90 Pounds Later

And now for a self-absorbed post.  I'm allowed one of those every once in awhile, right?

That's right.  The title of this post says 90 pounds.  That is what I have lost since I began my weight loss journey three years ago.  Yes, that's a long time to be on a weight loss journey.  I had a baby in the middle, so my efforts had to take a backseat for a year.

How did I do it?  I started on Weight Watchers.  About 30 pounds into it, I quit Weight Watchers and went solo.  I lost the remaining weight by following a low sodium diet.  For me, reducing sodium was like magic ... the weight slowly and steadily kept dropping away.  I also increased my exercise and eliminated most eating out.

I don't like the pictures of me before.   Because of this, I have very few.  And the chances that you've seen any of them are slim.  Unless you happened to take some of me.  And then you probably didn't show them to me, because they weren't pretty.  I'm joking.  Kind of.  But for the purpose of historical documentation here, I am posting a before picture.  Don't look too long.

Now I still don't much care for the way I looked.  But today, when I look back at these pictures I often don't recognize myself.  And I know that I was a happy person then in many ways, but I feel so much more healthy now.

Again, for historical documentation, here is a look at the three years following the picture above...

2008 and look at cute little Charlie!!!  (Yes I cropped out the other half of my family because, after all, this is a self-absorbed post.)

 2009 and very pregnant with Ephram.

 2010 taken just a couple of weeks ago.  The blur next to me is my little sister.  Someday I'll actually blog about what we were doing in this photo.

Can you see the difference?  I can.  Not only in the pounds that have dropped away, but in my whole countenance... I think I look lighter.  Like a weight is off my shoulders.  Maybe I think I can see it because I just know how I feel now.  I feel great.

But...  am I done? For now, yes.  I have a.... wait for it.... normal BMI!  I have exceeded my original weight loss goal by more than 20 pounds.  I think I could lose another 10.  It would be fun to be able to say I lost 100 pounds.  I'm also down from a size 24 to a size 10.  (Is that 14 dress sizes or 7?  I never know!)  I think I could lose more inches too.  But I've been sitting comfortably at this weight for about three months.  And I am still a nursing mom, so I don't want to push it too far.  Once I am done nursing, maybe I'll conquer those last 10 pounds.

For a long time I have been thinking about starting a new blog to share some of the tips that I have developed for my low sodium diet.  To celebrate maintaining my loss for three months, I've actually started this blog.  You can find it in my blog roll to the right.  It's called "My Low Sodium Life."  I plan to put tips up at a rate of about once a week.  Don't hold me to that though.  (Again, nursing mom... time to do the things I want often eludes me.)

So, did I mention this is a self-absorbed post?  Also, to celebrate my weight loss being achieved, I got a new hair cut about a month ago.  I really like it.  And now that I am no longer ashamed of how I look, I decided to take a few pictures of it.  So here are a couple of my self portraits.  One with glasses, and one without.

This concludes the self-absorbed portion of my blog.  Back to my beautiful children soon!