Good morning Turtles.
Today is a momentus day!
Today is my one year anniversary. It is one year since I started reclaiming myself, one year since we got home from our trip to England for my sister-in-law's wedding. At that wedding, in that culture, I had my size underscored in painful ways. Between the Minnesota wedding trip (July 4-July 11) and the England wedding trip (July 18-July 28) I realized that I
HAD to do something about it. No matter how slowly I moved forward, I knew I never had the option of going back to careless, mindless eating.
Like a true Turtle, I moved slowly down my path. I started with WW Points. I had weeks where I stayed at just my daily points, weeks where I added just APs, weeks with APs and FPs, weeks where I just ate as I was hungry and counted no matter how high the number got...every variation of Points I could think of. Then I tried other stuff, all the time keeping careful notes about what worked for my body and what didn't.
And that brings me to now! I have established that my body loooooves protein, and can 'handle' any protein food I give it. I love veggies. Fruits, not so much--pineapple is my favorite, but most fruits just don't 'do' it for me. My body hates, hates, HATES white flour foods and sugar. I know it's a cliche, but it's true for my body. I get sleepy and headachy almost immediately when I have a meal that is either exclusively or mostly that sort of food (pasta, pizza, sandwiches, Asian noodle dishes). The difference between being "full" with a meat&veg meal and "full" (which I never really am) with a carb-y sweet meal is astounding! I feel quite confident that I know what my body needs and how to help it thrive.
So! A year's worth of results: my weight today is 254.5, down from 294. So I'm down 39.5 pounds for the year! The change is not fast by any means, but I feel confident that I've learned so much that I can keep it off without much struggle.
This picture is a bit hard to judge, I know, because the poses and the lighting are off. Hubby's going to help me with another picture later, but for now this is what I have. The picture on the left is "before", at the Minnesota wedding. On the right is "after", taken yesterday. Not a dramatic difference by any means, but the dress feels so loose on! It was custom tailored and it fit well, for that body. Now it definitely doesn't! If I move any amount in it it gets obscene pretty fast, actually...I spared you all THOSE pictures.
http://www.soulshaven.f2s.com/images..._and_after.jpg
So this is me, at my one-year point.