my weightloss journey.

I know I've only briefly mentioned my weight loss on here, but it has been the biggest part of my life since late October, so I feel it deserves a post.

On October 21st, I decided I was tired with the weight I had gained over 3 years of college. I had been perfectly content and secure with my body up until this point, and I wasn't letting magazine "standards" push me into thinking I wasn't beautiful the way I was. However, I came across a weight/height table, and realized I was in the overweight category, by a good 15 pounds. It kinda hit me, I wasn't being healthy with my eating choices anymore. I decided that I wanted to get down to a healthy weight, the healthy way, but a way that I could stick to and not be miserable.

I began by cutting out soft drinks, fast food (which wasn't much anyway), candy, chips, junk food, and fried things in the cafeteria. I started eating breakfast (which I never did before), drinking lots of water and eating more fruits and veggies than I thought possible. I also began working out 5x a week. After the first few weeks, I could already tell a difference in my mood, my energy and my clothing. It made me realize how easy being healthy could be and I began to set some goals for my new lifestyle.

I decided I wanted to get close to my high school weight by the time I graduated. So I had 6 months, totally managable. I can still remember those first few weeks in the gym, where I could barely make it 30 minutes on a cardio machine... it was brutal. But I really enjoyed pushing myself and competing against myself.

 In January, I didn't own a pair of jeans that fit me, I had given them all away to friends because they were falling off of me. I started purchasing $15 jeans from Forever 21 until I got to a size I wanted to maintain. People started noticing my weight loss and I felt good about myself (not that I didn't before, I just felt accomplished). I was finally starting to be able to fit into clothes that had never been "for my body type" and I was excited to start buying the clothing I had LONGED to wear for years.

As of today, I have lost 24 lbs and 4.5" off my waist. I could really careless about the numbers on the scale, I'm more in love with how my body looks, muscular and healthy. The whole weight loss process has taught me so much about myself, and every day I look forward to my "me" time in the gym. I get to be selfish and indulge myself. I finally feel me.

I don't want to come across like being thinner is the only way I could be happy, that's not the case. Knowing that I am healthier and can live longer makes me happy. Knowing that I can go on an adventure with friends and not be worried about physically being able to keep up has allowed me to participate more. I'm not hiding in my room, I'm living and being me.

I now have new goals of running in some races, I'm really excited. I may even try to teach some fitness classes after I graduate. I'm just in love with working out and the mood I'm in when I push myself further than I think I can go. It's made me realize I can do that in more aspects of my life, to just keeping pushing, even when it feels like I should stop.

So that is what I have really been consumed with for the past 5 months and I had a few e-mails about it, so I thought I'd share the full picture. I debated a long time whether or not this was an appropriate topic, but then I thought about how supportive you all are and decided to just post it.