[Carguy]

First off I have to say that it's great that there is a place where people can swap ideas and recommendations on how to get healthy. There aren't that may places for Men out there unless you count all the body building blogs so I appreciate the good you all are doing. Let's see where do I begin...... When I was younger I never had an issue with weight. Now that I'm almost 52 I do. I may not be the normal case study of what happens but here goes.

Four and a half years ago I retired for the Marine Corps after doing 30 years. I was 17 when I joined and weighed in at 137 pounds after boot camp. Yes I steadily gained but was never over my max weight of 190 pounds. During the last 3 years of that 30 year period I had a lot of injuries (not combat related) just body parts giving out after years of abuse. After I retired I could not exercise like I used to and my weight went from 188 to 236 in a short time. Of course I felt like crap. I see a Doctor regularly and my blood work was always great so I thought no issue. Then my blood pressure started to go up. Not that is was high but higher than I'm used to. That was the last straw.
I thought I have to be here for my wife and daughter. My daughter is only 14. If you go to my profile you'll see that I love to work on Cars, Guns, and old clocks. I thought to myself I have too much that I want to do with those hobbies. I have to make a decision to get better. Now I had tried before and nothing seemed to work so I called up one of those diet companies you see on TV and took the plunge. After 5 weeks I'm down 24 pounds. Now I know this may not be the right way to do this but it seems to be working. I know I can't keep ordering my food on line. The plan has me making several meals myself as well so I can practice making healthy portions. I have to thank my wife for helping me plan everything out and being supportive. My goal would be 180 pounds. I'm 5'10". I seem to now be loosing about 3 pounds a week.
I think for me I had to make that mental jump from this is how it's going to be to stop making excuses why I can't do this. I now know I can and will and I'm never going back.

[Wannabehealthy]

Welcome to the forum. While I am not usually a fan of TV diet plans I have to say if it's working it's a good thing. One thing it does is teach portion control and you could probably learn to create your own meals based on it.

By the way my husband is into muscle cars too.

[Carguy]

Thanks for the reply Wannabehealthy. You are correct. This may not be the best plan and I know when I'm off it I have to be careful. I have accepted the new normal and I'm determined to keep it off. When I do make my meals my portions are small.