Who I am

I started my weight loss journey last summer. Well, I guess I've been struggling with my weight my entire life. But my most recent venture into changing my life began last July. For some reason, I discovered that I weighed more than my husband. I was at the heaviest that I've ever been - 260 lbs. I couldn't believe how big I'd gotten. I was wearing a size 20, and at times that was even a little tight. I knew that something had to change.

So I decided that I needed to start moving and watch what I was eating. I asked a friend for advice, since she'd transformed herself in recent years. I wanted to do things the healthy way. I began by walking on the treadmill or using the elliptical machine. Luckily, I work at an amazing school that has wonderful exercise facilities. And since it was the summer, it was almost as if I was in my own private gym. I was embarrassed to be working out in front of others. But there were times when our boys' basketball team would show up and instead of leaving quitting my workout, I'd keep going. They loved to see me there, and I got some inspiration from them.

I would watch what I was eating. Every single bite of food I put into my mouth I would write down. Eventually, I discovered one of the greatest keys to my success: Fitday. I started putting all of my foods on this website, and entering all the exercise that I was doing. It helped me to keep track of my goal, which was to lose 100 lbs in one year. There were times that I'd get discouraged since the numbers on the scale weren't moving fast enough for me, but a friend suggested that I start measuring my body. Wow - what a difference! My body was changing, even though I might not have been losing pounds.

Fast forward to today, and I've lost 78 lbs and over 40 inches. I have gone from that size 20 to a size 12, and even those are starting to get kind of loose on me. I could not be more proud of myself. I ran my first 5K last weekend, and I'm now training for a 10K. I used to hate running, but now I really enjoy it. It's a lot easier when you don't have all that extra weight!

I didn't follow any specific diet and I definitely did not forbid myself from having any foods. I just really monitored what I ate, and tried to keep it around 1600 calories per day. When I'd hit plateaus, I would drop down to about 1300 calories for a few days, to get things rolling again. I try to workout for at least an hour per day, 6 days per week. Honestly, that doesn't always happen, but it is what I try to do.

I've discovered that I like hiking and spending time outdoors - things that I swore up and down that I would never like. My husband and I went hiking last month and we did 8 miles round-trip; I was exhausted, but when I got to the top of that mountain I felt like I could do anything. And after seeing the progress that I have made in the past 10 months, I know that I really can.

I'm a math person, and for me it makes sense that weight loss is all in the numbers. I need to burn 3500 calories to lose 1 lb. Burn, or cut it out from my diet. So keeping track of my caloric intake and calories burned have really helped me. Not losing weight this week? Just look at what I've eaten and what I've done for exercise. It's simple now.

I have tried many, many times to lose weight. I'd almost resigned myself to believing that I'd be heavy forever. Now, I'm healthy (doctor confirmed that last week!), happy, and feel younger than I have in years.