Wednesday, September 30, 2015

13 months. 
That is how long it has been. 13 months.
I have lost 54 pounds.
I still eat Paleo, with maybe 1 "cheat day" per week.
I work out 5-6 days per week, 3 of those days are strength training. 
I take Zumba and Hip-Hop fitness dance classes. Classes!! I used to have panic attacks in classes! I still might, if there were more people, but the place I go to has smallish classes and the women I have been dancing with are some of my new favorite people. 

Here are pictures of my journey:

Beginning weight - 185-190 pounds +/-:



I am almost embarrassed to post those, but I only have 3 followers so I don't mind that much, LOL. The first two, I had taken on purpose as "before" pictures, in case I ever lost weight. The third was the week before I made the decision to do it. I was lifting my arms to show my friend I had shorts on under my "fat dress" to keep my thighs from rubbing together.

I avoided having my picture taken again for a while, until I had an evening with Mary, learning to sew Christmas projects. 
I was about 173 lbs here, I think. I had lost enough for people who hadn't seen me in a while to notice that I had dropped some weight. 

Then came Winter. I was losing an average of 5-6 lbs per month using a combination of MFP (myfitnesspal) and Paleo. So in these photos I was in my 160 lbs:
 About 165 lbs
About 163 lbs

161 lbs

Valentines Day came around and I had lost another 5-6 lbs, putting me at 156 lbs:



In March, I went to New York, where it was very cold. I had gotten down to about 156 lbs but gained a few pounds while I was there because it was my birthday and I ate however I wanted, and drank beer:
This was at Lake George, about 156-159 lbs.

When I got back from vacation, I quickly dropped my vacation weight, and was back down to about 153 lbs within a couple of weeks:

 Got my hair cut at 148 lbs


Took my next set of progress photos either just before or just after I got my hair cut, at 145-148 lbs.

At this point, I had lost 45 pounds mainly by changing my diet. I was exercising occasionally but not seriously and I had been reading about being "skinny fat". 5 pounds away from my first weight loss goal (140 lbs, in the "normal" BMI category). So, I signed up for fitness classes and hired a personal trainer. Here are my "before" shots at 145 pounds:



I gained about 4 pounds after I started working out because I didn't realize how to adjust my calories. staying on a 1200 +/- calorie daily intake, I managed to get back to the 145 lbs I started with, but it took longer since I was building muscle at the same time.

By my anniversary date of September 2, I weighed 139.5 lbs!!! Here is a picture of me and Sage the week after that:

50 lbs lost in 52 weeks! A steady, normal way to lose weight and keep it off! So happy! 

And as of this posting, i weigh 136 lbs. Here is a picture of me with some of my Zumba friends last Friday night:

In my next entry I will re-post a before picture, and the most current after picture, along with my before and after body weight, measurements, body fat percentage, etc. This has been such a fun project! Ta ta for now!! 

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