I started putting on the pounds sometime in high school. I was quite active in high school, playing volleyball, basketball, and softball, but I remember a time in high school where I felt I was slowing down a bit. Because I was active in sports, it likely wasn't that noticeable, but I could tell that was when my extra pounds started coming on. It didn't help that one of my first paying jobs was at the local Dairy Queen, and that is likely where it all started. Going into college, of course I added on the "freshman 15" x 2, approximately 30 pounds put on throughout the course of college living. I played extracurricular volleyball throughout college, filling in on various teams when they needed extra players, but the extra weight made it hard to get around as quick on the floor and to be jumping at the net. About 2 years after graduating from college, I met my future spouse and love of my life, Jim. After having 3 children, my highest weight ballooned to 242. Since that highest weight, I've lost 13 pounds, but they haven't come off very easily. To add to the difficulty in losing weight, I found out recently that I am hypothyroid. With only one week on the medication, I'm hopeful that I'll be on my way to meeting my weightloss goals. It is my desire to get to 160 pounds and on the road to maintenance by the time I reach 40 in two years. I'm told it is much harder to get the weight off at that age, so it is my realistic goal to get to 160 by June, 2010 (hopefully sooner!) I've been on SOOOO many diets over the past 10 years, and this time I am going to focus on the WeightWatchers plan. In addition, I have a fitness buddy and we've been meeting at the Y over the last week or two and have also taken a walk outside (living in a snowy state, we hope our outdoor walks will increase as it warms up!) I'm so very happy to have an accountability partner on this journey and can't wait for us to reach our goals!!