I'm new here.

Long story short why I'm here: Knew I was 'heavier than I should be', but was ignoring it until I went to a routine doctor's appointment at the end of September. Number on their scale was higher than I expected and my blood pressure was WAY too high. Started making changes that day.

Since then (about 4 weeks ago), I've been exercising more, eating better and smaller portions. Seeing some results already (blood pressure down! but could be lower), but looking forward to more.

Hello and welcome! Good for you on taking actions...Good job! Good luck with your continue efforts!!

Luckily, if you take steps right when you start to have problems, you can make big improvements to your health with only small changes.

Glad to meet you, and glad to see your blood pressure improving!

Hi CJinTX! Way to get right on that! Good for you! I'm glad you're seeing improvements! You'll get lots of support here to help you along! Good luck!

10% weight loss has shown to have very good effects on health. So your 280 goal is just a bit over that.

And slow and steady is so important. Focus on lifestyle changes. We need a new word than diet. I suppose if you are facing say a wedding and want to lose 10 pounds in two months or whatever and you HAD to, that might constitute a diet.

But I don't think that is what most of us are doing here or attempting to do. BTW after my first month or so I didn't miss the candy bars, potato chips, fast food which I never thought would happen. So keep going, slow and steady is the way to approach it.