Hello :)

afteil

I suppose since I started replying to other peoples posts I should do an intro to myself on hereXD My name is Amy and I am 21 and currently weighing 233 lbs . My entire family is overweight, so as I start my journey I'm trying to encourage them to eat healthier and start working out as well. I first found this site from the app on my iphone...but since I decided to take my Iphone to the hot tub with me (it needed to relax, I swear), I have been trying to use the website more.

I think everyone reaches a breaking point in their life where they really begin to understand the importance of losing the weight, and until you get to that understanding, I think that for most people it is very difficult to lose weight and keep the weight off. I thought that my breaking point was last year: I was diagnosed withchoroidal melanoma (melanoma in the eye) and had to have my left eye removed. They told me that the first place that that type of melanoma moves to is your liver, and at that point it is a guessing game of if you can get a transplant, respond to chemo (which there is a low chance of), or simply figure out what you are going to do with the last 6 months of your life, if you make it that long. I have to have blood tests done every 3 months to test my live to ensure that it hasnt spread, and ever since my first blood tests, my ALT (an enzyme in the liver) levels have been well over what they should be, indicating that there is damage to my liver.

Despite knowing that, and knowing that I needed to lose weight to ensure the health of my liver, I quickly lost motivation. It wasn't until this year (when I finally got health care) and began seeing doctors that they really explained to me what my weight was doing to my liver (and the rest of my body for that matter), and the risks I was putting myself at by being overweight.

So here I am. This was my favorite site out of all of the ones I was looking at for tracking exercise and food intake, and especially love the ability to create your own recipes (I am a culinary student, so its always nice to find ways to make your favorite foods more healthy). Hope you enjoyed my story, and I hope that your motivation stays strong, so that you all can get to the point where not only do you look and feel amazing, but can rest easy knowing that you are the healthiest that you can be.

sweebum

You've taken the first (and hardest) step! That's awesome.:drinker:

You are not predetermined to be large because of your family- you can do this.

You are going to love it here. Here your battles are shared, there are no embarassing questions, and we're in it together!

Welcome:flowerforyou:

fatreddhead

Thanks for sharing your story. I'm glad you found your way here and hope that MFP helps you get healthier!