Hello!

Hi! I'm Scott.

I live near St. Louis, Missouri, I'm married and have a 7 month old baby.

I've struggled with being overweight most of my adult life and up until my daughter was born I always fooled myself into believing that I didn't need to do anything about it.

I turned 30 last year and it really seemed like from a health perspective things went down hill. I started suffering frequent gout attacks (SUPER painful) and found that I was out of breath all the time and just felt miserable all around.

I started my weight loss efforts about 4 weeks ago and I've been on MFP for about a week. I had started by ordering meals from Seattle Sutton but, between the cost ($160 a week) and the fact that for the last two weeks of the year they shut down (when I needed the help the most) I decided to stop the service. I will give credit where credit is due the Seattle Sutton food was great and even though I was on it for a short time it really did open my eyes to how out of control my portion sizes were.

Some would argue I picked the absolute worse time of the year to start a change in my eating habits (notice I didn't say diet - I hate to refer to it as a diet , it sounds SO short term). I would have to agree - embarking on this change around the Holidays has been extremely hard but, it was also invaluable as I was able to prove to myself I have the will power to make it through the family gatherings, the office "food days" without cheating and going hog wild on the bad stuff.

I'm 6'5 and weigh about 405 today - I started around 425 and my goal is to get to around 215. My BMR is about 2914 calories a day and I've been averaging about 1700 - 2100 calories a day. I'm focusing on my caloric and carb intake. I am confident that if I control the two the rest will fall in to place.

On the exercise front I could do a lot more than I do but, I'm taking it slow as I tend to overestimate my abilities and I don't want to hurt myself and end up being unable to exercise at all. I've started playing racquetball twice a week and my wife and I bought an XBOX Kinect and the 2012 fitness evolved game to go with it - it's KILLER!

My primary motivation at this point is first and foremost to be health and able to keep up with my 7 month old daughter as she grows up, the second goal as shallow as it may seem is to be beach "ready" by August 2012 as we have a summer trip planned for the Gulf Shores. Overall I just want to feel better in general and be able to buy clothes of the rack again (even though I'm a guy I'm super fashion conscious - so much so that my wife looks to me for advice) .

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it - just like I'm sticking to this new approach to eating and being healthy. It's going to take time - I didn't get here over night and I certainly won't get there (215) over night either but, once I dedicate myself to something, it will happen! I think my final breaking point was when I sat down and took stock of my life and I realized I control all aspects of it except one formidable beast that I've never tamed and that's food. I'm here to DESTROY the battle of the bulge! Who's with me?

Since I'm new to the site I'm certainly looking for friends to help me keep up the motivation during the tough times so feel free to add me!