[

Smurfmotional Scale:

|

accomplished

]

In the beginning of my childhood, I was not overweight. When I turned 9 years old, the weight just started to pile on. I have no excuses for why this occured. As my adolescent years went by, I remained overweight (gaining and losing some here and there, but mostly gaining). When I was 21, I thought that I finally had the motivation. I lost 50lbs and was loving it until I met the man who I was going to marry. I got distracted and let the weight loss go, gaining back all that I had worked hard for. In 2005, I married that man, dealt with the death of my parish/city (hurricane Katrina), and found out that I was pregnant shortly after. Throughout the pregnancy, I was longing for my body back as the motivation bug had hit me again. I was ready this time to seriously take on weight loss...as soon as the little bugger was out. In July 2006, my son was born. It was finally time to take control of my life again.

Pre-pregnancy, I was 260lbs. At the end of my pregnancy, I managed to get up to 303lbs. A month after my son was born, I found myself at 266lbs and used that as my starting point. I started dieting some for a few months and lost 5-10lbs. I wasn't carefully charting this due to being busy with a newborn. That December, I decided to start exercising again. I also ended up breaking my toe shortly after I said that. We already owned a dustry treadmill. In January, we decided to go out and buy an exercise bike as well. I cut my calories to 1500 calories a day (except my cheat day of Saturday) and started working on that bike everyday while my husband watched our son for me. When my toe healed enough, I started using the treadmill again. It was my preferred cardio machine at the time. After a 100lb weight loss, I noticed some excess skin issues. In January 2008, my husband and I joined the YMCA. We do cardio and weight training 3-5x's a week. The rest of the week, I try to get cardio in at home when I can. I am building mucles throughout my body and my skin is shrinking well and as a result. This really is the answer before considering surgery (as I did). I'm coming to the end of my journey, but this is a lifestyle change. It really has to be forever. 

Stats from original weight loss with pictures at the bottom:
Age: 25
Height: 5'5
Starting weight: 266
Current weight: 140
Ultimate goal: 140

WARNING: This is an extremely picture heavy post.