Goal Weight Reached!

I finally hit my goal weight!! Forty pounds down from where I started.

Me 2012.

Last year, Caleb and I got married in Hawaii. It was a super fun week of sun, breweries, and you know, getting married. When I was looking at pictures, I realized I wasn’t happy with how I looked in them. It definitely wasn’t just a posture thing either – I tried taking selfies standing up straight to see if that would help.

After years of saying “I’d rather have fun than be thin,” I decided it was time to do something about it.

I didn’t do anything crazy. I’ve been using MyFitnessPal for almost a year straight at this point! It isn’t always super fun (and there are definitely days where I just log a coffee so I keep inputting something), but it’s really worked for me. Tracking what I eat has made me actually think about what I am eating instead of just eating for the sake of eating. MFP has a lot of restaurant menus, so I can look something up quickly. Like, if I’m meeting someone at a place I don’t like to eat, I’m not going to eat thousands of calories of food I don’t really enjoy.

Me 2017. Same shirt. Really.

If it’s something I enjoy? I’m going to go for it. Victory Dirt Wolf is about 240 calories. Worth every single one. Auntie Anne’s pretzel bites with cheese dip while on a trip to the outlets? Yes please! It’s Sunday Night Snack Club and everyone made all the things? That’s dinner today. I will always have food that is tasty, but I’m not going to waste my time eating bland, sodium filled food that I don’t even like. Not only is it calories I could use on something else, it’s depressing.

One thing people don’t ever talk about when they talk about losing weight? How expensive it is! I have had to buy basically all new clothes. The vast majority of things I own don’t fit anymore. I know it’s such a first world problem, but it can be frustrating. I was going to a bridal shower a few months ago, and I realized morning of that I didn’t really have anything appropriate to wear that fit. The dress I had planned on wearing was way too big. I managed to put together an outfit, and I took myself to the outlets right after. I’ve been spending a lot of time at the outlets recently…

My funemployment helped with losing weight a lot. When you’re in an office and there are cookies and birthday cakes and happy hours and coworker lunches, it’s so easy to graze all day. I was talking about MFP with a coworker the other day, and I realized that the people here only know me like this. They didn’t see me 40 pounds ago. People were surprised to hear that I had lost that much weight. To here, I am the person who eats Thug Kitchen recipes and might refuse cookies.

I feel better, I look better, and I’m overall happier. Going forward, I just have to keep up the lifestyle change I made!