After a little over 10 months of calorie counting (including a 6-month-long plateau/maintainence hiatus, heh) I've managed to lose from my starting weight of 287lbs down to 255lbs, a total of 32 pounds. When I first started my journey, I really didn't think that I would see or feel any difference until I made it about 50lbs down, but boy was I wrong. Even though I don't feel as though I look very different when I look at myself in the mirror and in pictures, I feel different.
Those 32 pounds have made it so much easier for me to do so much more. I don't get winded quite as easily (making it much easier for me to get in exercise by walking more), I've dropped from a size 26 jean to a loose size 24 and I should be in a size 22 within the next 5-10lbs, my belly has shrunk considerably, photos show me with less back fat, and I can feel and see my collarbones reemerging! In a lot of ways, I really don't feel like I'm still morbidly obese, simply because losing the first chunk of weight has made that much of a difference to me in terms of my energy levels.
More importantly, I've realized that I am in fact capable of changing my body through my efforts, and despite having what I viewed as a very high starting weight, even a relatively "small" weight loss has done me a lot of good, something I really didn't expect. It feels amazing knowing that that my efforts have already brought me great changes and I won't have to wait until I reach goal for my health and my relationship with my body to begin strengthening.
That said, I am still quite focused on goal. I haven't set any sort of timeline to get there because I've found that time-based goals just don't work well for me, but, I did buy a pair of size 14 (the size I'm guessing I'll be at my goal weight of 175lbs based on the rate weight has been coming off my pear-shaped-self and my size the last time I weighed around there) NY&Company jeans at Goodwill today for $5.99! They definitely look really little to me right now, but they look achievable, nonetheless. I can definitely see myself getting my body to that size and I look forward to it!
Even though I've got a long way to go , I definitely feel a lot closer to where I want to be (and a lot more capable of getting there) and it's amazing. I hope this help at least one person realize that even though we're starting a higher weights than some, our milestones along the way can be really significant! Big changes happen even before losing 50 or 100 or more pounds; every pound is a step in the right direction!
Thanks for reading!
