protein as I can stand. I look at my calorie intake from a full week standpoint. I know I tend to be under in cals during the week and I bank those calories for going out to eat on the weekends. I don't believe in "cheat" meals anymore, if I want to splurge today I make up for it with a heavy workout tomorrow and cutting back a little for the rest of the week to make up for it. With that being said I do believe in enjoying myself! I ate at Cici's Pizza the other day, I had a klondike bar last night (and fully plan to have another one tonight!). I know that this time is different because I've stopped with my "all or nothing" approach to weight loss and have become a lot more realistic. I can't lose 45 lbs overnight, it just doesn't work that way, but I am teaching myself healthy habits so that when I do hit my goal I can transition to maintenance much easier.

anyway, yay me! I've lost 20 lbs!!!!!