Better late than never

Hi everyone - my name is Linda and I have been overweight my entire adult life. Like many I have tried many, many times to lose weight with varying degrees of success. I have never been successful in keeping off what I lost. Spring 2013 I was feeling so bad physically I knew I needed to go to the doctor. I was getting out of breath just getting dressed and had not been to the doctor in probably 10 years. After numerous visits and referrals I found out that I had very high blood pressure, diabetes and serious heart disease. No wonder I felt so crappy! I decided that day if I wanted to live I needed to make changes. I did some reading and research on how to eat when you have cardiac and blood sugar problems and changed what I was eating. I still wasn't worrying too much about quantity but more about what foods to eat. I have been a fast food junky all my life and gave that up. During 2013 I lost 30 pounds from May through December just from the changes in what I was eating. For 2014 I decided I had what to eat down pretty well and needed to focus on how much I was eating. I read it can be very helpful to track what you eat and a friend told me about FP. After checking out the site I decided to use it to track my eating and portions. I lost 4 lbs. the first week of weighing and measuring my food and sticking with 1800 calories. I feel more committed than I ever have in my life to make a permanent change to my behavior. On my last visit to the cardiologist, my A1C was 5.9 which is the high end of the normal range, my BP was 110/80 and my ejection fraction had improved from 30% to 50%. With that big improvement in my ejection fraction I no longer need to have a defibrillator implanted. My health is much better than it was 8 months ago due to the changes I made and the meds that I am taking for my cardiac issues and blood pressure. I did not have to take any meds for the diabetes because I was able to get my A1C down just with diet. I know to maintain these changes and to keep from ending up back where I was, I need to make this a lifestyle and not just a temporary diet. Good luck to everyone fighting the same battles.