It's Time to Be Honest About Weight

Since I've been writing this blog, I've gone back and forth about whether or not to reveal my weight stats.  Initially, I was far too embarrassed to actually write down and publish how much I weighed.  However, since it's been about a year now and things are still going well for me, I think it's time.

As I've said in some of my early posts, running wasn't really about the weight loss specifically, that was merely a fringe benefit that I was taking advantage of.  Last year, I didn't pay much attention to what or how much I ate, I just kept faithful to the running routine and let the rest work itself out.  I still feel that running isn't about weight loss for me, but I am taking a more engaged approach to take advantage of the benefits of exercising regularly.  I'm watching what I eat more carefully using the MyFitnessPal app available on any smart phone or iPod touch.  Using this app, I have a set calorie goal each day and I enter all the foods, snacks and drinks that I consume each day.  I've done Weight Watchers before and this is somewhat similar, in that you track everything you eat, but the app makes it so much easier!!  You can use the bar code scanner to look up the specific brand of granola bar or yogurt or whatever that you ate and provide you the exact nutrition information, it's awesome!  It has several entries for various restaurant dishes too, which makes it an especially valuable tool!  I definitely love this app!  If anyone wants to friend me, we can track each other's progress and help each other out!

My username: shodgebreuer

Here are the facts about my weight.

As of last year, around the time I started running, I weighed a consistent 185 lbs.  I'm between 5' 7" and 5' 8".  Needless to say, I was overweight.  This was the heaviest I had ever been and I looked at myself and just thought, "Gross."  At the holidays last year, I weighed about 165 lbs and started feeling better about myself.  The running definitely helped me to feel accomplished but the weight loss helped me feel more confident about myself as well.  This year, when I started running again, my weight was at 155 lbs and, since then, I've lost a couple more pounds.  I'm really hoping to reach 140-145 lbs, but that is going to take a lot more effort with my food intake and running frequency!  (This is where training for that marathon wouldn't hurt!)  To put this in perspective a little bit, in high school and college, I weighed about 125 lbs.  I have no illusions that I will ever be back down to that weight again, but I would be happy with 140-145.  To be clear, I'm actually pretty content with my current weight of 152 lbs, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop working to lose weight.  Hopefully, through this continued running and use of the MyFitnessPal app, I can just kind of eventually shed extra pounds without having to try too terribly hard!

Here are a couple photographic excerpts from my weight journey:

Dec 2010

April 2011 on the way to the Bahamas

Right before I started running in June 2011

Feb. 2012 at 165 lbs

Tailgating Aug 2012

Maybe you can't really tell from the pictures, I just sort of went through whatever I had on Facebook and I don't think I really wanted to put many unflattering photos up on there for all to see.  Regardless, I see and feel the difference and it's pretty nice!  Yep, so I'd still like to lose a bit more to tone up and everything, but, as I said, I'm pretty content with where I'm at today.

Enjoy your day everyone!  Hopefully coming out of the 'weight closet' can help to inspire others.  If nothing else, maybe it provided a good resource to monitor your nutrition!

And, as always, don't forget about my Donor Drive for the ASPCA!!  Any amount is appreciated!  We've raised $130.00 so far and we're still really early into our efforts so this is fantastic!

Here's the link:  Team Steph B. and Steff S. Donation Page