Yesterday I had to go to the Dr. for my 9 month follow up appointment. BEST Dr. appt I have ever had. For the first time IN MY LIFE I left the office feeling great about myself! I found out that after 9 months of working my butt off, I have lost 17 inches off of my waist and 14 inches off of my hips! All together I have lost 119 pounds and here's the best part......

MY DOCTOR WANTS ME TO TRY TO STOP LOOSING WEIGHT!!!

I had to have him repeat himself because I was sure I misunderstood. Never in my lifetime has a doctor told me that I DON'T need to loose weight! Oh my gosh. I'm so ecstatic that I could cry!!! He said that I still have about 20-30 pounds to play with before I start to become unhealthy (TOO SMALL?!?!?!? SAY WHAT???) but that while figuring out how to maintain I will probably loose about 10 more pounds anyhow. Wowzers...........

Ok, so here's the new plan. More weight training with less cardio. Time to start working on this extra skin that keeps lingering around. The Doc told me that at my age, with more weight training my skin should tighten back up quite a bit. This is great news because I still have skin hanging under my arms and on my belly (ew, I know... you're the only people I can openly admit that to... hehe). I have extra skin on my inner thigh, but have been told in the past that there isn't much you can do about that..... So I am working those too but don't expect much change.

Tonight, I am going with a friend who is working on becoming a professional photographer to take some pictures and I couldn't be more excited! Pictures are the only place that I can truly see how much weight I have lost, When I look in the mirror I still see pretty much the same thing as before. So this is pretty exciting.

I feel like life has finally turned around for me. I have graduated college, have a new job lined up for me in the fall, just moved into a new house, and am SINGLE AND LOVING IT! Thank God for all the blessings He has given me. I am truly blessed!!!

That is like a dream come true!! So amazing.... but like you said...... you worked your butt off, so all the credit goes to you. A BIG ol' CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Kimberlina, Congrats on your success!! I think having pics taken by a pro is a great idea!! You know they are going to show you in your most flattering light and then you can hang it side by side with your old picture to remind you every day of how far YOU have come!!! I definitely understand how amazing it must feel to have a doctor tell you to stop losing weight! Since all we've ever heard before is that all our health problems are related to how heavy we were, that must be an incredible feeling!!!

You go girl! It sounds like your life is just falling right into place. Of course, YOUR hard work and dedication is what got you to this point!!

So proud of your successes! You are a poster child for weight loss and a new found you. You have worked hard for what you have accomplished, it hasn't come easy as you know. Now the job is to maintain and continue building you new found confidence! By the way, you are beautiful inside and out!

It is so funny that I am posting this because I am so scared to lose too much, but you are tall like me...I have one inch on you, but I weigh in at 179. I am ok to go to 160, but will take it day by day. You could go to 160 too...so you really have 20 more to go...I would weight lift...I just started, but I am still not trying to force myself to eat more food just yet. I will keep going down. I still feel like I could go down more...I just hope that my body image isn't so messed up that I become so tiny and can't even tell that I am that small...Because I do not see a small person at all, but I am actually sort of thin.

I have been weight lifting for about 4 months now. I have more muscle than I know what to do with... ha.... that's why the Doc said to try to stop loosing. He said that I have less fat on my body than I seem to think I do. It's funny though, because I have been showing off my new guns to everyone who will look, just didn't realize that I was so close to goal. My arms and legs are solid muscle, so my Doc said the BMI scales will be off for me now.

Wow, great job and can't wait to see the pics.