Hi! I'm Jenni. I live in Atlanta, GA with my husband, dog and cat. I, like ReNae, have always felt huge. When I look back at my high school pictures, I was a little chubby, but pretty cute. Now I'm 37 and have never stopped gaining weight. I tried NutriSystem a couple of years ago and it was working. I would stay on it while my husband traveled for the week working. When he stopped traveling, I stopped the program and I put back the 15 pounds I had lost and tacked on another 5 to boot. I also tried WW 10 years ago and was losing a bit on that, but when I left my job, the meetings stopped, and I lost focus.

Now, for the first time I can remember, I really feel ready and motivated to lose the weight. I've been here for a few weeks and even though the progress is slow, the weight continues to go down. I have about 90 pounds to lose. I'm ok if it only happens at 1 lb/week. I have a long life to live and I don't need instant gratification. As long as I see progress, I'll be happy.

My biggest concern is my job. When I'm working, i"m traveling. Luckily, a lot of food chains are in MFP. And I'll be able to workout in a gym, as opposed to just going for walks. I can do this and I will!

Thanks for inviting me into your group. Let's all motivate each other

Hi, I am Mary from PA, in my 50s. Struggled with my weight ever since high school when I weighed 130 pounds. Gained 25 pounds in college. Pregnant twice and gained 60 pounds each time and then added another 50 pounds due to stress (family and work and health). Finally was able to lose 100 pounds by taking a summer off work. Kept it off for a couple of years but then went thru a divorce and gained it all back.
Have not tried to lose weight for years, accepted myself as a BIG woman. But I am now concerned about my health and also being able to travel at this weight. My two adult sons are encouraging me, and I have done OK for two weeks but whenever I am stressed, I still want to eat sugar. Plan to try to comfort myself with something else, just not sure what!
Also plan to exercise 3X/week at the pool (went a couple of times and liked it, but had to stop while my "pool badge form" is processed).
Thank you Renae for forming this group and Hi to Jenni too.

My name is Andrea, I am 46 years old, I live in West Yorkshire, in the north of England, UK.

I am married with two teenagers.

I have been gradually growing bigger most of my life. I have spent some time losing weight at different stages of mmy life but have always put back on more than I have lost, sadly.

My joints are starting to feel the damage that carrying extra weight has put on them, and I would like to get this sorted before I end up unable to do something about it without causing myself a great amount of pain.

I am at the moment in the middle of my new years resolution, which was to record everyday, what I have eaten, on MFP. I lost it a bit in May and then started again with a New June Resolution.

With the new June resolution came the idea that I was spending far too much time on the scales. so I am only weighing myself once per week in June.. I will see how that goes, and then I may push it to once every two weeks in July.

Hi! My name is Jessica, I'm a 39 year old married mother of one daughter and mother to four of the 4-legged variety.

I am at my highest weight ever, weighing in at 265 this spring. I have been at or above the 200 mark for the last 15 years, I have packed on 45 pounds over the last 4 years alone.

My goal is to get to around 140 pounds, so that is 125 pounds to lose. I want to lose as much as possible by my 40th in December 2014, but do it right so I don't pack it on again. That's about 31 weeks from now, so I'm hoping to be at least 60 pounds lighter by then.

After struggling with my weight for so long, trying all kinds of diets - you name it, I've tried it - buying workout equipment, etc..I finally decided to get serious about getting healthy and losing the weight. I have a family history of heart disease, diabetes, again you name it, it's there. I have been fortunate to not be affected thus far, so I want to get healthy and hopefully avoid these issues.

Last month, May 2014 when I hit 265 I joined a gym, hired a trainer, and have been eating much better since. I lost 5 pounds before getting active on MFP and tracking. Since I've started tracking my weight loss shows at 1 pound, but I've lost a total of 3 inches.

I'm not following a particular 'diet' plan, just getting in the calorie goal that my trainer has given me. We started at 1700 calories, then to 1600, and now have settled on 1500 /day for the time being. This is forcing me to make better food choices in order to stay full.

I work out 3 days a week in the gym, weight training and try to walk the other days when I'm not in the gym. I absolutely hate exercise for exercise sake. Hiring a trainer was the best decision I have ever made, he has made workouts fun and I no longer dread going to the gym to meet with him at 6am. I have learned I don't have to run on the treadmill or use the elliptical for hours on end to see results.

Already my energy levels have picked up. I'm about over my craving for sugary foods. I do allow myself a cheat day on the weekends, a girl has to have her ice cream every now and then.

I am hoping that one day soon that I can be a success story on MFP.

Hi, I'm also an Andrea :-) I'm 31 and live in Illinois with my husband. I work in the office at a counseling office, I'm a little bit of a sci-fi geek (I'm pretty sure my husband fell in love with me because no only had I heard of Doctor Who, I watched it!) and I'm a huge sports fan (go Bears!).

I've always been big (I definitely remember being the fat kid even in 1st grade). The highest number I ever saw on the scale was 298, but I know i hovered in the low-mid 290s for quite a while. About 3 years ago I got serious about losing weight because we wanted to have a baby, slowly lost about 35 pounds, and then stalled again.

I started losing weight again in the winter/spring 2013 and reached the lowest weigh of my adult life, but unfortunately I know now was also really, really sick. After 2 years of off and on abdominal pain, months of feeling tired all the time, and a few weeks of BAD pain I was hospitalized. They thought it was diverticulitis, and I had a colonoscopy a few weeks after getting out of the hospital. There was a blockage with precancerous cells that was so large my doctor couldn't get past it to scope the rest of my colon. He highly recommended a colon resection. Surgery was last July and they found stage 3 cancer. Six months of chemo later...my CT scan last month was clear and my bloodwork was all good. I have an endoscopy/colonoscopy later this month that will hopefully be good news too.

However...I'm probably the only person to gain 30 pounds during chemo. Since there were so many days that I didn't want to eat at all I let myself have whatever I wanted when I felt good. Became a regular at Taco Bell. I also had some new meds that the doctors pretty sure caused the majority of the weight gain. But my diet didn't help, that's for sure. I'm not sick anymore (just a few lingering chemo side effects and I get fatigued more quickly than I used to). so it's time to break those bad habits, start eating healthy and exercising again.

Even though having a baby is highly, highly unlikely to happen for us now (didn't happen in the 18 months of trying before I was sick and chemo doesn't exactly help the situation) we still want to try assuming I get the all-clear to do so from my doctors so that's another motivation.

I'd like to lose 30 pounds before my birthday in early November. 1-1.5 pounds a week. I can do this :-)

My name is Robin. I live in Jordan, NY. I have been married to the most wonderful & understanding man for 18 years. We have a daughter who is 10 that I would do anything for. I feel just like all of you with the comments, I thought I was heavy or big even when I was 123 lbs at one point. I've tried every diet program out there with very little results. I decided to accept that I was meant to be "Heavy" for the rest of my life. That was until I went to the docs and had blood drawn. I have some high numbers on certain things and need to change. I also saw my daughter starting to pack on some weight now that she is turning into a little woman. I don't want her being like me and getting picked on & not liking herself. I need to show her thru my actions and choices that taking care of your body and health is the most important thing you can do for yourself and for the ones you love. I have started working out with a trainer 3 days a week for 1 hour and joined MFP to keep track of what I eat. I personally feel that at 36, I shouldn't be looking this way or feeling so bad about myself. I know I come from a line of heavy females in my family, to include my own mother & I know what its like to be picked on growing up. I don't want that for my daughter or myself anymore. I have over 100 lbs to lose so any motivation or kick in butt I will gladly take. Please don't hesitate to make me a friend.

Hi everyone. My name is Tiffany and I am new to MFP. I am 30 years old. I am practically married and have a 2 year old daughter that I am crazy about. I have not always been "plus size" I was actually pretty thin in high school, and terrorized myself about my body when I only weighed 135... Later, I realized how incredibly ridiculous that was. Anyways, so gaining weight was definitely something I had to adjust to because I was never used to being a bigger girl. At one point I learned to accept myself no matter what weight I was because I couldn't just beat myself up about it continuously, so I never lost my confidence. BUT, after having my daughter I realized that this is a serious health concern. I still love myself no matter what I look like, but I want to be healthy and a good role model for my daughter. I have honestly never really seriously tried to lose weight until now. After consulting with my doctor, I have decided to commit myself to changing my lifestyle and eating habits. I feel incredibly determined and empowered. It's my 9th day, and I know that I could lose motivation and that scares me to death. So here I am for support and inspiration, and would love to be that for anyone else who needs it. I will be seeing my doctor monthly to find out how much weight I am losing. I don't own a scale, they kind of freak me out. Anyways, thank you for this group!! I am looking forward to getting to know people who are on a similar journey. Send me a friend request!!

Hi everyone!!! My name is Jessica. I live in North Dakota. I am 35 yrs old and I always considered myself to be "plus size" and I will never be supermodel skinny, but I hope to be healthy and feel good about the person in the mirror. I was really good about losing weight last fall/winter and lost 38 lbs. It is only a fraction of what I have to lose to get to my goal but I was really proud of it. Now It has been months of not doing anything and lots of stress eating. I'm scared to even get on the scale to see how bad it is. I decided it was time!!! So here I am, starting again. :bigsmile:

Hello all - I'm Catherine, 33 with a hubby, a daughter, a dogo argentino and 8 chickens. i live in a college town, where i work a fairly sedentary office job, but our department has a pool in the basement of our building, and we're the only ones with access. so that's pretty cool.

i've been noticing my weight start creeping back on this year, after losing 35 pounds last year after going on antidepressants. it's amazing what not comfort eating will do for weight loss! so i have right around 100 pounds to lose, and i realize i need to start tracking my diet and exercise to make any positive changes.

more than anything, i would like to give myself the grace to grow and change without beating myself up as i've done in the past - especially when i was skinny. i've spent the last 10 years being seriously overweight, and i'm ready to change. my daughter needs to see me make good choices, and love myself enough to want to stick around for them.

Hi everyone. My name is Lorie I'm from Almost Heaven West Virginia. I just turned 37, married no human children but two dogs and a cat, and a niece and nephew whom I adore.

I've been overweight my entire adult life. At two times in my life I lost over 50 lbs. The first time I got to 165 and then met my now husband whom took me out to eat all the time and I gradually got back into my old habits and gained back all the weight and more. The second time was a few years ago. I got to 199 and was so happy to be in Onederland that I lost focus and gained almost all of it back. So now I am down about 25 lbs with another 75 or so to go.

I am doing the Fast 5 plan of intermittent fasting. It's been the easiest WOE I've ever found.

My goals are:
Onederland by Labor Day (have a family reunion the next weekend, and want to feel good about myself meeting new family.)
169 (overweight BMI): by 1/1/2015
145 by 6/1/2015: My 38th (:noway: ) birthday!

Quote on the motivation journal I made for myself (sorry don't know who penned it): "She believed she could, so she did."

@Lorie -I love that quote too! I even posted it on the news feed once. Oh! And Im from WV also lol

Hi, My name is Cathy and I am 54 years old. I reached my highest weight of 326 lbs. last Christmas. I've lost 19 lbs. successfully since then and I keep going up and down with another 10 lbs. I am disabled and I have a lot of health problems and lead a very sedentary life but I am trying to change this and I do light exercises daily now. For myself and my health, I need to lose over 100 lbs. I hope, with the support of each other, that this may be possible. I have been on MFP off and on for several months but have not joined any of the groups until today. I am logging in everything that I eat again and my exercises. I have a fiance, a grown son and 2 cats.