Hello everyone

I've been lurking here at MFP around 8 months using the tools to help motivate me to lose some weight. At my heaviest I was 398 and have used MFP off and on to get down to 351 as of this morning. I've always been a somewhat solitary person when it comes to a lot of areas of my life but realized recently that I am much more sociable than I had previously thought so I decided that having some people here to motivate me would be beneficial to achieving my goals.

My plan is to hit 240 - 250 pounds as my goal weight. My trainer thinks that would be a good weight for me. I am not a small man in any way (I wear a size 15 shoe and have a 19 inch neck) but I would love to feel better in general, look better in the mirror and just have a better sense of general health overall.

I'm currently following a lo/no carb diet as best as I can and it seems to be working. Of the 40+ pounds I have lost, 26 of it had been in the last two weeks since I started eating mainly protein. I know that a low carb diet is not going to be sustainable in the long term, however, I want to use it to help me reach a few more milestones and then slowly start integrating carbs back into my life.

My biggest challenge is that I travel extensively for work and entertain clients when I am so the late dinners, heavy meals and wine & spirits that are usually consumed as part of this are what tends to do me in. I have managed to cut back severely on the food and spirits in the last couple weeks and I think it has helped but, obviously, when temptation is always so near it makes it rough and I have slipped on occasion.

I look forward to exploring the forums and seeing what has worked for others and, hopefully, will be able to offer advice and encouragement to my fellow MFP'ers at some point also!