On Losing 50 Pounds

I've known for about a month or so that this post was (hopefully) coming, but now that I finally get to write it, I'm not entirely sure what to say.  I'm not even sure I want to post this...but it is a blog about my weight loss/exercise journey, right?  So, I guess here it goes.

I've lost 50 pounds...well...51.2, I guess, is more accurate.  And that is based on my weight six week postpartum...  If you want to go based on my highest weight, three days before Lilly was born, I've lost 82.2 pounds.  If you want to go based on what I was before Lilly, I've lost 36.2 pounds.  Post-baby is supposedly one of the toughest times to lose weight, so we will stick with that.

51.2 pounds of fat and gunk and crap.  Gone.  Forever (if I try!)

Has it been easy?  Hell no.

Has it taken a looooooooong time?  Heck yes.

Would I do it all over again?  You betcha.

Am I still going?  Mmhmm

Currently, I am at the lowest weight I can EVER remember myself being at.  Not just in my adult life.  I do mean ever.  I can only remember myself as overweight and heavy.

Last week, I had dinner with my best friend, Kim (like...we've been best friends since Elementary school).  {Random story: In middle school, my sister taught us the word phat = cool. Unfortunately, she didn't tell us that it was spelled with a ph- and so we would write back and forth to each other in our notebook (yep...we had one...) things like "Hey fatty!" or "To the fattest girl I know..."  Man...we were cruel without knowing it, but so honest, it seems...}  Anyway, just about all of our lives, we have kind of (in my eyes, anyway) mirrored what each other looked like.  We seemed to gain and lose weight at the same time.  We were both awkward and chunky through middle school...lost some before starting high school...gained some once we settled into our HS patterns...lost some weight for our choir trip to Hawaii when we were Seniors (can you say tan hotties on the beach!?!?!)...and gained some in college...lost some after college...and gained some as we got older...  To be 100% honest, she has always had so much going for her, in terms of looks (she has a killer smile and perfect hair) AND personality (can make me laugh like nobody can), among so many other things.  In the last year or whatever, we have both worked pretty hard and have both lost, what I would consider, a significant amount of weight.

After we ate (and as we sat talking about showing up to our 10 year reunion {which I have agreed to help plan} drunk or something to make a HUGE splash), we had a conversation about comments and remarks and how we deal.  We both agreed that it is down-right HARD to take a compliment about weight loss.  I've talked about this before and thought I would grow out of it, but it still feels the same.  It is hard to just say "thanks" to a "You look some amazing and tiny!" compliment when all you can hear is "Wow!  I can't believe you aren't such a giant manatee anymore and the world doesn't shake as much when you walk by!  Way to go!" (side note: don't manatee's look like giant lumps of dough smushed together?!?)  Why can't we just take comments at face value rather than questioning everything that person thought of us when we were bigger.  I was the same person that I am now, except I ate more coooooookies/nummies/delicious foods, moved less, and wore bigger clothes.  I realized that we truly are so similar, but in some things that I KNOW a lot of "former fatties" deal with.  We basically decided that it was a really hard thing to deal with, but you just have to do it.  That is the price you pay for weight loss, I guess.

And then we talked about people asking, "Wow!  How did you do it?!?!"  People ask like they want your big secret.  As Kim put it, "They look at you, waiting for you to say "Yeah...I ate nothing, but grapefruit and twigs for six months" or something" (this is where I looked at her and asked if she seriously ate nothing, but grapefruit...  She didn't.)  I agreed.  Everyone wants to know what magic pill you are taking or diet you are following.  After years of struggling with weight, I am so glad that I have found it and can honestly FINALLY share the secret to weight loss:

Eat Less.  Move More.

It works.  It really does.  I'm living, breathing, shrinking proof!

Now is where I do the whole "before" and "after" photo thing, right?

Before...6 and 10 weeks after Bean was born...

Now.  It is possible to get where you want to be.

Why did I do it?  Honestly?

The super cute kid...not the Spud...

Find your motivation, whatever it is, and use it.  Make it mean something to you or it won't work.

But seriously...the secret...

Grapefruit and twigs.  Kim said so.

Just kidding...  Eat Less.  Move More.

XOXO