Before and In-Between-Minimee's journey so far

I have to say that this is not to put anybody off, I am being realistic (for the ones that have/or may develope loose skin), and I wanted to also show you how well you can hide the skin under clothing.
I have not shown many people this before, and many are under the illusion that I have lost a lot of weight and I look great, slim and toned as I have been told, but what people do not see is the loose skin and stretch marks.

If I had a choice I would have no loose skin or marks, but I have to be very realistic and just work with what I have got, as I had to point out to a close friend of mine.
It is either... dwell on it and let it hold me back from enjoying life (this would almost put me in the same predicament as when I was overweight) Or I can be grateful for getting healthy, improving my lifestyle 100% and gaining back my self esteem.

My friend (who is currently 260lbs) saw my loose skin, and said that this has put her off the idea of losing weight.
Now I could see her point to a certain degree, but would you really want to risk your health for the sake of possibly getting loose skin???
I know that I would rather have the energy and lifestyle that I have now, than the one that I had before.

I mentioned in one of my posts a while back that my Doctor said that my body might absorb the skin over time, and I do believe that this is possible, but for now I am going to embrace the weight loss, the body that I have now, and enjoy every single day.

I am very grateful to be healthy and yes it would be nice to not have loose skin, but it is not the end of the world that I have got it. ;)

-Minimee
:D
 
Hi all

After hearing the tragic news that a forum member has passed away I am back with updates, I am truly sorry that it is under such circumstances, but now I realise just how much of an impact we have on each other when sharing progress and support... I am going to be more active again.
It only seems right to show support to the same forum that has consistently showed me support over the years.

So as the old saying goes..."never forget where you come from"

The reason I say that is because some years ago, I came here weighing over 260lbs, too worried to sign up, too worried to type about me or post photos because of the fear of being judged, and convincing myself that I was a failure because I was unhappy, overweight and I didn't really know what to do about it.

You see the beauty of the forum is that you can browse without commiting to anything, you can sit back and read page after page of success stories and never have to commit yourself...but after a while of browsing, I got tired of wishing!
I would often sit here saying "I wish I had a flat tummy" " I wish I had that body" "I wish I could be slim" " I wish, I wish, I wish" and I kept on wishing, but wishing didn't change the fact that I was overweight and unhappy, wishing didn't stop me from feeling unattractive and embarrassed at what I had become, wishing was not going to change my appearance. So I had to change wishing into doing.

I educated myself on fitness and healthy eating, and how to stay motivated and dedicated.
And how did I do that? by actually joining up to this website, so now that I decided to take the plunge and join, I had a username to think up (I chose Minimee, as if you didn't already know haha) Minime had already been taken hence the extra E but it made sense because I wanted to be a mini me haha :)

So now I was armed with an account, and I could interact with the other members but how could I? I didn't want to post photos of myself on here?! too embarrassed to even look at myself in the mirror, how was I going to put my personal photos on the internet???
I know? I will crop my face out...Bingo haha
I can be honest now but even by removing my face from photos I still felt vulnerable and exposed, and now I was seeing exactly what the world could see, an overweight 20something with a big tummy and low self esteem....time to face my fears.

I never went into how I gained weight and I commend those of you on here that have been so open and honest about it, I mean I can't speak for everyone but you are often overweight because of underlying issues, and until you deal with this, I believe it is harder to get a hold of yourself and fully commit...
I spent many years "trying" 1 good week here, 2 weeks there, but never fully committing myself to weight loss.
That oh so familiar cycle, Lose 1lb...gain 2lb...lose 1lb...gain 3lb, until I reached my highest weight of over 260lbs.

I was in a bad place and I made every excuse, blaming my past and never really moving on from it, but ultimately my past was causing my present to never become my future.
I lived in the past and I was merely existing in the present world, so what future did I have to look forward to? and this was my way of thinking for quite some time.

So after my first few posts I was receiving messages of support...I remember thinking "people are actually interested in me"?
I received heartfelt messages from other people that had been where I had been and before I knew it I had a "following", so now I had to be accountable for my actions, because now I was inspiring others and they depended on my updates to help them...so there was no backing out now :)

This was the main reason why I was able to keep going, my photo updates not only showed others of my progress but they were a commitment to myself.
I could not really notice a big difference in my weight even though the numbers on the scales were declining, I still felt heavy.
I remember being about 30lbs into my weight loss and feeling like I could hardly notice any difference from when I had started, but because I was taking photos, I was able to put them side by side and that was when I realised..."WOW I have changed" and getting closer to the goal seemed a lot more achievable and this was a great feeling.

I do believe this forum played a massive part in saving me...OK so ultimately it was me that exercised and ate healthily, but it was the support on here that kept me going, there was always someone to answer my questions, and always someone that I could relate to, and I am so thankful for that.
I often get asked... if I didn't join this forum do I think I could of achieved this?, my answer is maybe but I believe I would have sunk deeper and deeper into a hole first and it would have been a lot harder to get out.
I am not saying that I didn't have support from my friend's and family, but I didn't have anyone around that I could relate to, and that can be a very lonely feeling, not matter how many people are around you, unless you feel like someone can understand you, it can be hard to deal with.

Well I feel like I have written a years worth of update in 1 post haha!

I guess what happened was that I reached my goal and I felt like there were no more possible updates, I guess we initially set goals and when we reach it we make new goals and the cycle continues....I am not talking weight goals per se but goals in general, I mean I have yet to go swimming, which is a whole other post, which I will make along with photo updates.

As a note to anyone that is at the beginning of their weight loss journey, I encourage you to document EVERYTHING haha!

I really wish I had been brave enough to have shown the full extent of my journey because I look back now and wish I did have more photos and videos of me at my heaviest on the treadmill and doing Zumba haha, going shopping for the first time to buy that dress that I never thought I would get into, or going to a theme park and being able to go on the rollercoaster that you had previously not fit into.
These are the sorts of achievements that you want to looked back at and see how far you have come.
It would have been great now to look back at my former self working out :eek:...hindsight is a wonderful thing ;)

So to conclude this update, I can tell you that I am at 135lbs, which is past my initial "goal" of 145lbs but I always said that I just wanted to reach a healthy weight that I am happy with and at this weight, I can say "I am happy" :D

I hope you are all still doing great and on track to reaching your goals if you haven't done so already.
As always thank you for the on-going support.

-Minimee

:)
 
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