2012 Weight Loss

In 2012, I lost 50 pounds by working with a personal trainer, eating better and eventually starting to run.  I chronicled the entire thing here, mostly so that I could remember just how hard it was, and to celebrate every accomplishment I had.  Below are a few pictures to show my progress, and a list of all of the posts (with summaries) that I wrote during my weight loss journey.

Jared pants pose

• Would You Dare To Take A Little Journey? posted 12/2/2011: taking the first step of signing up with my personal trainer, ready to change my life
• Training Update posted 12/13/11: talking about my goals, starting to log my eating and my first couple of personal training sessions
• Another Week posted 12/20/11: written after training session #3 as I’m starting to adjust to the new mentality that comes with exercising more and eating right
• On the Way to Healthy posted 12/29/11: after finishing my initial 4 personal training sessions, I decided to renew for 10 more. I had also started really getting used to a lot of the changes I’d made and admitted that I’d like to look a little better than I did, thanks to constant exercising in front of a mirror.  Weight loss is at 5 pounds.
• And Now It’s Getting Hard posted 01/03/12: After less recovery time than usual between sessions, I had a pretty hard training session.  I write about struggling with an exercise (inchworms), having so much trouble that I started hyperventilating and crying.  Lengthy discussion about all of the feelings behind the tears, and what a surprisingly emotional process this is.
• Dust Yourself Off and Try Again posted 01/11/12: how awesome a good workout feels after a bad workout and recovering from shin splints that were, basically, a result of being so overweight
• Updates posted 01/18/12: a little commentary on just why I’m blogging about this entire process
• Carry That Weight posted 01/24/12: Down a total of 12 pounds, finally able to get through a set of inchworms, and trying to navigate my new foodstyle on a trip to Ohio
• A Quarter of the Way There posted 01/31/12: Down 15 pounds (i.e., a quarter of the way toward my 60 pound goal). In my most recent training session, Katy had me sprinting across the studio, and I was shocked that I was able to run for even 25 seconds at a time. “I’ve never thought I’d be able to be any kind of runner, but who knows, maybe that’s another thing I’ll be able to do someday.”
• What’s Cooking? posted 02/19/12: some recipes and a little information about what it means when I say I’m eating healthier.
• Quieting My Inner Fat Girl posted 02/22/12: Attending a class at the gym with a bunch of regulars who were in way better shape than me hit me pretty hard.  Oddly enough, after this I pretty much stopped comparing myself to others when working out.
• 21 Pounds and 5 Things I Wouldn’t Have Believed posted 02/28/12: my new lifestyle is becoming just that – “a habit is a choice that we make, and then stop making because it just becomes routine. That’s where I’m at.” I also started running intervals on the treadmill, signed up for a 5k, could bench-press 45 pounds and went a month without eating red meat.
• 3 Month Check-In posted 03/15/12: Down 24 pounds and 1-2 sizes, feeling great and signed up for a fitness contest at my gym (I came in second, but for some reason never wrote about that!). Also a review of what food I initially thought would be really hard to give up.  And sharing some wisdom from a weight loss maintainer that has really helped shape the way that I’ve gone about this entire process: “During the process of losing weight and maintaining that weight loss, I had to come to the understanding that I was never going to be able to eat like I did before and stay thin. I was never going to be able to not exercise like I did before and maintain my weight loss. If I wanted the weight loss to be for life, I just had to accept those two things as fact.”
• Force of Habit posted 03/31/12: 28 pounds down, and shopping for jeans still sucks.
• Outfit Post: Miss Halfway posted 04/11/12: Down 31 pounds, and thoughts about maintenance in the future (I’m really excited to report that, as of February 2013, maintenance is not nearly as hard or scary as I thought it would be!)
• Growing posted 04/17/12: my first gain in months! Learning that it’s okay if I don’t lose weight, because I’m still working hard toward my goals (and because I’m probably gaining muscle from all the exercise).  Katy also points out that it appears that I enjoy exercising!  I’ll still deny that to her to this day 🙂
• Have You Seen Me Lately? posted 05/12/12: 36 pounds down, and I don’t have a ton of clothes that fit me anymore. Also, thinking back on the start of this process, having been at it for about 6 months.
• Treat Yo’Self: 40 Pounds! posted 06/07/12: Down 40 pounds and really starting to notice a difference in my appearance. I was also pretty excited about being about to wear just jeans and a t-shirt if I wanted to, which makes me realize how much time and energy I was spending to cover up my flaws/problem areas and feel comfortable.
• Wrap-Up Posts Are So Much Easier posted 08/07/12: Down 48 pounds, and home from vacation where I packed my scale, kept up most of my good eating habits, and splurged a little on beer and meals out because a) it’s vacation, and b) I was burning at least 700 calories/day on the most active vacation ever!  Also, attended a wedding with friends I hadn’t seen in months, who were eager to hear about how I had lost the weight.. and totally overwhelmed as Bob and I listed all the foods I had cut out of my diet.  This was the first time I realized how much unhealthy stuff I had actually been eating before, and how hard this whole process must sound to people not experiencing it with me the whole time.
• It’s a Revelation posted 09/03/12: Childhood ballet pictures make me realize that I actually was a skinny kid for some time, and how I ever came to be overweight in the first place. And the most important realization after 20 years of being overweight? That eating junk food and not exercising leads to weight gain.
• Keeping it Fresh posted 09/24/12: More healthy recipes
• Green Skirt 2.0 and How I’ve Changed Over 50 Pounds posted 09/27/12: After a pretty long plateau where I was stuck at 48 pounds, I finally hit the 50 pound mark. Discussion of all the progress I’ve made – attitudes about food have totally changed, I’ve turned into a runner, and I’m no longer intimidated by classes at my gym.
• Green Skirt the Third, Moving Fast and Standing Still posted 10/25/12: My thoughts on staying the same size/weight for an extended period of time, since I had gone through about a decade of almost constant weight fluctuations (either from weight loss attempts or weight gain over the years).  Also, running with friends makes running not so bad.
• One Year Later posted 12/16/12: Celebrating my 1 year anniversary with my trainer, Katy, and a discussion of just how far I’ve come in that time.

10 pound progress photos