Let's try this again..

Stephen_R_Stone

Hi everyone,

My name is Steve and this is my second attempt to lose a significant amount of weight.

My history:

In the summer of 2006, I was 23 years old and weighed 300+ pounds. On day, I decided enough was enough and got a gym membership. Over the course of the next two years, I lost a lot of weight and got down to around 215. Everyone told me how good I looked. People asked what my secret was. It was just honest diet and exercise. Fitness became my life.

Now, my goal was to get below 200 but I never made it and eventually, after moving in with my girlfriend (now my wife) in 2009, I started to gain it all back.

I remember being scared in the summer of 2010 that I gained roughly 30 pounds in a year, but I didn't do anything about it. The doctor told me in 2011 that at 275 I needed to lose weight, but I didn't do anything about it. Earlier this year I weighed roughly 315 pounds and at that point I decided enough was enough.

Earlier this year I purchased T25 and signed up for Team Beachbody. I have had success with this, but I didn't follow through with the program as well as I should have, and that's my fault. That's when I started using MyFitnessPal (I think I had it before but I actually started using it then) but I didn't like tracking what I ate. I wanted to eat what I wanted to eat.

Earlier this summer, I didn't feel well. I was laying in bed and my heart hurt. I didn't have a heart attack, but I felt like I was ripe for one. That scared me. That made me feel like I'm not only losing weight for my physical appearance, but for my health. It was really the first time I felt like my weight was a dangerous issue.

So I'm back at with MyFitnessPal. Someone recommended I buy a FitBit, and with the two combined I have seen amazing results. I have lost 5 pounds in the last week simply by meeting my FitBit walking goals and tracking everything I put in my body. That puts my weight loss total at 24 pounds for the year (much of it coming in February when I started T25. I didn't lose anything from March until around the 4th of July.) I'm becoming addicted to tracking food. I bought myself a food scale and use it every day. Nothing goes in my body without me knowing exactly what it is and how much I'm having. It feels great. I feel great.

I don't know what it is, but for the first time since my initial weight loss eight years ago, I feel like I'm going to make it. I have found something that works for me, and I want to share my weight loss journey with the rest of you. I hope to become an active member of this community.

TL;DR - I lost a lot of weight from 2006-2008, gained it all back, failed trying to lose it for a while, but by tracking everything I eat and all of my activities I feel like I'm finally on the right track again.