When I hopped onto the scales this morning, I realised that I had achieved two milestones with my weight that make me feel really happy. I wanted to share them so if I feel discouraged in the future, I can look back at this post and remember how satisfying it feels to be succeeding with losing weight.

The first milestone is that I am now 50lbs down from my highest weight ever, 16 stone (or 224 lbs). I am now 12 stone 6lbs (or 174lbs), and I feel fantastic - so much healthier, happier, more care-free. Although I will have been this weight before in the past, it's so long ago that I can't even remember - this is definitely the lightest I've been in the past 7 or 8 years. It feels great to know that with every pound lost, it's the lightest I can remember being.

Secondly, I am now only 1 stone (14lbs) away from having a "normal" BMI. I think BMI is a very flawed measurement, but this is still a milestone for me. Part of the reason for this is because when I was at a heavier weight and had a BMI of over 30, doctors were really unhappy to prescribe me the combined contraceptive pill. In my home town, my doctor refused to prescribe it because she thought I was too heavy, and I had horrible experiences switching to various other pills with undesirable side-effects. Where I live now, my doctor does prescribe me the combined pill, but I know she would be happier if I was at a medically healthy weight in terms of BMI. To be only 1 stone away from my BMI not being an issue at all when I go to the doctors is such a fantastic feeling.

Finally, here are two pictures of me. The first one is me aged 18, at around 224lbs. The second one is me last week, aged 23, at 177lbs. They are only "face" pictures, but I think you can see the difference, and I feel so much happier now!

you can definately see a difference. congrats!!!! you should be very proud of yourself

Wow, congrats, you're a huge inspiration!

well not huge:P

The difference is quite evident, you look amazing. I love that hair style.

Cute hair and great smile! Your confidence is obvious as is the weight loss.

I agree with TBG - you look both slimmer and more confident. thats a gorgeous combination well done!

Congats on your two milestones!
What an amazing accomplishment.
You look fantastic, the difference is very noticeable.
Like the others have said, you look way more confident now too.
Keep up the great work.

You look gorgeous!! I really like your hairstyle in the last pic, too. I wish I could get my hair to do that. My hair is so thick, it's hard to get it to do anything...
Congrats on the weightloss, you can really tell the difference. I can't wait till I get in a healthy BMI again!

btw.. I really like your eye brows. lol

You're gorgeous! You look so happy. Congrats & keep up the good work.

Ahh, gosh I am grinning so much reading all of your lovely words. Thank you so much for all of the kindness, you are all incredibly sweet! I'm really touched, thank you SO much, I can't express how happy I am to read all of these nice things.

The hair cut is really new too, that photo was taken really shortly after it was done (before that I'd not had a chop for about a year - arghh!). It's lovely to have some positive feedback on it when it's new, and I'm not completely used to it yet! Yay.

aangel22 - my hair is really thick too, and this is the first time I've managed to find a hairdresser who can get my hair to go into this style! I've been trying in the past to ask for this sort of thing but the hairdressers I've used in the past have cut it differently and it's just not worked. The lady that did it this time completely ignored any parting, just put more hair forward into the bangs to make them fuller and showed me a really nice way of blow-drying the bangs to get them to go like that. The rest of the hair just dries naturally, when I blow dry it it goes huge and afro-like!

Beautiful Ace - thank you for your eyebrow compliment, haha, that's awesome! My brows are naturally really rather bushy and I need to tweeze them fairly regularly to get them to be neat!

Hahaha, it's okay... I used to have rather bushy ones myself being lebanese and whatnot, haha I do mine on the regular

I think you're smile says it all! I love your hair, so sexy!

i can see the difference, and like everyones said, i love your hair!! you look great! congrats!