happyhealthyseasonsoflove:

The photo on the left is me before I lost weight. That was the day that I bought my formal dress. It was the first dress I saw, the only one I tried on. I couldn’t get the zip to do up even half way, I literally had to hold it closes so that I could get a semi-decent photo. I had to book an appointment with a seamstress so that I could get the back changed to lace up so that I could close it.

The photo on the left is me after I lost weight. That was the day of my formal, almost ten months after the first photo was taken. My one goal that year was to feel like a princess in my dress and I did. I felt gorgeous. I ended up still having to go the seamstress but instead of changing the back from a zip to a lace up so that I could close it, she had to take it in at the waist by several inches so that it didn’t look to big and fall off of me. 

I remember the week after my formal I looked back at the first photo and felt so ashamed about how big I was in it. I was so fat and that’s all that I could see. I couldn’t even bear to post these photos as my before and afters because I was so ashamed. Now I look at these photos and instead of seeing how bad I was at the beginning, I see how far I came. I see all the strength and struggles I went through to get to that stage in the second photo and I’m proud of the progress I made. I’m proud to show these photos as my before and after now because I have come so far. Never give up because great things can happen. That’s what I’ve learnt and that’s what I hope other people realise as well.