A Year of Blogging: Before and After

I just checked and it was a year ago (and 5 days) that I started my MFP blog. That was a few months after starting MFP itself. I decided I needed an outlet to vent all the stuff I was thinking about with weight loss and MFP is a darn good audience. I had no idea when I wrote my first blog that so many people would relate to it and read it! I'm not even a writer, I'm an engineer for goodness sake! hahaha

But in my first blog that I wrote in May of 2010, I explained a bit about why I'm doing what I'm doing. And at the end I said:

" I really can't wait to be a before and after picture..." 

Well, not that I wasn't confident, but it's kind of mind boggling that the picture you see to the right is my before and after picture! Well, mostly after. I'm still shrinking, albiet slowly. I was jumping for joy in my first blog about having lost 15 lbs with MFP in a few months. And that I was finally buying smaller clothes. Now a year later I'm still buying smaller clothes, MUCH smaller clothes and I'm dancing around the 65 lbs lost mark.

There's definitely something to be said about the community on here. I was pretty clueless when I started about nutrition and exercise. But I read blogs and message boards and talked to more experienced MFP users and absorbed it all like a sponge. And now I regularly field questions on my own "expertise" in the matter. Food, zigzagging calories, dealing with challenges, RUNNING (yeah, didn't see that one coming a year ago)... you name it and I'll help you with it :)

If you want to see what can change in year... here's some numbers (you know I love numbers by now...)

Pant/Dress Size: 16/18 to 6/8 (always petite/short, haha, I'm still 5'2")

Top Size: Started at  XL (if I was lucky to fit in XL) to S/M

Weight: I was around 185 last year, starting weight 215. Currently 150.3 (and shrinking!)

Waist: 39" to 29" (10" lost!)

Hips: 45" to 36" (9" lost!)

Body fat %: 33% to 27.2% (from Sept 2010 when I started keeping track to now) 

Fastest Mile: You want me to run a freaking mile? Yeah right!!! to 11:25 yesterday :)

Fasest 5K time: Same as above, I'll jump off a bridge before I'll run 3.1 miles to 37:30 (39:33 official race day PR)

Bikinis owned: None (in my dreams maybe) to no less than 6, haha

A lot can happen in a year. And I've written down all of it (as you can see in the archives on the right).  I don't think I'm really the same person who wrote that first blog a year ago. I'm happy and confident and feel sexy and ADORE shopping for clothes since they all fit perfectly. I could stop now and be perfectly content. But I set my goal at 140. I've been right around 150 for 5 months now, despite thinking I busted my plateau over a month ago. But it's moving in the right direction and I've cleaned up my act. Running, eating more, and behaving better on the weekends (that boyfriend of mine is a bad influence, haha). But I'm thankful for it all. For my readers and MFP friends. I thought this website would be all about the numbers, but it's way more than that to me.