Feeling good and planning for the big 100!

Great weigh in this morning...my weight loss total is up to 90.4 pounds!  Wow.  I've been hovering between 85 and 90 for so long that I'm happy to finally get over that hump.  And it makes me more motivated to keep going!

So now I have to start planning on my reward(s) for 100 pounds lost.  And there are definitely going to be some rewards!  Originally, when I first started this, I had said at 100 pounds lost I'd like a makeover and a date night with my husband.  But, I think I'll push that off for a little bit.  Maybe when I reach my original goal, which was 125 pounds lost.  I don't want to spend a lot of money/buy new clothes when I'm still hoping to drop a size or two.

One reward is definitely going to be a BIG bouquet of flowers.  From me, to me.  I love fresh flowers and I had been buying a bouquet for every 10 pounds I lost.  But the last couple times I've lost 10 pounds (gotten into a new 'decade'), I've decided to wait and buy a BIG bouquet of flowers.  What can I say, they will make me smile!

Another reward is going to be some gambling.  Let me be honest, if I lived nearer a casino I would probably have a gambling problem.  I love playing some slot machines.  But I try to only do it once, maybe twice a year.  I went this year on my birthday and actually won, but I think I'm going to have to do it again!

And a third reward will be new running shoes.  The shoes I have now work okay, but they are getting worn. And I want to start getting more serious about running.  My plan is to start running 5Ks again in September, probably run one a month, and then hopefully work up to a 10K in February.  I want to get fitted for running shoes, to make sure I don't have any weird things going on with my feet or the way I run, and then I'll be buying some new ones!

So that's the plan for now.   Exciting times!

Progression pictures

So it's still taking awhile to see the scale move down consistently.  But I've been going through old pictures, and that helps.  I've posted some of these before, but I like having them from beginning to now.  This first one was fall of 2010, I think.  Or early spring 2011.  Close to my highest weight, definitely.

In all the next ones, I'm wearing the same shirt (don't think it would have fit in that one above!)  This next one is at 247 pounds.  Probably last summer sometime, not sure of the exact date.

The next is September 2011, at 228 pounds.

Ooh, this is getting kind of fun!  :)  The next one is March 2012, 205 pounds.

And the last one is this morning...look at this picture, compared to the last and guess how much I've lost in the last couple months!!

Surprisingly, I'm only down to 201.4 in this picture.  What a HUGE difference in appearance, even though the scale only shows a 3.6 pound weight difference.  Pretty dang proud of that, so I thought I'd share!

Look how far I've come

June 21, 2010.  That was the day that I weighed the most I ever have.  288.4.  Dang.  288.4.  And now it's 2 years to the day that I weighed my most, and I thought I'd look back at how far I've come.

My weight now?  200-ish.  Not quite where I was hoping/wanting to be at the 2 year mark, but dang it, I'm still damn proud.  Almost 90 pounds lost in 2 years.  Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

I've gone from a size 24 to a size 14.  I've lost 10 inches from my chest, 9 inches from my waist and 11 inches from my hips.  I know I've lost inches other places too, but let's be honest, those are the big 3!

I'm SO much healthier.  2 years ago, I was on blood pressure medicine daily, and even with that medicine my blood pressure usually ran higher than 140/90.  Since March of this year, I've been off blood pressure medicine, and at my last doctor appointment, my blood pressure was 122/77.  My resting heart rate, which used to be in the mid 90s, is now in the mid 70s.  I had a general physical in March, and my blood work was perfect.  Even my cholesterol was good....in the past, it's been as high as 240.  In March, it was 171.

I've started running (again).  I was a runner for a couple years in high school.  I was on the track team and ran the mile and 2 mile races at every meet.  I wasn't very fast but I was still a runner.  But I hadn't run in a long, long time.  Since February of this year, I've run 5 5K races, one of them being a 5K obstacle course!  I don't run very fast and I'm never even close to winning a medal, but I run the whole race without stopping and my time keeps improving.

I work out 3-4 days a week.  The only reason I don't work out more is I refuse to exercise on the days I work 12 hour shifts!  And I joined a gym in December of last year and started working with a trainer.  Thanks to his help, my strength is growing and I'm doing things I didn't know I could do.

Maybe the best change in the last 2 years?  Not so much a change, but a realization.  My daughter, who is just 3, is quickly learning what it is to be healthy.  She enjoys being active and she knows that it's important for us.  If she can grow up with that attitude, I've gotten her a great start in life.

So 2 years in to this journey...it's had ups and downs, but definitely more ups.  I'm the healthiest I've been in probably 10 years, and I'm so proud of myself and happy with how far I've come.  This has really become a lifestyle change for me, and I can't imagine going back to the old life.  No way, no how.  This is SO much better.