I am in my early/mid 50's and have been struggling with my weight since probably 40'ish. By "struggling" I probably really mean bitching and whining but not doing a whole lot about it - at least not for very long. I would try and cut back, restrict food, think about exercising (which I come to find out is not the same as actually DOING it!) but continued to have the pounds creep up, particularly after menopause.

About three years ago, I tried the HCG diet which worked - I dropped about 25 lbs - but managed to tank my metabolism in the process. In hindsight I understand that it's just not healthy to restrict that much (500 calories!) and it has long term bad effects. Needless to say, I not only gained back the 25 lbs I lost but managed to add on another 20 lbs. I got lazy, wasn't paying any attention and then "gee, why don't any of my clothes fit?"

When I went to the doctor the other day, I swear to God you would have thought the scale attacked me - I saw the weight, jumped off and said "what the hell???!!!". My blood pressure was higher than normal and I felt like crap.

Both my physical and emotional health have taken a beating from my weight gain and I guess like any addict I feel I've hit my rock bottom and need to do something about it.

So now it's time to be smart about my weight and my health. I need to not look at this as just losing weight to be pretty again, but rather to be healthy and stick around for some grandbabies some day.

It's going to take awhile to break some bad habits and develop some good ones, but I'd rather take the time, live longer and enjoy all that this life has to offer me, or I can risk losing it all at a young age. I choose life!