Hey everyone! I'm Jay!

The easiest way to describe my orientation and gender is by saying I'm queer and genderqueer. I don't have a strong preference on pronouns but my closest friends usually use "they". I love when people call me "ma'am". MFP uses masculine pronouns for me which I don't really like seeing all the time, but describing myself as male was the right call for weight loss purposes.

I've been on MFP since 04 February 2017, if I remember correctly, but somehow it never found this group until today.

When I started on MFP I was at 281.6 pounds, and this morning I weighed in at 254.2! I had really awful eating habits for my whole life, so it really hasn't taken much work to lose weight yet--I understand I should expect it to get harder as I get closer to my goal weight (which is a totally arbitrary 161 pounds, which I calculated by averaging together several 'ideal body weights' I found for someone of my height).

So far I have increased my activity by walking at least a mile a day, at least six days a week. I average about three miles a day, although I'm taking it a little easy this week. My main change has been in my food--I was eating very calorie dense, sodium-filled foods in large amounts. Now I've stopped eating out so much (usually no more than twice a week) and making all my other meals. I like to cook, so that's not a problem. The hardest part is portion control, but I'm getting there!

I'm so thrilled with my progress, and am looking forward to the rest of my life in a way I haven't done in a long time.

Okay that was a lot of talking. I'm looking forward to being part of this group!