Friday figures

I was so excited this morning that I actually made the trip back to the scale with my iPod to capture the moment. I am in a new decade!

hell yeah!

159 lbs! I can not believe I am in the 150s. On my only other real weight loss attempt I lost weight steadily until I hit about 160. I stayed right around 160 for a few weeks without seeing much progress. I went in one morning dehydrated after a night of too many drinks and saw either 157 or 155, but never saw the 150s again.

I eventually figured I just couldn't weigh less than 160 and stopped "dieting." I somehow managed to maintain between 160 and 165 for a few months and then I slowly packed every last pound back on and found myself pregnant at 196 pounds.

I have been so excited to show myself that I will weigh less than 160 and now I do! I sort of thought I would be nervous because this was my stall out moment last time but I am not nervous. Things are so differ than they were previously and I am ready to keep at it.

On my previous weight loss attempt I was on Weight Watchers. I really did learn a lot from them, but I was not in the right place at all to actually practice the things they were teaching us. I would try to make my meals as low in points as possible and save as many points as possible for snacks and drinks. I also really didn't want to work out. I had my elliptical machine back then and I did use it occasionally, but I really didn't like to sweat. I rarely moved the resistance past level 3 and maybe worked out for 20 minutes.

This "journey" is completely different. I really do feel like I have changed/am changing the way I eat. I am making healthy meals for my family and they actually taste good (or at least okay). I also actually enjoy working out! I love being able to say that I am training for a half marathon. I love that sometimes when I finish a shorter run, I still have energy and throw in a little strength training. When I actually use my old elliptical, I do a pre-programmed 30 minute program that goes all the way up to level 8 or 9.

I feel so different this time around. I am happy and actually want to stay on my "diet" for life. I know that this journey won't get any easier. I will have to constantly keep myself in check, but I feel strong and able.

Old me

I have started this journey over a year ago. I gave birth to my baby in April of 2011. I nursed her and lost most of my pregnancy weight pretty quickly. I thought I could eat whatever I wanted since I was nursing and losing weight. I had decided to wait to start "trying" to lose weight until the 6 week postpartum appointment. During that time my weight got to just 5 pounds away from pre-pregnancy weight, but don't worry my excessive eating brought me back up 10 pounds. Before I got serious I was 15 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight, 212 pounds.
In late June of 2011 I decided to join weight watchers. (I had previously lost 40 pounds with them so I thought I could do it again.) I really needed to go to the meetings for accountability and I found a location a few miles from our house. I thought it would be no problem to go to meetings with my daughter. I think I managed to attend meetings/weigh-ins for one month. If I actually made it to a meeting, I found myself just staring at my baby the whole time. Otherwise, she would be sleeping when we needed to leave and you NEVER wake a sleeping baby. I quickly changed to online only.

This picture is from a family vacation in July of  2011. This was just before I switched to online only. I probably weighed just over 200 lbs here.

I sort of half-assed the program for way longer than I should have been paying for. I really just used my monthly membership to log my food on the app. I don't know why I didn't just switch to an app that tracked food for free, but I felt that if I quit weight watchers I was quitting losing weight. By March 2012 I had managed to get down to just below pre-pregnancy weight, 193. I guess I should have been happy that I had lost almost 20 pounds in less than a year, but I was embarrassed and frustrated. When I had lost weight before I was very motivated and could easily lose 10 pounds a month. This time things seemed harder and I could not get my mind into the right mind frame.
Everything changed in March 2012 though!