I got the vacation pictures from my parents last weekend after the race, and since I ended up wearing the same dress as I did from my friends’ Alicia and Joe’s wedding last summer, I figure this was a good opportunity for before and after pictures.

(Recall: These were the pictures that led me to think, “oh god, I need to change something in my life, because we are getting TOO fat.”)

Not really that dramatic of a difference — if anything, I like my hair much better now than I did then — but hey! there it is. 30-plus pounds. I think I was around 192 on the left, and I’m now at 158 (on the right).

I feel pretty good about all the work I’ve done. But there were other vacation pictures that, if I saw them before I put on said two-piece bathing suit, I probably would have lost all nerve.

Good thing I’m a married woman, it doesn’t matter what other people think, and it was just a vacation with my family, right?

They just love me and will sit in the hot, Florida damp just to see me cross a finish line sweaty and exhausted. <3