I wish I could tell y'all exactly what it was that got me going but I just woke up and told my husband I was going to join the gym and he said ok. It was 2014 and I weighed in at 280 pounds. After three months of exercise, both cardio and lifting weights, I lost a total of 3 pounds. I went to my doctor and he said to keep up what I was doing, sometimes it takes a while for your body to catch up. If not then the following month he'd prescribe pills (something I really didn't want to do) so I went back to work. I found FATSECRET and started really logging in my calories. When I went back the following month I had lost 20 pounds. From that month on I consistently lost 15-20 pounds. I reached my goal weight of 150 pounds in 14 months. Along the way I became a fitness instructor. I got certified for Group Fitness, then Zumba, after that Zumba Toning, and POUND. Then I got complacent. I slipped back into bad habits. I had fooled myself into thinking that since I was working out so much both cardio and strength training I could eat and drink whatever I wanted, that was not true for me. I stopped weighing myself and stopped using FS. In September of 2018 I figured it was time to step back on the scale and it said 204.4. I cried for 10 minutes. I had worked so hard to lose the weight and I had sworn never to see 200+ on the scale again. I pick myself up and got back to work, started using FS again for weigh ins and for the support. The support on here is amazing. And in 9 months I was back to my goal weight. This time I added Piloxing to my list of fitness certifications. So now I'm working on the lifelong journey of maintenance. So that's my up to date story, with all its ups and downs. I wish all of you the best of luck on your healthy lifestyle journey. The best advice I can give you is what I tell myself every single day: Work hard, stay determined, stay dedicated, you're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for, never give up, you can do this!