WELCOME...Here's my story

September 2010 - 21 years old - 242 lbs.

October 2012 - 23 years old - 155 lbs. 

So far I've lost 87 pounds! I still have more to lose and toning to do, but I've come a long way. 

Many people have asked for tips and tricks and help so I decided to start a blog.

Here's My Story...
I have always been overweight and I've never been happy with the way I looked. I tried every fad diet out there and dieted pretty much my entire life starting at the age of about 10. My weight pretty much controlled my life. It made me a shy and less confident person. I was beautiful before, but I just didn't think so. I couldn't fit the clothes I liked and shopping was a complete nightmare!

Shortly after my 21st birthday I decided I was going to change my life. My parents and family had always gotten on me about my weight, but that made me feel even worse. For me, food was happiness. I would eat and instantly be happy. Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE food, but I don't use it to control my mood.

I was in my Senior year of college and I had a great group of friends who decided to help me out. One friend in particular wanted to lose weight like me and the other 2 friends were supporting us in our weightloss. We would workout together, which was great to help with motivation and keeping on a schedule. Then we would have dinner together to keep up the momentum of our healthy habits.

PHASE ONE OF MY DIET: In the beginning I had a strict diet:

1. No fried foods
2. Nothing to drink but water 
3. Vegetables (steamed) with every meal 
4. Absolutely no fast food 
5. No butter, even when cooking 
6. No oil 

That worked for a while, with working out about 3 days a week, then I hit a little plateau at about 40 pounds lost. I did meet my goal of losing 40 lbs by college graduation in May 2011 

 

(Me with my parents at my graduation celebration) 

Although I struggled losing more weight, I did maintain a weight of about 202 lbs. until the beginning of 2012,  when I started calorie counting. I asked a couple of friends about some suggestions on revamping my weightloss plan and they told me about this WONDERFUL website. MyFitnessPal 

You can also download the app if you have a smartphone. It helps you set up goals and a plan. You enter your goals and your current measurements and it comes up with a do-able plan. You can also log your progress and your daily calorie intake and exercise. If you don't know how many calories are in an item of food you can search for the food and it will give you nutrition info. If you're in the grocery store and you're using ingredients to make a certain meal and you want to know how many calories all the ingredients are when put together there is a barcode option on the smartphone app. 

Currently I eat about 1,000-1,200 calories a day and work out 4-5 days a week. I still have cheat days and meals when I eat whatever I want and don't care, but I have changed my whole life so I don't eat nearly as much as I used to and I love it! I still have more goals to reach, such as wearing a bikini and feeling comfortable, but I look great and feel great!

Hope this site helps someone out!