Tuesday, August 21, 2012

I just found shocking pictures I never knew about

I was just going through some photos to find something for a blog post I'm writing. This is also where my son has stored all of his photos. I found these photos below that I didn't know existed. I know when they were taken because of my hair length and location. We moved into this house in  November 2009. Remodeled our house pretty much for the entire first year. I chopped off my hair (it hung below my butt) in November 2010. I found out about my health problems in December 2010 and started my weight loss journey in January 2011. These photos were all taken between April 2010 and November 2010 when I was 39 years old and weighed 255 pounds. Which is already 20 pounds lighter than my heaviest weight and 10 pounds lighter than the previous few months before that.  They are shocking to me actually. Yet, in many ways, I still 'think' of myself as looking this way. Like, I don't recognize myself immediately when I see myself in more recent photos.


Recent photos of me from the trip will be contrasted below. 







Compare that to a few weeks ago from our trip to Croatia. I'm not even at goal weight yet, but I look like a different person. I even included one of me in a swimsuit (gasp!). None of them are touched up. None are with makeup. Just me, Melissa, as I am always - in the natural state:















 


 I look healthier too, don't I? In this last picture, I'm up 20 pounds from my all time low too (with about 5 of it being water weight). So, I know I can look even better. Boy, if this isn't proof that weight ages you and looks awful, I don't know what is.  Here's to getting the rest of this weight off and getting more and more fit so that the next time I have candid photos taken, I look really great - getting better with age like a good wine!

Stats for 8/21/12:

Highest weight: 275  Now: 178.6




6 comments:

  1. Wow. I have to agree you look SO healthy and HAPPY. It is amazing how much weight does age people. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. You do look much healthier and have a lot more vitality in the recent pictures than the older ones. Even with water retention ;).

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  3. Thank you Serenitydiva and Taryl. I think the healthier and younger part is what through me the most. I looked like hell before - soooooo tired. And I was. The last three photos of the "before" shots were taken probably a month or so before I discovered I had health issues. At the time that photo was taken, my thyroid was barely functioning, my blood pressure was through the roof, my blood sugars were through the roof and my cholesterol was high. Now, the last pictures, everything is controlled (except the thyroid) by diet and exercise. And you can SEE that different in health so clearly.

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  4. What an amazing difference, you look like you are glowing now. You did a great job in getting healthy :)

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  5. That last photo is just absolutely beautiful! You look healthy, happy and glowing!

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  6. Jeanette and Leslie - thank you! I have to laugh at that last photo. It is a good photo of me. You would never, ever know that I had already been climbing all over the walls of Dubrovnik for 2 hours on the hottest day on record. It got up to over 101 degrees that day. I was a hot, sticky, sweaty mess, but I still looked "good" in the photo.

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