Hi. I am married have 2 grown children and 2 grandchildren.
I was overweight as a child and have also fought my weight most of my adult life.
I quit smoking 3 years ago and have a heck of a time losing the weight I put on from that.
I have always loved to exercise so that is not a problem for me the problem comes in with the eating.

Hi all! I live in rural Hunterdon County, New Jersey, I'm 57, married for 35 years. I have 3 grown children (1 son, 2 daughters) and 11 grandchildren (3 girls, 8 boys) with another (and the last one) due at the end of January. I'm also a retired teacher. I retired early to help my kids with childcare. I miss teaching, but I'm kept very busy watching the younger grandchildren and I'm also a Girl Scout leader for all 3 of my granddaughters' troops. This September my troops will be in 4th grade, 8th grade and 10th grade.

Weight wise....never a problem until menopause at 46 1/2. I remember I had my yearly physical when I was 46, and my doctor told me I was years away from menopause. 6 months later I was done. lol The doctor got that wrong! However, I'm not complaining. Except for the weight gain (as in like 50 pounds over a few years) I never had any menopausal troubles that other women have (no hot flashes, night sweats, etc). So....the weight that I put on....I've managed to lose it several times over the past 10 years. But....I always got lazy and started eating like I was a kid again...and the weight always found its way back on. Boo! So, I started back on mfp in early May of this year, and I'm down 37 pounds so far. Yay! But I need a challenge like this one to keep me motivated so I can still lose some more weight.
Good luck to all!
Lin

My name is Nikki. I live in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. I am 35 (today actually) with 3 kids aged 16, 13 and 11. I am not exactly a single mother. I have a boyfriend that I have been with for 9 years but my children don't see their father.

I guess I have always felt fat. In high school I was probably a size 8 but all my friends were way smaller than me. So I felt fat. At 18 I started having kids and sadly my body never went back. When I joined MFP I was 209 but my highest weight was 217. I don't want to be the fat one anymore. MFP worked great for me the first 9 months or so. Now I have lost all motivation. I have been fighting with the same 5 pounds for months. I am hoping this group will help me get my motivation back. I look forward to working with all of you to become a better me.

I'm also from the Twin Cities - western subs so that makes three of us so far I'm 48 1/2 and about 15 lbs over weight. About two months ago I had a disk rupture in my back and have been out of commission. Just finally get back at in, but exercise will not be near what I used to do. For now I have my rehab exercises and I got permission to start going to the gym to get on the exercise bike. With this injury I was lucky and only gained about 5 lbs but my clothes are just too uncomfortable now and I need to stop feeling sorry for myself :happy: so here I am!!!

My name is Heather, I am a 31 year old mother of 1. I have been skinny most of my life, some would say too skinny at times, but I never tried...I just was. My mother always told me eating like i did was going to catch up with me some day (Thanks mom!) I started gaining some weight around 2006-2007 but that was due to living in a party city (Lake Havasu) and doing nothing but drinking beer all day everyday for the most part but even then. i still was 150lbs and very comfortable wearing my bikini I moved to Florida and met my fiance in 2008 and i was still gaining weight but not too much...then in 2009 I got pregnant !!! I weighed about 215lbs the day I had my son. The weight never really came off and Ive tried working out and dieting but never stuck to it....i bounced back and forth between 175-190 lbs off and on for awhile. I work at a place that has an industrial floor scale and after month of being frustrated about my clothes no longer fitting and being embarrassed to be out in public, I decided to sneak on the scale while no one was looking and what i saw HORRIFIED me!! I weighed 209lbs!! Almost as much as i did when I was 9 months pregnant! I cried a little but that's the kick in the butt i needed to get me going to finally lose this fat forever and GET MY BODY BACK!! I have figured out the places I went wrong before, like trying to change everything all at once. SO i decided to start slowly with small goals every week or two. The day I stepped on the scale was 7-22-2013 it is now 8-13-13 and I have lost 7 lbs just by following my first few goals:
1. NO MORE SODA!!
2. No more eating huge dinners when I get home from class at 9;30 pm
3. Portion Control
4. More Veggies!!!

Some things I still need to work on:
5. Stop my morning addiction (24oz 7-11 Mocha Iced Coffee)
6. Drink more water
7. Start working out and stick with it!!

Hello all, Christina here. I am also currently serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique. I lost quite a bit of weight a few years ago, gained some of it back before coming to Mozambique, and have now gained all of that weight back. I'm finishing my contract here about when this challenge ends so I'm hoping this will help me to go home at least the same weight as when I left. Good luck to everyone!

I am Karen, married, Mom of two, and Grandmother of two. I'm 45 and have been working out again for almost a year and have lost 48lbs. I still have about 10lbs to go. 10 lbs that are mocking me and clinging to me with all they've got. Last year I found myself at a huge weight, equal to the weight I was when I had my last child over 20 years ago. I had a photo taken at a party that blew my mind. I had no idea how unhealthy I looked. I'm working on never looking and feeling like that again! I have become a Beachbody coach in the process. I'm just getting started & still need motivation myself. I love a challenge. I love being accountable. I look forward to being smokin' hot for the holidays.

HI there,

My name is Lynn, I've been on MFP for approximately 2 months or so....Summer is SOOOO hard to stick with a diet plan, but I'm determined that this is my year!
I currently live in Ontario Canada, 30 years old and live with my common law partner/boyfriend for almost 6 years! No children, can't wait to start having them though, but need to get this excess weight off so that I am a healthy person for pregnancy and when they are born.
I am 225 lbs - yo-yo between that and 221lbs - FRUSTRATING!!!!! looking to lose around 60lbs to start. My first goal is to get under 220lbs though!! hehe...small goals.
By Christmas I would like to be at least 200 lbs...so I think that is doable.
My exercise routine is doing Jillian Michaels Body Revolution...I'm currently on week 3 of the program!! She's killing me!! Only have 9 more weeks to go with her program...
If you have similar goals or would like a friend to motivate you add me!

Hey everyone!
I'm Maria! I'm 27, in NJ. After being reasonably fit for most of my life, the poor eating habits have finally caught up with me thanks to grad school. In the past 2 yrs I've gained about 20lbs. I can feel the difference on my body and it's beginning to effect my health. I'm working hard to get back in shape by graduation in May. My first goal is to simply workout consistently (with Jillian Michaels) and eat healthy foods for a month - so far so good! In September I'd like to begin P90X and I'm contemplating C25K.

Looking forward to working with you all and providing support as we all work towards our goals!

Hello everyone,
My name is Joan and I live in Maryland. I am 65 and my husband died October 2, 2011. Week after he died I retired and week after that moved to a senior apartment complex. I have 2 grown single sons. I gained a lot of weight from stress from working, taking care of my husband. It took me a year to try to get myself motivated again to lose weight. I started Weight Watches lost 25 lbs then quit and tried doing it myself, which did not work and I gained some back from the holidays. March I joined again only this time doing it on line, but did not like that. I transferred my membership to go back to meetings in May. I have lost 9 lbs. I just quit Weight Watchers again, but starting tomorrow, Wednesday going to Curves. This way I will have excerise to go along with diet. I rejoined here, but decided I need to have friends that are motivated as well to lose. I hope this journey will be fun and get to know everyone.
I will be checking in with weight, measurements etc on Wednesdays.
Good Luck everyone and hoping everyone will get to their desired goal. I would like to see a continuation of this challenge to continue.

Hi all!
I'm Sharon and I live in NY state in the little corner where NY, NJ and PA all meet . I have been heavy all my life except for the 3-4 times I did something drastic and got the weight off, only to have it return with a vengence. I am now 53 and the weight loss is only harder, probably because of hormone issues that come with age and also because I screwed up my metabolism from dieting since I was 9 . In 2007 I lost 65 pounds and went from a size 18 to a size 4 but then my Mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and went thru a horrible year of chemo and other medical issues before she died and I gained it all back.Unfortunately , it doesn't seem to want to leave this time, I am married with 2 kids in college, both in California. I work about 60 hours a week, not counting paperwork, and have a hard time finding the time to excercise. I recently had a physical and my cholesterol was high enough that the doctor threatened me with meds but gave me 90 days to get it down . I saw this challenge the day after she told me and figured it was perfect! Looking forward to the group!