My amazing weight loss

So I have quite an interesting story to share with everyone.. Not sure if there is anyone out there struggling with a weight issue, or not. If you are, I hope this helps you somewhat.. I was there, I kind of still am but I'm very happy with where I am now and wouldn't change it for the world. After I had my daughter in May of 2011 I weighed 240 pounds. Even my own Doctor told me it was a very unhealthy weight, and I knew it was myself. I mean, come on.. I'm not stupid. My labor was very difficult, something I will more than likely post about here in the future of my little ol' blog. For now, I think I would rather stick to the story without boring you guys to death, ya know?

Here's a photo of the day after I had my little bundle of joy. (Mind you, 240 pounds. Possibly a little less due to the loss in water weight)

Here is a picture of me in August of 2011, so about 3 months after I had my daughter.. I was about the same size as when I had her, possibly a little less than when I did. This picture was taken in Sterling, NY at the Renaissance Festival, which BTW... I go to almost every year with family, and as of lately my husband and my little one! She loved it, obviously!

 

 

Once April came around I weighed myself for the first time in almost a year.. And I couldn't believe my eyes, I weighed 228 pounds. Okay so having the baby and breastfeeding for at least 4 months helped suck some of the weight off, but just sitting around wasn't going to help me drop those pounds like I wanted to. It seemed like everyone around me that was a mother looked like a drop dead gorgeous model, and I looked like a blob. It was depressing, definitely not the best times of my life and it made it difficult to enjoy looking like a mother. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE being a mother and I definitely loved it when my little one was born, I just wasn't happy about myself. I couldn't come to grasp that I was over 200 pounds and although I didn't really look like I weighed that much, I felt like I did. That and fitting into size 18 pants was not the best highlights of my life.. I wanted to be back into a size 12, a size 10.. anything less than a 16. So I did it.

 

I started counting calories. If you have never heard of My Calorie Counter, (check it out at you guys are so totally missing out! I thankfully have an IPhone 4S so I downloaded that onto my phone and off I went. I started out with working out a few times a week, going on walks with my daughter (Which we still do!).. and then the working out just wasn't cutting it because no matter what, my daughter was in the room and I didn't want her getting hurt just because I needed to work out.

 

The first week I lost 8 pounds, mostly water weight of course and I was only eating about 1600 calories a day, per my counter. The nice thing about it is, you enter your weight, your height.. your goal weight (Be reasonable with yourself!), how many times you would like to work out.. any other optional things you can fill in and you're on your way! It's a simple app.. if you have a UPC code on the box of food that you are eating, you simply scan it with the special scanning button on your diary.. it pops up how many calories for how many servings and the measurement (A cup, half cup.. quater cup, 1 tbsp, so on and so forth). Enter and you're done! I was super SUPER strict my first 5 months. By the time the first month went by I had lost over 15 pounds. It was easy, I didn't even have to work out.

 

It hit around August and I had dropped down to 185 pounds. And a couple weeks after that I was down to 180. Of course I have slipped from my counting but I am maintaining my weight and I'm still in the range of 185. Which is totally fine with me.. (To be brutally honest it's the top part of me that has all the weight.. the bottom part is slimmed out with almost nothing there)

 

Here is a photo of me at Thanksgiving with my closest and best friends who lives in Mass.

 

 

 

I'm on the left, my best friend is on the right. This is me after losing 55 pounds. Amazing huh? I'm very happy with how far I have come, even though it only took me 5 months to lose all that weight, about 10 pounds a month.. and I lost it eating healthy and watching what I eat. Of course, I ate whatever I wanted but counting calories forces you to eat the healthy things. Less sugar, less salt, if it has a small amount of calories or none, it's probably good for you. As far as my diet went, I had to check the nutrition bar before even picking out what I wanted to eat. If you don't have it in your head that you're going to lose the weight, that you WILL get there, it won't happen.

 

I am more than willing to help people out with the Calorie Counter, to be your coach. If you want me to send you emails (If you check them..), and get updates on you every day, please email me. (the swarthouts @ live . com) I would love to see others have the change that I had.

 

If you recently went through a major weight loss as well, please comment and let us all know! I know I'm proud, and I'm sure you are too! Comments are VERY very much appreciated!