It has been a long year but I am so happy I found MFP. This site has given me focus, my usual weight loss plan consisted of restricting my calories, losing a few pounds, binging because I was hungry and giving up because it was "too hard"

Being on here has opened my eyes to nutrition I have learned so much from the forums on how to lose weight healthily and how to excercise to change my body shape.

Also MFP has helped me through a long spate of being out of work. Having people to talk with and support me at any time of the day or night really helped me avoid comfort eating.

So here I am 41 pounds down, struggling from time to time but not giving up like I would have in the old days. I love MFP it is the best aid to weight loss EVER.

I am slightly obsessive compulsive. This has actually made MFP more helpful to me in two ways:
1) I *have* to track everything I put in my mouth, so it makes me eat less because I hate the numbers being in the red (unless it's protein or fiber)
2) I log in every day because I hate to lose my streak once I have one going.

I started using MFP sometime in 2010. I was 202 pounds when I started at that time. I got down to 165 by mid 2011 using MFP. I was eating right - the right balance of macros, getting enough protein, fiber, without getting too many carbs or too much fat. I started off not exercising at all for the first month or two, then slowly built up and even finished P90X the first time through. I finished that in July of 2011.

A friend of mine died in September of 2011. This led to a complete overhaul of my life. I was unhappy before he died and it just really hit me. I got divorced, moved out of the house I had bought with my husband, and started drinking a bit (grief).

I am now in a much healthier relationship with someone I love dearly. We started trying to be healthy a couple of times, but schedules and the fact that we didn't live together got in the way. About two months ago, he and I just made the joint committment to start eating better and exercising. So, I'm basically starting over, but we have stuck with it since we started (even though I had wisdom teeth out in that time). I had gotten back up to 191 by the time we started this time. I am down only 9 pounds from that, but that's about 1 lb/week loss, so I am not unhappy.
We just started P90X again this past weekend. It's kicking our butts, but we like it.

MFP, if you use it consistently, makes you accountable. It's also something I can do obsessively (I check it constantly at work) so I love it.

I always feel the need to explain the whole scenario since people could look and see that it's only been 24 days in a row right now and I didn't log anything for just over a year there.