Thanks everybody. As a little background, here's my story.
I married at the ripe old age of 16. Had my first child at 24 and my second at 28. 32 years later, I'm still married to the same man and love him more now than ever before. We have two beautiful daughters, a cat named Buster and a chihuahua named Godzilla. We live in Temecula, Ca. I work as a lawyer for a public pension fund - which sounds pretty boring but actually isn't. I've been blessed to have a wonderful life.
I was "skinny" all my life until I hit 40. In my 20's, I weighed 86 lbs and my nickname was Olive Oil. Even after the birth of my second child, I quickly went back down to my standard size 5. But at 40 something happened and the weight just started to pile on until before I knew it was was up to 153 lbs. Now that doesn't sound like much, but on my petite 5'4" frame, it was a lot to me. Plus, I was feeling the physical effects of the added weight. I couldn't walk a block or go up one flight of stairs without huffing and puffing. I couldn't bend over to tie my shoe but had to sit and pull my foot up into my lap. I could feel the "spare tire" around my middle every time I bent over. My clothes were so tight they hurt around the waist and thighs. I felt awful physically and emotionally. I wouldn't appear in public in swimsuits (even one piece) or shorts because I was ashamed of how I looked. I wouldn't go shopping for new clothes (even though the ones I had were too tight) because it was so depressing and discouraging. The weight thing was beginning to affect my whole life.
I tried all kinds of diets on my own but wound up gaining more than I lost. When I outgrew my size 12's, I knew that I had to do something or I was facing obesity in my old age. So I joined Jenny Craig. It's been 5 months now and I'm almost to my goal. I not only got my waistline back, but I'm now wearing a size 4 and those are getting too big. For the first time ever in my life, I'm doing regular exercise and I feel great. I now own 5 bikinis- and I wear them in public.
I am so excited about the new me and I want to make sure I stay that way. If I have any say over it, I will never, never, never go back to that weight. Which is why I'm here. I know that I need the support from a group of people who are going through the same thing I am to help me forge ahead. I am so thankful that you are all here.
New to Forum
Glad to meet you 
joining us. Just jump right in on any of the threads.
to all the people who say you can't lose weight and keep it off. We're going to re-write the statisitcs on weight maintenance right here, all of us together. 
