In this case, the "dragon" is the 128 lb mark.
My name is Laura and I am living and working in Japan teaching English. I'm originally from upstate NY - Albany/Colonie to be exact (I saw someone from Ballston Spa!), and I'm in my third year in Japan. I'll be moving back to the US in the summer, where I imagine it will be astronomically difficult to maintain this semblance of a healthy lifestyle I have here.
I was pretty overweight in middle school and high school, though I never really thought about it. My highest weight was almost 170 lbs in 10th grade. I got depressed over a boy (who turned out to be gay - oh the irony) in 11th grade and lost my "baby fat" through reduced appetite. I maintained a modest appetite even after my heart healed, and graduated high school at 128 lbs - my lowest postpubescent weight to date.
College happened, and so did beer and lots of meals at weird twilight zone hours. I went on the birth control pill and my appetite skyrocketed. A traumatic incident involving scraping my forehead on a treadmill kept me out of the gym for the first year and a half or so. I read those stupid "thinspiration" websites and thought it would be wise to go to the gym twice a day every day of the week. That didn't last long, and the summer between second and third year of college, I got a summer office job at the State of New York. My new coworkers were overwhelmingly overweight and obese and there were delicious bagels at the cafeteria. I started smoking out of boredom and got addicted.
Then in the fall of my third year, I met my current boyfriend. He has a family history of alcoholism, which = SWEET TOOTH. We ate ice cream twice on our first date. That winter we took a trip to LA together and brought a plastic bowl and a few big bags of candy and called it the "candy bowl." It was always filled. Between the candy bowl and In-N-Out Burger, we easily gained 5 lbs apiece on that trip. We went out to eat often and of course there was always room for cookies and brownies. Getting comfortable around a significant other is a pretty good way to kill motivation to lose/maintain weight.
Blah blah, graduated college at about 150 lbs and moved to Japan shortly thereafter. I did what lots of foreign chicks do here and thought "Japanese women are thin and they eat rice all the time, I can do that too!" I packed on a few more pounds, nothing extreme, and maintained. Made a couple half-assed dieting attempts, but the lure of fried pork cutlets on a big bed of white rice was too great. I stayed around 70 kg for a year and three-quarters. And then one March 2010 weekend after a particularly brutal round of beef-grilling BBQ parties (always with beer), I saw 72 kg in the mid-afternoon. 158 lbs. That's what I weighed in the "before" pictures that made people laugh at parties. Granted I was older this time around so I gained more gracefully, but at my height with my bone structure 72 kg was not a healthy or attractive weight...
So I halved my daily calorie intake and started running. I've NEVER been a runner and I doubt I ever will be, but I am still damned proud of teaching myself to run. The first time I went out I was huffing and puffing after 60 seconds of movement, and I felt death clenching my chest from the smoking. After a summer trip back to the US where I spent $10 per pack on Camel Lights (not even that good!), I decided it wasn't worth it and quit smoking cold turkey. I developed a crippling addiction to vegetables of all things and cooked more at home. And the weight came off!
I weighed 61.0 kg/134 lbs when I weighed myself this morning and now my BMI is 22.5 or thereabouts. I'm not done yet, but I'm getting there! I joined this forum because I am really excited about becoming part of what seems like a cool community of smart and shrinking ladies who support each other.
I've attached some before and after pictures. The first 2 are from 2000 and 2004 respectively (I'm the pale middle one in the group shot), and the second 2 are from March and this past Monday of this year.
You and I are very close as far as current and long term goal- I'm at 136.3 right now and have a goal of 125. I think it's awesome that you took up running, it's an amazing workout and a sure fire way to drop lbs!
Dhani 
