[mkendrick]

Back in early November of 2009. Seems like soooo long ago, but it's kind of amazing to think that it IS kind of a long time ago. My biggest fear when I started was that I'd get bored and frustrated and not stick with it. Well, it's been almost a year and a half, I've completely transformed my body, and I'm still going strong!

Anyways, just for kicks and giggles, I went back and looked at my calorie counting logs from the veeery beginning. I remember that first day like it was yesterday, lol. I was sitting at my computer, eating bowl after bowl after bowl of "healthy" cereal (Special K honey nut clusters, lol). While I was waiting for a page to load (yes, I remember it this well), I read the cereal box and realized that each serving of cereal was 210 calories. And a serving size was 3/4 cup. Pssshhhh, well my bowls were filled to the brim with cereal, definitely more than 3/4 cup, and I ate 3-4 bowls each morning! So I googled around on the ridiculous listed serving sizes for foods and how silly it was. Who eats a measely 3/4 cup cereal anyways!? And I somehow landed on caloriecount.com. Just for the heck of it, I registered, and thus began my biggest life transformation.

My motivation to my new project came fast and furiously. That afternoon I bought a food scale and bags and bags of "healthy" groceries. I logged obsessively. At the end of the week, I saw a 4 pound loss. That was my first time I have ever made a real attempt at losing weight, and the fact that I was observing a real amount of weight loss from change and effort that I actively made was just stunning to me. I was hooked after that.

Anyways, I was just going through my food logs from those first few weeks, and I think they're kind of precious. How enthusiastic I was about eating exactly the right foods and logging exactly the right way. There was definitely a learning curve. Lots of Lean Cuisines and 100-calorie snack packs and other such things that I quickly realized did not fill me up.

But I'm so thankful to Megan-from-Novemer-2009 for making the change and sticking with it to get me to Megan-from-today. I had NO idea what a massive change I had started myself on, hehe.

Anyways, I just got the warm fuzzies from looking back at it and reminiscing...thought I'd share.

[manders01]

I just looked at mine the other day to respond to a post on here. I was SHOCKED at my first month! My first week my calorie allotment was way too low. Thankfully, though I don't remember how, I raised it the second week. But like you, the things I was eating, or should I say wasn't. No fruit and barely any veggies. Day after day. I'm so glad that somewhere during my lifestyle change, my body - or more precisely my taste buds - acknowledged that fruits and vegetables are super good for me and super yummy!

I too have been amazed from the start that I've been able to stick with this change and it's been a positive change. I may have helped that my eating habits in the beginning weren't so different than what I was eating rather than a completely shift right from the get go. But I am so thankful that they have stuck! Life is much better now that it's ever been!