bobbi+mike

First weigh inHow’d you guys do? Well, by looking at the spreadsheet… you guys are flipping ROCKING this!!!!!there will be a total of 14… and we’re just getting started.

Only about a third of you have reported your loss, but here are the top 5 biggest losers:

Jill Pollitt    7.47%
Michelle McDonnell    5.33%
Kylene Gay    5.25%
Kathleen Stivers    4.9%
Stephanie Wortley    4.8%

ARE YOU KIDDING ME JILL?! 7.47%?!? WOWWWWW TO THAT!!!!!!!

Oh, and my weight loss: 2.03%

On a side note… pleeeeease sign into the google spreadsheet first thing Friday and add your loss (on weigh in days). Makes things SO much easier on meOh, and one more thing… please don’t edit anything but your number. Someone accidentally deleted an entire row with someones name and reported loss… and it took me a long time to figure out whose name was missing there… So, Aaron Nelson… if you could please sign back in and update your %, that’d be great… I feel like it was top 5 material…Okay… enough about that!

As I was talking with my friend Dane at our healthy train dinner a couple of weeks ago… he was saying that if you dig through Facebook, there are still photos of him at 400+ lbs floating around. He said it was hard for him to see. I thought… hmm… I would think it’d feel good to see them because you know that’s in the past… and to see how far you’ve come!

That got me to thinking… why don’t I find some of the photos of me from 40 lbs ago and post them here on a weigh in day… just to show you all how far I’ve REALLY come. BOY OH BOY WERE YOU RIGHT DANE!!!!! Seeing these was REALLY tough… like, REEEEALLY tough. Just because I’m no longer that weight… I still feel like I’m very much that person still… the feelings of rejection/poor self image/lack of self worth/etc. haven’t really 100% gone away… it’s just faded.  Seeing these brought ALLLL of those feelings back. But, I committed myself to showing you… so, I’m going to.

:::::: ENTERING THE JUDGMENT FREE ZONE!!!!!! ::::::

This one as at my max weight.  This was about 15 lbs difference from my original “before” photo.

This was taken the day I met my friend Nate. We’ve both since lost nearly 40 lbs.  I told him last night that we needed to take a new “friend after photo” It’s amazing how different we both look now.  So, between us… 75+ lbs are gone.  WOWZAS!

Could I look any less confident in myself. You can tell by my smile, my posture… my EVERYTHING that I did NOT want to be in this picture. I really wasn’t a fan of me…Taken in July 2007. My mom had just lost like 60ish pounds while I’d gained 60.  While I was happy for her… I couldn’t have felt worse about myself.

You know those photos that you see on the back of your camera…. and you delete immediately before anyone can see them? The ones you see and think… “I know I don’t really look like that… it’s an unflattering photo.” Well… Mike was VERY good at shielding me from what I really looked like… as I’d get majorly MAJORLY depressed. Well, Vegas, 2008… Heather needed to back up her memory card and I had my computer there… so I helped her out. WELLLLL… there were a few photos on that card that didn’t go through the Bobbi screening process. As in… I’ve never seen these… and about died when I pulled them up last night. MAN OH MAN it’s hard for me to share these here. It’s hard for me to see… hard for me to go through the feelings of remembering what this felt like. I was NOT a fan of me. AT ALL! 

Here, I was showing my model how to pose. I was being silly to make her laugh. If you’ll notice in the bottom left hand corner… a photographer was taking photos of me. So, I did what I knew how to do in these kinds of situations… I made fun of myself.  Whoever that photog was… thank you for never posting them.  You’re my friend.  Oh, and about the outfit. I was at a weird weight (I still am really…) where clothes from cutesy places like J.Crew were all WAY too small for me… while clothes at plus sized stores were WAY too big. So, I REALLY didn’t have much to wear… and well… still don’t.  Wow to this photo. WOW!

SOOOO… I can’t leave it like that… I HAVE to end this on a happy note… FOR ME! BLEHHHHH!!!!

Here’s my all-time favorite photo of me. Lauren Chapman took it a few months ago.

February 2010… 

Mom’s birthday unboxed photobooth… March, 2010. Though, admittedly… there’s a bit of camera trickery to this one. It’s unusually flatteringBut, I’m not mad about it… I’m CLEARLY embracing it:)

SO… just know that it’s a journey…. and we ALLLL have to start some where.If I can do it… damnit… YOU can do it!!!!!

• Next official weigh in is May 14.
• If you’re a twitterer, be sure to add the hashtag #healthytrain to your HT tweet.
• Join  “bobbi’s healthy train” group on Facebook… ANYONE can join… not just the people with the before pics. My trainer is also a member… so if you have fitness questions, ask ‘em there!  We’d love to have you…
• You don’t have to be officially competing to participate.
• If you haven’t measured yourself yet, DO IT!
• We’ll be taking optional “progress pics” July 23 to keep the motivation levels high… OHHHH YESSSSSS!!!!
• New finale date is October 29th. It seems that I’m not good at math… and THAT will be 6.5 months.

Thanks for being SO ridiculously supportive friends. Much love!

~bobbi

Today isn’t a weigh in day… but it is a Friday… so, what better day to show off some of our last rounds losers

Last week, a few of the local healthy train peeps (the ones who sent in “after” photos on the last round <– click for some SERIOUS weight loss inspiration!) got together for dinner… on me! Well, not literally ON me… sheeeesh!  It was my way of saying thank you

After dinner… I did a quickie impromptu photo session for each of them to show off their new hotness, just for fun.

Here’s Dane…. you know, the guy who’s lost over half of his body weight over the last 2 years. YEAH, him! Here’s a reminder of his before/after. Oh, and because it’s kind of a big deal… here’s his STARTING before/after. <– you MUST click!

Oh, and speaking of Dane… I just made him an admin of the healthy train group on Facebook… as it’s a bit difficult for me to keep up with it all. He’s an incredible motivator and is quite the smarty pants when it comes to weight loss… so if you have questions/need a dose of inspiration… get in touch

Here’s April, a local event plannerThis was the first time I’d seen her in person since she’s lost all of this weight… and let me tell you… WOW TO HER GORGEOUSNESS!!! A reminder of her before/after.

Meet Melissa! I’m a fan… I know you will be tooShe’s FULL of energy and laughs at all of my hilarious jokesA reminder of her before/after.

Here we all are… self timer styleI love this photo!

Wacky Bobbi strikes againIf you knew the TERRAIN and how FAR I had to SPRINT through to make it to that spot in 10 seconds (self timer, remember)… You’d be mad impressed! From left to right, Dane, me, Melissa and April.PS. did I really just say “mad impressed” ?!??!!? What’s happening to me???

Thanks again for… well… everything. You have no idea how much you inspire me. Thanks for standing beside me. I genuinely couldn’t ask for better cheer leaders. Next photo shoot… I’m bring pompoms.

Love to you friends…

~bobbi