I'm half the person I used to be! 31F 5'4" SW:308 CW:154 GW:143?

I can't believe I'm finally here! I put together a progress album for anyone who's interested in checking it out. NSFW for underwear, I suppose. Back when I was one year into this whole thing, I posted and shared my progress so far. Little did I know that what I'd done up until then would really be the easy part. I'd hoped to provide an update long before now, but this is the first milestone in a while that I've really been excited about, so... this is going to be long! I've been holding it in for a while!

What's the same:

A lot of what I've done is the same; small changes, macro-focused eating (I'm probably really more 35/35/30 C/F/P these days but anything under 40% carbs is good), weighing just about everything I eat, lots of water, and still fitting in treats almost every day. I still aim for 10-15k steps daily with my fitbit (spending about 35/45 minutes of my lunch break doing laps around the atrium of my office building).

What's new:

I've added weekly cardio and strength workouts. Cardio is the gym (arc machine/stationary bike) for about 45 mins either once or twice a week, occasionally subbing a 3-5 mile run for one of those cardio sessions. One night a week I do a kettlebell class that's partly cardio and partly strength oriented, and once or twice a week I take a strength class that runs the gamut from traditional deadlifts, squats, etc. to focusing more on bodyweight exercises. It's a good mix and I'm not getting bored with it which is really the most important thing for me to keep at it. We did a new year's challenge at the kettlebell studio and from January-March I dropped 13 pounds and won the challenge (and a hundred bucks)!

I run! I did C25K after walking wasn't really a challenge anymore, and I've completed about 10 5Ks in the past year. I finally signed up for a 10K that's happening next month and next year I'd like to do the relay or half marathon in my city. I'm still pretty slow (PR for 5K is just under 33 mins) but with my short legs (that are really better suited to lifting...) I can't complain. I enjoy the opportunity to be outside and enjoy the time with myself. Good for the mind.

Before I was using my fitbit as my guide and set my calorie deficit to 1000 and ate whatever fitbit expected me to burn -1000. Last year I got a Bodpod test that estimated my RMR around 1500-1700 so most days now I eat between 1400-1500kcal and I'm still seeing a pretty good rate of loss, not quite two pounds a week. Here's what March looked like, for example.

I meal prep now. It's pretty fantastic; I set up a rotation for myself that keeps the freezer stocked and again, prevents boredom. I only have to make one thing a week but don't have to eat the same thing every day.

Challenges:

The wall, and the roller-coaster. I started in November 2012 and got to 199 on January 1 2014. And then I spent a LOT of time bouncing between 165-180ish from April of 2014 until this past January. So it wasn't a straight line, that's for sure. Life happened - a lot. I made decisions that didn't further my progress. Struggled quite a bit with finding the right amount of restriction as I frequently felt like my workouts were harder than they should have been, and there were several months where I struggled with binge eating (if you do: Brain Over Binge - seriously). I can't say it's "all better" but no problems this year and the weight is finally dropping off again after being stuck for a long time, so I'm at least cautiously optimistic.

Clothes. I've got so many bags of clothes that don't fit anymore. I saved the ones I really loved and hopefully might be able to alter them at some point to be worn again. But sooo much money went to clothes - even cheap ones! I went from a 28W to a S/M on top and a 8/10 on bottom.

Loose skin and tenacious fat. Yep. It kinda sucks, and I seriously have no boobs now (but a pretty good bra!) but if I could just move the stuff from my belly a little bit north... I also see the effects of carrying twice this much weight on my inner thighs, both upper and lower, and my arms are okay-to-great from above, not so great from below. Sometimes when I'm laying in bed or am in the bath, it kinda gets me down; I look a bit like I'm melting. That said... I'd still take the skin over being that big again, anytime.

Maintenance?! I have no idea how I'm going to handle this. I set a tentative goal of 147 with a ultimate fantasy weight of 143, which at the time seemed completely plausible. It's still at the top of the BMI for my height (I'm a smidge under 30% BF right now if I had to guess) but I do have a fair bit of muscle and so I thought that would be a good stopping point. Now I'm not so sure. Guess I'll see how I feel when I get there. I'd really like to do a spectacularly long recomp once I hit goal and turn what fat I have left into more muscle, so I may focus on that for a bit as I get familiar with my new eating limits.

Conclusion:

It's been tough but totally worth persevering. It was a pretty bumpy ride and I'm not done yet, but I'm pretty astonished at what I've accomplished so far. I had so much potential that I'm finally exploring. I can put 160 pounds on my back and squat it - I can deadlift my body weight and then some! I can run for an hour and not fall apart.

I'm so grateful for this community, which has been a constant source of inspiration and motivation when I was running low. You guys are the best! If anyone has any questions or comments or whatever, I'm totally open to talking.

If anyone's feeling super nosy about my food, you can find me on MFP and Instagram. Diary is open, but friends are welcome, especially if we have similar stats/goals. :)