Finally just had enough!

This is the first time I have ever talked about my weight or ever participated in a message board like this (except for Fantasy Football), as I am a pretty private person. However, I am so happy with my progress, I felt I should share my story. I was approximately 250 lbs when I got married which was a manageable weight for me at 6'3". At that point, I exercised at least a couple time a week, but ate whatever I wanted. I had always managed to maintain my weight like this. Well, the kids came shortly after and the exercising stopped. I started cutting back on the amount of times I ate and how much, yet I continued to slowly gain weight. Well, after 8 years of this, I had reached 295 lbs. Several times I had tried and succeeded to lose weight. Usually, by killing my self with increased and intense exercise for a few weeks, but didn't change my eating habits (eating twice a day, sometimes large portions). So, I would end up killing myself, hating exercise, and stopping after a 10 lb weight loss. Naturally, I gained it back. In my mind, I knew I needed to change my eating and exercise behavior and even knew what I needed to do, it just seemed I could never do it. My wife suggested the My Fitness Pal app a year ago, but like most husbands, I thought I knew better. So, when I reached 295, I decided I was not going to see 300.
I downloaded the app and read several of the posts and decided I would give it a try. It was an eye opener from day one. It showed me immediately that my portions were way too big and how many calories I had been consuming. (Way more than I had been guess-ta-mating). I am new to the message boards and haven't read many, but at first glance, I don't see much mention of activity trackers. I purchased a fitbit Charge HR and had my second eye opener. My daily activity level was horrible. I had been promoted to a management position a couple years before my kids were born and had settled into a desk job. I had not made the correlation to the fact that I sued to be on my feet all day and now I was sitting at a desk all day. Common sense, but hard to see the trees for the forest.
So, here was the third eye opener for me. Now that I could see my daily activity and actually see how may calories I was eating, I was able to start improving both with small changes to my daily routines for both. I knew if I killed myself exercising, I would hate it in short order and quit. So, I started walking (running was out of the question at 295). I found that I enjoyed it and benefited form the moderate exercise without killing myself. The app allowed me to monitor my caloric intake and was quickly able to adjust my eating to stay under my goal. I didn't make major changes to my diet as I didn't want to grow to hate "dieting" and quit it as well. I ate a little better, managed my portions, ate more vegetables and fruits, and started to improve my eating routine. The major changes I made to my diet were to give up fried foods (Mainly french fries. I take cholesterol meds so this was killing two birds with one stone), and cut out potatoes as much as possible. Not a low carb diet, just quit my Mega-Carb eating habits. I could eat a large bag of potato chips in one sitting at times. About the only potatoes I eat now are baked chips with sandwiches (the small individual bag. Not trusting myself around a large bag of any chips). It took me about a month to find foods that I liked, and were better for me, to start replacing some of the bad food that I had been used to. Luckily, I have never been a fan of, or craved, sweets. The one other aid I employed was an appetite suppressant to start with. As I changed my diet and eating habits, I found that I did not need it after 2 months and weaned myself off of it.
The results have been amazing for me. I have lost 40 lbs in three months and am down to 255 lbs. I now exercise every day even if it is just walking a mile or two around the neighborhood. (I have gotten to the point whee I can run a couple days a week comfortably). I have developed better eating habits in that I eat better foods, eat smaller portions, and eat when I'm hungry (to prevent me from being starved and go off on eating binges). I drink more water which prevents those "false" hunger pains and walk everywhere I can, when I can. The steps pile up throughout the day when you don't use the car for a two block journey. In summary, I believe that you have to change your daily behavior if you really want to see results and this app, along with some other diet and exercise aids, helped me do it. Reading some of the stories posted here encouraged me to try the app, so I hope my story is able to help someone that wants to make the same changes in their life.