Thanks everyone for the warm welcome.
I am nervous about the huge change, since counting points is all I've ever known... however, I've learned how to cheat myself too much on that plan, and my overall goal now is to be healthy and feed my body the right things... not just lose weight.
I have the SBD Cookbook, which gave a quick rundown of the plan. Do I need to bother getting the original SBD books, or is the information in this book sufficient? Based on the information that I found on this website last night, it looks like all the information I could ever need is right here. I must say, this place seems great! People are friendly and the information is so abundant.
It's amazing how things change. I remember when my weight crept up to 230 lbs about 7 or 8 years ago, and managed to get down to 182 lbs doing WW. Something changed... I slowly stopped following, and then slowly crept my weight back up, with times of maintenance, over the years... and now here I am at 245 and scared for my health. I also want to TRY for my first child hopefully within 6 months, but I personally want to get some of this weight off first first, and get my health in better condition. I don't want to be obese anymore, and I don't want to risk my LIFE for the sake of food anymore. I've lost all my family, so I know how fragile life is. I'm too young to feel like I do. I want to go to theme parks, and do more things... but I don't, because of my weight. There's no way I'm going to subject myself to TRYING to get into a ride, only to have it not fit over me. The problem I had was my perception of self was better than I actually looked. I felt good after losing all the weight I did, that only until recently, it hadn't caught up in my head that I look nothing like that anymore. Now that I am aware of how I truly look, I'm horrified and 100% ashamed.
I'm moving to the opposite end of the city the week after next, and I am excited. It's such an active community, which will help motivate me to get and keep active, but it's a safe place to go for walks, etc. also, which is very important when doing any outdoor exercise alone. Also, I'll have a nice big kitchen with gorgeous kick-butt stainless steel appliances, which will make me want to be in there more often preparing yummy, colourful and healthy foods. There's no beauty is serving up fattening, dull-coloured foods in a "gourmet" kitchen.
A kitchen like that begs for vibrant fruits and vegetables, which look so good you gotta eat them!
I really look forward to getting to know you all, and will appreciate any help and support you can provide once I get this underway. This forum seems like a great place to come to everyday, and you've all been so successful already.
Thank you all!