This is my anniversary. Exactly one year ago, I weighed around 190 pounds. I'm only 5' 1.5"... or 156cm. At 190 pounds, I was wearing XXL shirts. Yeah, I was pretty wide.

And little wonder, for I was eating 3000+ calories on most days while sitting on my butt all day. Sometimes I ate close to 4000 calories in a SINGLE MEAL. Those of you who have never paid attention to calories may be surprised to find out how easy it can be to consume thousands of calories in one seating. Many restaurants offer 1000+ calorie dessert items. Chili's used to offer an appetizer that was around 2500 calories... You'd eat more than your day's worth of calories just for APPETIZER!!!

On April 17, 2011, I decided to change my lifestyle. Two things occurred to me:

1) I WAS big. Believe or not, this was an epiphany. Whenever I saw my body in my bathroom mirror, I'd see my 170 pound body, which I had at the time of high school graduation (definitely chubby, but not obese). The image in the mirror never changed even though I gained 20 pounds over the years. Photos showed my body in all its flabtacular glory, though. And I would blame it on bad lighting or bad angle, etc. But nope! I was really that big.

2) Changing the above doesn't have to involve misery. Eating less calories doesn't mean I can't ever have tasty stuff. It just means I have to be more picky. Even the really fattening stuff, I could have them -- just not as often.

I started counting calories meticulously, logging every single thing that went into my mouth. I've always been a tad OCD, so this wasn't bothersome. In fact, prior to counting calories, I was spending even more time thinking about my food choices, just for different reasons (often I'd ponder for 60+ minutes before making a meal choice, trying to figure out what I was craving). The only things I didn't log were calorie-free items such as water and diet soda, and spices. I bought a food scale and measuring tools to make sure my portion sizes were accurate.

I also started going to the gym every day. I had a gym membership collecting dust... and draining money from my wallet... every month for a ridiculously long time. Oh man, if I could have all that money back! I did lots of cardio, as much and as hard as I could. I also did weight training (nothing hardcore) to preserve my muscle mass.

7 months later, I'd lost 60 pounds, and I was fitting into S shirts.

My size hasn't changed after the first 7 months because I decided to take a break from the weight loss. I still have about 15 pounds that I'd like to lose. I'm in no hurry. I don't know how long it's going to take, but that doesn't bother me; what really matters to me is that I know I can do it.


_{I'm not feeling very eager to share my before/after photos because like I said, I'm not there yet. But I shall post them for any curious souls that might be lurking!
before~ [link]
after~ [link]
...or rather, during. Note, that dress is designed very strategically. My belly is a little bit bigger than it appears in that dress I WILL DESTROY YOU, BELLY FLAB! MARK MY WORDS!!!11}