I've come a long way...

This is totally gonna be a weight related post so if you came here for pictures of my cute kid...I'm sorry.
So when I met Don I have NO clue how much I weighed. I know I wore a size 18 or 20 pants. I know that I was unhappy with how I looked and I know that I had actually LOST weight at that point. If you want to know the truth. I bet I weighed about 240. Yes. I said it. That is utterly disgusting to me. And no, I don't tell people how much I weigh, like ever. It took me 6 years to tell my HUSBAND my number. So consider yourself lucky (I think...:))
This was in Vegas in 2007 I think:

Lets fast forward to now. Don and I have been together for almost 7 years (holy crap!). Today I got on the scale for my health assesment at work. I weighed 168. Seriously? What the crap? I honest to God don't know when the last time my number has been that low. Not even in high shcool. You know how some people hope and pray to get back to being "high school skinny"? I never was skinny in high school. I am skinny (to me) now.
I couldn't be happier.
Do I want to lose more weight. Hell yeah. I have 24 more lbs to get to my goal weight. I have decided my goal weight is going to be 144. (Well right now I say that. It might change again :))
During the health assesment I got my cholesterol checked. Its normal. It was high before. My BMI is still in the overweight category (even though I am not keen on the whole BMI thing) but I have gone from a 38 (obese) to a 27. Crazy. My waist circumference puts me in the normal range too so I dont have an increased risk of cardiovascular health problems.
I honestly haven't felt this healthy in my adult life. I can honestly say I am 85% happy with my body. Do I still have issues with it? Sure. Who doesn't?
But I dont mind having my picture taken anymore which is huge b/c I will have pictures of me and Lizzy together to look back on. And these days when my husband says I look good, I believe him.
I know it sounds like I am sitting here patting my own back. And you know what, I am. Im really proud of how far I have come and I am anxious to keep going!
If you have gotten this far, thanks for reading. No need to comment if you don't want to, I'm not looking for "way to go's" or " you look great's" (but I will take them if you want to give them :)). I just want to get this out there for me!
This is me now:
(This is the only pic I could find at work of my body)

 And this is from this past weekend at the winery we went to:

Guess what?

I kind of suck at this whole blogging thing. Oops!
Cathy over at Antsy Pants 2.0 mentioned me in her current blog post so I kind of felt obligated to write here now. Thanks Cathy! :)
So what is new with me?
1. I have the cutest baby of all time. You can argue, but its my baby and I will always think that. Evidence of this claim:

2. She had two teeth and will be 6 months old in 9 days. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?!?!? I don't understand how 6 months has flown by.

3. She is going to get her first solid food besides rice cereal tonight. Its going to be messy and fun :)

4. I ran a 10K last weekend and I beat my goal time by 2 minutes. Sort of. I told everyone I wanted to do it in under 1 hour and 12 minutes which would have been a little under a 12 minute mile...but secretly I wanted to do it in under 1 hour and 10 minutes. I know 2 minutes doesn't make much of a difference, but it does in my head. I did it in 1 hour 10 minutes and 20 seconds! I was seriously so proud of myself! I actually kind of liked doing it too. I never thought I would say that about running. Evidence of me running: (this is the only picture)

5. The husband and I are going to do the Thanksgiving Day 5K. Sadly, I can't wait. And I went out for two runs this week with Lizzy and I felt pretty good. Its so much harder running with a stroller!

6. I am 3 lbs away from weighing what it says I do on my license. WTF?! I love it. I don't think I have ever actually weighed what my license says I do, or even near it ;)

7. I am less than 30lbs away from my goal weight.

8. I can start looking for a new job in January. Thank the Lord.

9. Like Cathy I have some fitness goals I need to get going on. I want to start going to a class at the gym twice a week at least. I want to keep running between 5-10 miles per week (which will have to move inside soon b/c I live in MN and this ridiculously nice weather we have been having is not going to last). I want to get to my goal weight by the time Lizzy is one year old. That gives me PLENTY of time to get there. There really is no excuse for me not to make that goal. And I want to continue to sign up for 5k's and maybe a few 10k's this fall and next spring/summer.
10. Its time for me to go home for the day :)

Thanks for reading this far if you are still reading! And thanks Cathy, for making me feel like I need to post :)