Finally getting around to properly introducing myself

Hello all. As some of you may have noticed I've been mucking about on the site and in the forums since Monday but haven't done the introductory post yet.

First of all, I'm a notorious know-it-all but it's because I have this almost pathological need to be helpful. Unfortunately sometimes I just sound like an *kitten*. If I've already annoyed you I'm sorry. If I haven't annoyed you yet I will and I'll just say I'm sorry now.


Anyway, hi! I've decided to really try to lose weight for the first time in a very long time. At some point in high school I said to heck with diets, I'm just going to try and eat in a healthy manner. And the truth is over the years I have been a relatively healthy eater in that I don't eat a lot of fatty foods or even that much meat and I rarely drink even diet soda and things like that. But I still have a lot of problems with food and over the years I've gotten steadily heavier. So I figured it was time for something different.

I decided to try something like MFP because I thought it would appeal to the part of me that likes making lists and spreadsheets and tracking things. I'll use any excuse to create a spreadsheet, really. I decided to try MFP after looking at a few places because I like the interface here and there's something about the general tone of the site that I like.

Despite having so much weight to lose I have a lot of optimism about my chances. That's partly because I've overcome a recent hurdle of sorts in treating my depression effectively and I feel more optimistic overall. It's also partly because I've managed to accomplish some things in the last few years that reinforce my ability to believe in myself. Almost 3 years ago I quit smoking after 20 years. I often say about 18 of those years were learning how to quit and I think I'm finally able to apply some of that to other aspects of my life. Then last year - in part because of all the extra money I had once I quit smoking! - I was able to pay off my credit card debt that I'd been dealing with for the previous ten years. One thing that I think helped with that was my spreadsheets that I had created to track my progress. That kind of record keeping keeps me focused and engaged.

I know this is going to take a long time and won't be easy but I have faith in myself. I'm looking forward to getting to know some of you better and helping each other along the way.

P.S. Yes, I'm often this long-winded, why do you ask?