Sorry, but this will be a rather long post in order to really tell my story.
I was born and have always lived in the South. I enjoy southern cooking with all the grease, butter, and lard that flavors southern food. I married a southern girl on her 18th birthday. She really knows how to cook and southern food is her expertise :-) When we married, I was at a nice weight of 175 lbs, which is a good weight for me at 6' 1" tall.
I am one of four children (1 sister, 2 brothers). We've all struggled with our weight if we were in a non physical position at work. I gained 50 lbs once when my job was to drive a truck to pick up parts for my company, only to lose it when I moved back into manufacturing. Later, I moved into a programming position and my weight continued to climb (up to a maximum of 368).
My ah ha moment came when I returned from a business trip and my doctor told me that I was going to have a heart attack or stroke if I didn't do something about my weight. I came home and told my wife that I was going to join a gym and start eating heathy and over a period of a little over a year I dropped from 368 to 278.
I was starting to feel much better about myself and the complements I was receiving, but then several things happened in my life. First, I reached a plateau and stayed at that weight for a long time, but then my youngest brother (13 years younger than me) decided to commit suicide, because his wife decided to leave him. That devestated me and the weight started returning. Then in February of this year my other brother decided to do the same, because he missed our other brother and he was struggling with health and financial issues. That really sent me for a spin and the weight continued to increase. In the midst of all of this, our daughter had our first grand child and we decided to move to New York for 5 months to be with her when she had the baby and to help out for a while afterwards. I loved being there with our new granddaughter, but did not like NY and all the snow and cold that came with it. We moved back home the day after my second brother's death. At that time my weight had gotten back up to 336.
I went through a lot of changes with my second brother's death. I actually thought of quitting my job in I/T, because I didn't feel I had it in me any more. However, I decided to see a counselor for a few months and that made a world of difference. I still have my sister and we're closer now than ever (as you might imagine). I started working to get this weight off and had lost almost 30 lbs prior to hearing about the Dietbetter website, but I did struggle staying motivated.
The Dietbetter website definitely did the trick for me, because not only does it keep me accountable, but I hate to lose a bet, so it keeps me motivated :-) By January, I will have met my 10% goal and will be back down to 278 where I was before life started kicking me in the butt. I plan to signup for another 6 month program after this is over so I can continue making my goal to get fit!