Hello Everyone,
My name is Courtney. I'm a 30 year old woman looking for some motivation and encouragement. I have been overweight my entire life and am currently the heaviest I've ever been. My body is constantly achy, I'm always tired or irritated at what my body has become. Hoping to become healthier and meet some friends in the process!

I can totally relate to "looking" the part. . .I always "look" the part. . .

I'm Joan - like my buddy Alana I have been on MFP for awhile now. Also like Alana I am older, and not as diligent as I could be. However, the weight I have lost I have kept off even with: road trip, vacation, death in the family, personal crisis.

I haven't been as active on here as I could, but now that the last crisis has past I am intending on getting back to posting more regularly.

I always welcome new friend requests - but I ask that you read my profile first. I am more interested in the quality of friends, rather than the number.. If you think I would somehow be helpful to your journey, or that you would help me on my way...friend away!

Hello, my name is Brandie. I am 27 as of March 3th 2013 and I started this year in January at 420 pounds.

I decided I had my whole future ahead of me. I was tired of this and tired of just dreaming but all the things I wanted to do and never doing them. I am engaged to be married on 10/31/2014 and I want to look and feel my best. I want to be healthy and not take shortcuts because I want to stay healthy.

I want to have kids and be able to run around and play with them.
I want to go backpacking across Europe and I want to run a marathon for a good cause.

I am currently in school for radiology and when I graduate I want to be able to get a job because I am so full of energy. I do not currently live off the state other than them paying for my school, but I don't ever want to live off the state. I want to work for a living, I want to get my own place and I want to be able to go out with my friends and I want to go camping and I want to go swimming and not be so shy or the recluse I have slowly become.

I want to live and experience and raise a healthy family, and then when my love and I retire, I want us to still be healthy and be able to go and travel more. To travel across the united states and to go on cruises and to just be free. I have so many thoughts and dreams and plans for our future..... but it just can;t happen at the weight either of us are at.

I am tired of being afraid of dying of a heart attack, or dying young so that I don't get to do my dreams. I am tired of the stares and looks and the whispers and always wondering who is making fun of me behind my back. I am tired of just sitting here and waiting for life to come to me. I am ready to get up and charge at life head on.

I am not currently Diabetic, I have normal blood pressure, I am actually very healthy other than my weight which has always been a bit of an amazement to doctors, but my grandparents (who are also very overweight) are diabetic, my dad who is a little over weight is diabetic and my mom had the gastric bypass when I was a teen is pre-diabetic.

Before I joined MFP I had lost some weight, now I am at 394, according to MFP I have lost 16 pounds but I have actually lost 26 pounds.

I had been working on this on and off since the beginning of the year. A little over a week ago someone I loved very much and who I was trying to encourage and help because she was very sick, very diabetic, and about 490 pounds, and who most importantly like my second mother, passed away from a heart attack. It has pushed me even more into doing this. She was so proud of the 20+ pounds I had lost, and I want to continue to make her proud and to smile down at me from where ever she is.

My new motto is one step, one day at a time.

I am happy to have joined this group and I need all the encouragement I can get. I just want to be healthy. My goal for my height is 150. I have a long way to go, and I don't want to give up. Ever.

Hi I am Brenda.... I am 60!! Ugh!.....I want to tell all of you to do this while you are young! The older you get the harder it is. My bones have wore out carrying around all this extra weight. My top weight at one time was 496. A few years back I dropped 150. I walked it mostly off......but now both of my knees are gone and my feet are horrible and I know it is from carrying all the extra weight all of these years. I cannot go places with my children because I cannot walk.....and it is a horrible feeling. I would love to go and do things with them. I still work but I am a switchboard operator so I sit all day long.....which makes it worse. I have missed out so much of my children's lives just because of my weight and I regret it so much. This is a battle that I fight everyday and I know I have shortened my life for being overwweight all of my life.

Hello,
I am looking for a weight loss buddy. I have always been overweight and have had some succesfull losses of up to 50 lbs, but have gained most of it back. I am looking for someone that like me, also has a lot to loose.

I am focusing on smaller chunks at a time and have not even chosen a final goal at this point. I am really wanting to focus on getting healthier to be a better me, mom, and wife.

I do work outside of the home full time, and with a 2.5 year old and a 6 month old, I have very little time to focus on me, but I am just going to have to make it work.

Let me know if you are also looking for a buddy.
Sally