Wow, how amazing! Congratulations to you. You have put in some hard work and it definitely shows! So commendable.

Congrats!!!

KUDOS. Your strength of spirit shines through in every single picture.

Only one word came to mind WOW!!!!

I was looking for some inspiration as I feel like I am trudging.. and your face picture collage did the trick!


Thank you!

You rocked the weight loss! You look amazing and I bet feel better than amazing! Absolutely wonderful!!!!

What an inspiration! I'm starting at 313 and so far, am down to 308..Good job and good luck on the future! :-D

What a transformation!

I love it when people post their photos... what an inspiration to others.

Congratulations. Awesome!

Way to go!!!!!

I've read your story and you are a true inspiration. I'm currently obese and fear the same things you did. I don't want to go under the knive. I know how to "eat clean" but I would like an example of a day of your dieting and if you can, please share some recipes. How did you handle cravings? Any info you can provide is appreciated!

Angela from NJ

Hi Angela (and an update for all interested)

It has been 6 years since I made this post. Plenty has changed in my life since then. I am happy to say that I am still more than 100 pounds lighter than when I started. Which is to say, I have gained back 80. I'll try to address your specific questions, but know that I am no longer in the head-space I was in when I was in the midst of the weight-loss journey. I can't go back there as it was really obsessive and (in retrospect) probably very unhealthy. I think I ended up giving myself an eating disorder to be perfectly frank, one that I am now dealing with.

A day of dieting example: every day was the same. I counted calories obsessively and like a maniac. I NEVER went over my current calorie goals. The amount of calories I allowed myself changed over time, but it was always around 1200 a day. This is not a lot of food. Most of these calories were in vegetables because I could never wrap my head around small portions, and vegetables have the lowest calorie count. I also drank TONS of sparkling, calorie-free flavored waters. Probably upwards of 6 liters a day. I think the beverages are the only thing that got me through the day because I was able to have something in my mouth that tasted good, and kept my empty belly happy.

How did I handle cravings?: I don't know. Honestly. This is how I gained back 80. I can no longer talk myself out of the cravings. With that said though, I still do not eat anything with sugar (or honey or agave) in it. I just don't bring sugar into my house at all. My sugar cravings have totally stopped because of this, so I am not tempted when I am out and about either. I also keep myself very minimal on bread (or pasta or rice) intake. These two things alone are the only reason I have not gained back everything. I try to be 100% no bread, but those cravings sometimes knock too hard to say no to day after day. My problem is with healthy overeating - example: instead of saying 'no' to some peanut butter (all natural, no sugar), I will end up eating 500 calories worth, because that's how many calories are in 1 heaping tablespoon and goodness knows if I stick a spoon in that container, its gonna come out loaded...

A few Recipes: http://gift4myself.blogspot.com/p/breakfasts.html The whole blog talks about my journey. I would suggest that you start at the oldest entries and work your way backwards. The latest 10 or so are just depressing because it is me slowly losing the maintenance battle, and probably not encouraging to read

One suggestion of a thing that really and truly helped me was that I had micro-goals. I love lists, and I love crossing things off of lists, so having loads of goals really kept me on track. This is another problem I think I have now. There is only 1 goal in my mind: get back to where I was. There is nothing for me to mini-celebrate as I knock it off my list. All my goals are also on my blog at http://gift4myself.blogspot.com/p/goals.html You can get the idea from there of things you can set for yourself.

Good luck! I wish I could be of more help. You CAN do it. It sucks, it's hard, but it is possible. Even if you are like me and lose a whole lot and then gain some back, the losing it is the important part. I am still 1000 times healthier now than I was back in 2009. Let me know if you have more questions. I am happy to answer

You know what? You are still an inspiration. I've gained back about 30 lbs or so from my lowest weight in 2012. You know what? Like you, I'm a heck of a lot healthier than I was back in 2009 - I've still kept off about 40 lbs - nothing to sneeze at. I'm back with my reboot effort to take off the regain pounds, and my old methods are giving me a place to start. Like you, I got a bit obsessive before, and needed a break (resulting in my gain). This time, I'm going to try to be a little more kind to myself. As I said, you are still an inspiration!!!

PacificaBee, what an inspirational post (#103)!

You're so right about the weightloss phase becoming obsessional. I wasn't too bad the last time (2002-2004) but this time I was obsessive to the nth degree, because I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes a week after I started my current campaign: that anxiety about what I could or couldn't eat reached back into my mind to 2013, when I had to be cautious what I ate because of chemo, and produced a huge anxiety and obsession and downright fear of food. I'm lucky, I have a good diabetes nurse, and she's consistently urged me not to be too restrictive; and a good diabetes dietician, who's encouraged me to up my calorie budget to 1300-1400, which increases the variety of what I can eat, somewhat. It's frustrating, because my weightloss has become quite slow at the moment, and I've still a ways to go but maybe this time once I get to goal I'll be more likely to stay there, rather than lose 106lbs and regain 98. Sigh.

I know what you mean about lists!! I recognize the kind of list you have in your signature - somewhere in this site is a great long list of targets and dates achieved, re-achieved, re-re-achieved. Hey, whatever works for us!

Good luck with this phase of your journey