Slow, but steady progress....

So.....


That crazy diet I started finally took off a little.  I had lost some weight before, but I'm finally closer to where I want to be.

So let's start from the beginning...

This is Stacey and me at my graduation from college.  The date is true... it was May 22, 2011.  I had been divorced a little over 2 months.  This event was the first time that I had seen Steven in about 6 weeks or so.  Divorce is hard on your weight!  I think most people try to lose a bunch of weight to show 'what a catch he  lost' or something.  I did the opposite.  I decided food was nice, it was my friend, and it made me feel good. So I ate alot of it.  It seems the bigger I got, the unhappier I became which caused me to eat more.  It was a very vicious cycle.














This picture was taken around Father's day 2011- beginning-ish of June.  I just realized this was only a few weeks later.  Regardless, I think I put on a few more pounds.

I only have one picture from before my diet craze started.  It was taken in a dressing room mirror and we know those are all full of crap!  I swear those mirrors are tailored to make you look skinny so you buy it, take it home and never wear it because in real life- you're bulging everywhere!

Now, I've decided to give dieting some serious attention.  I joined Nutrisystem in November to lose weight before I met with my family (it'd been 7 months since anyone had seen me) and Stacey was bringing her first man home (who would soon announce he'd be the last man she brought home!)  This pic was from December 3.  I'd been on Nutrisystem a few weeks.  Altogether on Nutrisystem, I lost about 20 lbs in three months.  Amazing!  At the height of it, I looked like this:

Amazing, right? 

This pic makes people mistake me for someone famous.

Sadly, on Nutrisystem- you have to stay  on Nutrisystem.  When I started cooking meals (which I thought were healthy) I gained back 10lbs within a month.

Here I am March 24, 2012.  Back up a little, but not from where I started.  Heaven forbid I let myself go back over 200lbs (that was my wake-up call).

 This is me taken Mother's Day 2012.  I went down to my Christmas weight after 1 week of pure liquid dieting- which SUCKED.  I'm now sticking to shakes or meal shots for breakfast and lunch and steamed vegetables and chicken for dinner.  I allow myself one sweet treat of my choosing a week.  I can also eat as much self-popped popcorn as I want.  My weight plateaued over the past week.  Maybe a little exercise will jump start it and keep me on my path.

Hoping to keep the weight off!  For my little victory- I changed my hair a little!  Hooray!

Good luck to everyone else losing weight!  It's a journey... and it is definitely not the easiest for those of us (like me!) that LOVE our food!