I'm a Loser!

I am proud to announce it on the blog - I'm a loser!  That's right... a loser, as in a weight loss loser.  For those of you who were thinking of something else, just keep it to yourself!  :)  I've actually been at/below my goal weight for almost two weeks, and I was debating whether or not to do a post because it seemed kind of self-promoting.  Usually, this blog is just Katie-Anne-promoting.  ;)

Then, I thought - You know what? Forget it.  I worked my butt off - literally - and I'm going to write about it.  So, I hope no one minds too much!

As of Thursday, September 3, I officially met my goal of 50 pounds lost since I started really trying to lose weight in March.  (I kind of started in January, but obviously not very hard.)  As of this morning, I'm down a total of 54 pounds.  I am very happy with my progress... it took me a little more than 5 months to lose the weight.  Since I am now in "goal weight range", I'll tell you exactly what I weighed before... 185 down to 131 this morning!  I've gone from a size 16 dress/pants to a size 6, and shirts size XL/1X to smalls and mediums.

I was very unhappy with 185 lbs, since I weighed 195 the day I gave birth to Katie Anne.  I lost all the baby weight I'd gained in my pregnancy (I gained 38 pounds while pregnant... 8 in the last week from swelling) in the four months I was home with her after she was born.  However, after I went back to work, with a very stressful year of teaching, a marriage made up of two people that were adjusting from being DINKS to parents, and an infant at home, I slowly gained almost all of that weight back.   However, I tried to avoid weighing and really had no idea how much I weighed.  Two things happened in March that really opened my eyes.  First, I went to Lily's Princess Birthday Party the first weekend in March.  Now, there was absolutely nothing wrong with Lily's party- we had a great time and it was a ton of fun!  The problem was the pictures of me from the party.

Do you know how sometimes, when you see pictures of yourself and you look bad, you think, "Well, that's okay, because I kind of knew that was an unflattering shirt (or too tight pants or bad hair day or whatever) already." Well, for this birthday party, I was wearing a new shirt and a pair of jeans that I thought looked really good. I even kind of admired myself in the mirror before we left the house, thinking, "You know what? I may be a little heavier than normal for me, but I look really cute in this outfit. Cute?  No - Smokin' hot!" :)

Then, later that evening, when I downloaded the digital pictures to put on the blog... Dear Lord in Heaven. Who was that girl dressed in my exact outfit?!? Oh, it was me! It was even more sad because I really thought I'd looked cute. And, it wasn't just one picture, so I couldn't blame lighting or angles... it was every stinking picture. Inside, outside, sitting, standing, posing, photojournalistic, from the front, from the back... didn't matter.

So, I was pretty determined to lose weight after that, and then I got sick the next week.  Nothing major - just a sinus infection.  My regular doctor couldn't see me, so I went to another doctor in the practice, expecting to get a prescription for some Flonase (which I did).  What I also got was a very frank discussion about my weight.  I really appreciate it now, but I was completely floored when this person I'd never seen before told me, point blank, that I was about 45 pounds overweight.  You see, before I went to the doctor this time, I hadn't weighed in months.  I had no idea my exact weight - I thought maybe 160, 165.  But - 187 lbs?  I would not have guessed that.  I also knew that my "ideal weight" according to my height is 140 pounds, because my OBGYN had told me in summer 2008 that she'd like me to be 140 when I came back to her in summer 2009.  Well, obviously I hadn't listened, because I was 45 pounds away from that goal.

So, I came home totally depressed, but also totally determined.  I weighed the next morning to check their scales (yep, 185 lbs the next morning- guess they were right), and I got busy.  I slashed my portions to almost nothing.  I ate off saucers instead of dinner plates.  I skipped a lot of meals.  I went hungry a lot.  I got up every morning (okay, I skipped some Fridays) at 4:00 am to exercise on my Wii Fit or walk on my treadmill.  I forbid the lunchroom ladies (esp Miss Mary, who likes to load my tray up) to serve me food at lunch.  I cleaned out all the good candy (I'm a sucker for M&M's) from my classroom so I wouldn't be tempted.  I drank (still drink) a lot of coffee to reduce my appetite and help me not get too run down.  I broke the habit of eating when I'm tired or stressed out.  It took a lot of will power and was really, really hard - but I'm pretty hard-headed when I want to be!

I lost about 15 pounds in two weeks, 30 lbs by the end of the school year, then it took me about three months to lose the last 20.  (Gaining back 7 pounds when we went on vacation this summer didn't do me any favors- but it was so relaxing to just eat whatever I wanted!)  Now, my body is used to the smaller portion sizes, and I'm not hungry all day any more.

I'm happy with anything in the 130's range, since I pretty much stayed between 125-140 all through college.  My ultimate goal would be 127, since that was my weight when the day I graduated from high school.  It would be nice to weigh the same thing at our 10 Year Reunion on October 17.  So, four more pounds to go and I'm there!  I'm sure I'll make it by the reunion.

Here are some before and after pictures... and you can click on these to enlarge them - if you dare!

Before - One of the pictures of me from Lily's Princess Party (at least Katie Anne looks totally cute!):

After - Since that's an upper body shot, here's my most recent upper body shot (from my haircut day):

 

Before - My 27th Birthday:

After - My 28th Birthday:

Before - Facing front, in a dress (size 14 dress, by the way):

 

After -  Facing front, in a dress (size 8 dress):

And, for the ultimate in comparison, you've got to have the dreaded bathing suit shots.  Trust me - I've got a whole wide selection of before shots from our Myrtle Beach vacation in summer of 2008.  I tried to just go through last year's and this year's and choose some pictures that were approximately the same poses.  So, these aren't necessarily the greatest pictures I've ever taken (I actually think the brown/white bandeau top suit is my best one), but their similarity to last year's in pose makes for good comparison, I think.

Before - Holding KA at the beach. (And I cannot believe I'm putting this first one on the internet- brutal! Look at my sad little attempt at the hands-on-hip pose that Oprah taught me.):

After - Holding KA at the beach this year (same bathing suit as the second picture above for comparison's sake):

Before - Building sandcastles is never a flattering pose:

After - Sandcastles this year:

 

Before -  sitting down, from the side (and God bless my mother for cropping out the most horrible parts of this picture when she was taking it):

After - sitting down, from the side, at the beach this year (who knows what I'm fussing about here, but it is the only picture of me from that same side):

I could keep going, because there are plenty of rough, rough shots from the "before" era.  

I think we've seen enough, though.  

I'm very proud of myself - if you made it this far, thanks for reading!