I finally hit my goal weight today! I've been seriously working on weight loss since January 1, 2012 (I dabbled a bit starting in 2007 and lost 20lbs on the Special K diet, didn't gain it back, but didn't keep it up either). I pretty much knew zero about what I was doing when I started. I did try tracking calories on paper (though I don't think I did it right at all and I weighed nothing).
I worked out on an elliptical I snagged at the grocery for $100, 15 minutes a day, and slowly changed my eating habits. I go to the gym now, since I broke that one from overuse. I go five days a week (1 rest day and I learned that going after a 10+ mile run leads to an AWFUL running week). There were times were I stalled, where I didn't pay as much attention, but I lost slowly. I actually only joined MFP in November at the suggestion of a coworker. Let me tell you, I thought I was eating all right, though I was in a fitness rut (an hour of elliptical and zero strength training a plateau morphing into weight gain does create).
So, I joined MFP and started running and strength training and everything came together. Eventually I got a food scale and that helped even more. And today, when I stepped on the scale I expected it to not have changed or to have dropped .5lb/1lb as I'd been a little stuck the last two weeks. And what do you know, down four pounds!
It's been a very long road, and I'm cautiously going to enter into maintenance with the goal of doing some toning (mostly this bit of pudge right above my belly button. Perfect for hanging over the waistband on my jeans.
) and continuing to train for my first half marathon in May! It'll be a little weird, not being so focused on losing weight, but I'm just glad I never gave up.
I've learned a lot from trolling the forums and reading the blogs and it's been so helpful to have more than just the Biggest Loser as your only fitness guide, haha.
That first photo was taken in May of 2008 when I got my new car (which I traded in right before they were declared lemons, haha.) The second was a few weeks ago (and the pudge is there, I just hide it. ¬_¬)
The first photo was taken Thanksgiving 2014 after my very first race and the second was me a week or two ago after my first 5k (which I placed first in my age group!). You can see the pudge in the first picture and it has gotten smaller with strength training, but I'd like it even less visible.
It's been a long road and it was nice to step on the scale after my long run today (I was annoyed for most of it, I'm tired of it warming up in the middle of the week only for it to drop back down with icy winds by the weekend) but I'm glad I made it.
220 was my top weight and now I'm down to 110.
