Finally: Before & Afters!

So yesterday I realized that I never posted any before & after pictures after hitting my 130lb goal back in September - so here they are! I halfway typed up this post months ago - maybe I'll post a few more recent "after" pictures soon :)

One of my biggest regrets with weight loss is not taking any 'official' before pictures or measurements. Although of course I knew my starting weight (170lbs), it would have been smart to have taken measurements to keep me motivated during those plateaus where my weight wasn't changing, but my measurements probably were. And now, I would love to have specific 'before' pics to compare to. But  at the beginning, I really didn't think this would work, so I guess I didn't want to commit to a before pic since I wasn't confident there would be an after. If you feel this way too, I would encourage your to do it anyway, and use it as motivation!

So, I figured the next best thing is a few pictures from the last half of 2011 to remind us all or where I started out. I'm pretty sure all of my blog readers have known me in real life, but a lot of you may not have seen me in person for several years. I graduated college in 2008 at ~150lbs. I think my highest weight after college was ~180 in early 2009, but for several years now I've been around 170, including in the pictures below.

The first picture is from Nov 2011, on our trip to Wisconsin where I met Sam's parents for the first time. This was one of the first pictures where I was really disgusted with myself - it definitely gave me some motivation to lose weight! I wore a lot of outfits that did a better job of hiding my weight, but this was not one of them! Compare to more recent picture of us in NC last summer:

Before - November 2011

After - July 2012

This next picture is from Thanksgiving at my Mema's house. As I was losing weight, people always told me they could see it a lot in my face, which I had never really noticed as much (I guess because I see my face every day?) - looking back at this picture I can definitely tell the difference!

Before - November 2011

After - October 2012 (also a better hair day!)

As far as weight maintenance goes, I'm happy to say that I am currently around 131. I gained back some weight through November and got up to around 136, but I lost a few pounds in December and miraculously didn't gain any over Christmas (I definitely didn't hold back on the eating!).

Sam and I have been tracking everything we eat/counting calories since we got back from NC last Monday, and I am hoping that writing down everything I eat will help keep the pounds from creeping back on like they did in October & November. I'll write some more thoughts on weight maintenance later, but it's definitely a challenge to stay vigilant!! Hope you all had a good Monday!