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So this is the picture I posted after I finally was able to reveal to my family the weight loss journey I had been on for the year so far. At this point, April 14, I had lost 50 pounds since January 10! Now I have lost 60 pounds, and have beat obesity, which was a HUGE goal for me :D!

Oh yea, and I'm blonde! It surprises me every time I look in the mirror, and I love it like crazy.

ANYWAY, since that first picture, people have asked me how did you do it?! So I figured I'd do some sharing.

My first step happened way before January 10th: I went on a mission to appreciate my body as it was. I've spent my whole life feeling like I got dealt a shit hand with my body. Why didn't I get my brother's metabolism? Why didn't I get to feel positive about how I looked back before I ballooned to actual obesity - when I was a pre-teen at a healthy size but was implied to be fat, or needing to lost weight? So I have spent most of my life feeling victimized by these things - a position that kept me completely helpless in my health and body image struggle. So I went on a mission to love and appreciate my body in its exact state. I used art, poetry, letters I'll never send, and deep conversations with friends. All of these came together to a calm place where I knew that I would be able to go on a healthy lifestyle that WASN'T motivated by hating my body, by not feeling good enough, by pleasing other people. Seriously, it felt - and feels - fantastic!

Step two was signing up for a nutrition plan I could believe in. I've spent the last couple of years as a member of a gym that I haven't been going to, called She's Fit. They (like many gyms) provide a nutrition plan for $300 that I signed up for. It uses my body fat percentage to gauge what balance of macronutrients (carbs, fat, protein) my body needs per meal and calories and all that. So from that it sets up five meals a day - 3 hours apart - that are all equally balanced with the right amount of cabs, fat, and protein and the same amount of calories. It gave me a lot of good recipes, and even helped me broaden my horizons, but also let me remove items that I just wouldn't eat.

So to summarize: eating 5 smalls meals a day, three hours apart, well portioned with a good balance of carbs, protein and good fats. In particular, my meals are 33 g of carbs, 16 g of protein, 7 g of fat, and 263 calories. I have gotten to the point where I'm able to intuitively make meals with this balance, and it has naturally become part of my lifestyle :).

Step three was starting to work out, which I got into a couple days after starting to eat correctly. I started out slow on the recumbent bike that is in my apartment, but eventually I got back to the gym. I started doing incline intervals on the treadmill for an hour, or Zumba, or jumprope, or swimming. Everyday it was an hour of decently intense cardio and it started getting easier and easier. After an aforementioned incident of gym crying, I looked into a Couch to 5K program (also partly inspired by Emily Moxey). It's been a slow road, as I was more "couch" than they expected, but I feel SO empowered by being able to run - even though at the moment it's just for 3 minutes at a time.

I can't believe how quickly I've lost weight - I think it's important that people realize that 60 pounds in 3.5 months isn't a realistic goal, but can be a happy surprise. My body was just tired of being dragged down and so jumped at the chance to shed that weight. I also beat pre-hypertension around 40 pounds lost, and I feel so healthy every day.

Anyway, I suppose that's enough rambling for now. I really appreciate everyone's support throughout this. I've found that, while it's definitely harder than the general population assumes it to be when they look at obese people, it is easier than I expected it to be, and than I'm sure a lot of obese people expect it to be. It has to start emotionally, once you realize you're worthy is when it can all come together in a calm and healthy way. It's not hopeless, no matter what.