What the surgery means to me!

I know I'm not around as much.  Mainly it's because I've reached maintenance at 135 lbs.  I have maintain 134-137 for over a month now and I find this weight to not only look great, but be easy to maintain so I don't see me going any lower.  

For those who are new or don't know me I started this journey in Sep. 2011 at 270 lbs.  I had surgery in March 2012 and I weighed in at 253 lbs.  

I reached a normal BMI (149 lbs) the first week of Sep. 

One of the things I missed out on as an obese person, was my love of horses.  My balance was off because of all the weight, and frankly what horse (besides a draft) wants to carry that around!  Well,  I now teach riding lessons 3-4 days a week, I bought a thoroughbred off the track in August and I'm retraining her as a hunter/jumper.  We had our first lesson over jumps with a grand prix rider 2 weekends ago (first pic) and then last weekend we went to our first show.  We didn't get any ribbons, but as she's only been off the track since July we weren't expecting to, but I had a blast.  I'm so HAPPY to have this part of my life back.  

If you are wondering if you can give up the comfort of food, and whether the hard work is worth it.  I can say a resounding YES it's amazing the joy you can find in the world, that doesn't depend on food.

Both of us have nice butts now!

and a before to give you some scope.  Probably around my highest weight of 270 here.

I love the pics! Great to see you pop in to share :)

my goal is to do dressage with my arab! i cant wait! i don't feel comfortable in britches and never mind trying to find boots that fit, but with surgery i hope ill be able to manage my weight and do what i love. just like you. i have to say, if i were to have a roll model or someone i wanted to follow with my weight, it would be you! congrats on getting there and i'm very excited to see what you can do with your tb.

Thank you so much.  I'm far from perfect, besides following the general guidelines of low carb high protein, I also took this time to make myself who I really wanted to be.  And that person was an athlete.  I may not be going to the olympics, but I love my new stronger body!

the fact that your doing what you love and it involves horses has me. everyone else wants to run a marathon, compete in a triathlon but me i want to be with horses rather then people and most don't understand the horse thing.

 I'm doing the running too.  I ran the Army 10 miler in October and I'm planning my first half in Feb.  I do enjoy horses first but running (I also love spinning) is another thing I love to do.

Wow! Awesome....great job on the weight loss, your positive attitude, and cool pictures....I love seeing people out there enjoying things that they couldn't when obese....

Congrats! 

I am also maintaining at about 135, feels great!

Good to see you again.  We are proud of you!! 

I am happy for you that you are living your dreams.  I remember your photos of your first marathon at Pimilico about four weeks out from surgery.   You are amazing.   You have stayed focus from the get-go. 

Isn't it great to be truly living again?!!  6 months ago I couldn't run a mile...today I  started training for the Boston Marathon. Great job and great to see you doing so well!

That's fantastic!  I really wanted to do the Marine Corps marathon next year but then found out we are moving to NC this summer.  So I'm doing a 1/2 this spring and the full will probably wait until I get to NC and see what races are available.  Good luck with the Boston!  What race are you going to use to qualify?