First off, CONGRATS to everyone who's posted their losses! After I make this post, I'm going to go through individually and reply to different comments. But, I thought I'd update on how I've been.


I first started my "lifestyle change" in August of 2005. I continued to lose weight until March of 2006, and since then, I've just maintained. Through the 7-8 months of weight loss, I managed to take off 91 pounds!! Yes, that's the equivalent of a child. I feel better about myself in more ways than one, and it's been an amazing accomplishment. And honestly, the weight loss itself was not difficult. It went on quickly, and it came off quickly. But, because of how fast it came off, my body couldn't keep up and it resulted in another health problems. They were bound to arrise, just not so fast.

Since March, I've been trying to eat "healthy". Don't get me wrong, I ate good when I was losing weight, but I'm no longer trying to lose weight. I want to maintain a good weight by appropriate amount of calories, fat, protein, carbohydrates, and all of my vitamins that I need. I have weird diet restrictions, such as being a vegetarian who will eat fish and also being allergic to dairy. With those things, it's hard to get in the right amounts of protein and vitamins, and I'm still struggling with that.

I no longer obsess about my calories. I used to count every single calorie, right down to the fourth of one. No joke. But now, I've learned that I can eat what I want (with limitations, I guess.. but I won't deprive myself if I absolutely have to have something, which is not often at all) as long as I stop eating when I'm full. Granted, I don't eat a lot of fat with any meal, so it's hard to determine when I'm truly full. I can eat veggies galore, and then much later feel sick because I ate too much. So I have to eat small meals quite often, which is what everyone should do.

I've emailed Christa and have annoyed her to no ends about all of this, but she's really knowledgeable in healthy eating and exercise, more than just "eat fewer calories than you burn" and stuff. So, I'm sorry Christa. :P

When I reached my all time high, I weighed 231 pounds. I cannot believe I just told you all that, but I did. For a girl who is 5'7", that's a LOT of weight. And it was just dragging me down, and I didn't used to be that way. A lot of things happened quickly that caused my weight gain, and I just didn't care anymore. But, once I finally became aware of it, I whipped into shape. I went from a size 18 (my biggest pants were a size 18.. I almost died when going through my clothes a month ago) to a size 6/8! I have some pants that are size 6 and some that are size 8. I went from an XL shirt being too small and tight, to a size small being just right!!! Unless it's a tshirt, and then it's still too big. :P I went from 231 pounds to 140 pounds!

I was hoping to lose 5 more in pure exercise, but my mom threatened me when she heard my plans. Apparently, if I lose one more ounce, she's going to have my head.

Okay, so onto pictures!!!

These were taken in San Diego last summer. This was ONE week before I started my weight loss diet.




This was from junior prom - April of 2005.



Okay, so those are the YUCKY before pictures. I'll post the after pictures in the next post.