3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community - four sizes lost - longest workout/healthy eating streak in years

Back in May the maid-of-honor dress I bought for my best friend's wedding came in, I had ordered a size 12 as that's what I kept telling myself I was... I picked up the dress and proceeded to attempt to zip it up, it wasn't going anywhere...I freaked out as the wedding was two weeks away and brought it to several tailors - they all said there was no fabric to let out, I told the last tailor over the phone that I had about 1 - 2 inches needed, she had me bring it in, and try it on, then proceeded to tell me it was more like 5 - 6 inches too small! I almost died. I actually had to call the store where I bought it and lie and tell them I was pregnant so I could get a rush order on a size 18...I was hysterical. In 27 years of dieting and failing I had never actually gotten this big. I didn't even know where to start again. Two weeks before the June 10th wedding, I made a pact to make some big changes, mainly: a. keeping a food diary, b. changing my life, not dieting, and c. exercising. In the past I would be gung-ho, lose loads of weight, stop seeing my friends, going out to dinner/drinks etc and of course fail and gain it all back & quit - I decided this time, I'll go out to dinner in moderation, workout in moderation, etc. etc.

I made it through the wedding [pics included] June 10th and at the time, I couldn't do phase 1 of the 30 day shred without taking long pauses for to catch my breath and her longer videos made me want to cry...but I stuck with it. The first month was all workout videos from Jane Fonda to Jillian, then I added weights. The food diary helped A LOT - livestrong said to aim for 1200 cals/day but I edited it to 1350 with a cheat day each weekend [cheat day of up to 2000 cals, not a huge pig out fest]. Not completely depriving myself/cutting myself off really helped - sure the weight loss has been slower but I have now made it 6 FULL months, I'm down several dress sizes, in fact, the original bridesmaid dress fits!! I have been on two trips/vacations and this is the first time I've ever made the decision to get a workout in which I'm really proud of. I'm up to hour-long heavy bag kickboxing classes twice a week, running 2 -3 miles and sit-ups twice a week, and of course the odd Jillian dvd as well once or twice a week. I am happy to stand in front of my husband in my underwear when I get ready in the morning [though he never said anything negative before, I didn't feel comfortable with him seeing my body since I hated it]. My body image was so morphed that I would cross the street rather than walk past restaurants with outdoor tables b/c I thought everyone would be looking at the "fat girl", in fact before I started, I got yelled FATASS twice by jerks in passing cars...people can be really cruel. Now I run down that street and up yours if you don't like it. My body isn't perfect. I still want to get down another 1 or 2 dress sizes [I don't go by the scale] and look better in a bikini by the time I hit Mexico in two months but I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking with this lifestyle, not giving up and not going overboard!! Hopefully I'll have more updates in a bit.

The first two pics are from the wedding when I started, the last three are recent, including the original dress! P.S. I'm on the left in all the AFTER photos!

UPDATE - scroll down if you want, post-Mexico pics! 2/14/12.