Yes, I've lost at least 2,000 pounds! The trouble is that each time I lose a few, they find me again! I've been successful at dieting several times in the past, losing 25, 50, or more pounds at times. However, when I started my latest weight loss goal, I was nearly at my all-time high. This is going to be my final weight loss effort, and it's going to be the one that actually works for the long term.

I'm 59 years old, live in the Ozarks area of southwest Missouri, and love my ...

Yes, I've lost at least 2,000 pounds! The trouble is that each time I lose a few, they find me again! I've been successful at dieting several times in the past, losing 25, 50, or more pounds at times. However, when I started my latest weight loss goal, I was nearly at my all-time high. This is going to be my final weight loss effort, and it's going to be the one that actually works for the long term.

I'm 59 years old, live in the Ozarks area of southwest Missouri, and love my life (except for the excess weight). I'm married to a wonderful man who is 20 years older than I. We have a total of 14 children between us, although I've only given birth to one beautiful baby girl--who is soon going to be 37 years old. She has three beautiful children: twin boys who are 12 years old, and a little girl (who also started out as a twin, but her twin dissolved) who is 8. These grandchildren are the light of my life!

I'm an active member of my church, where I'm heavily involved in mission work. I also am teaching adult Sunday School class for the summer, and I attend Bible Study classes nine months of the year. I sing in the choir and often provide special music in the form of solos, usually performed to "canned" accompaniment; since I have a lower voice, it's hard to find sheet music that fits my vocal range.

I attended a weight management class at my local hospital for 10 weeks during the summer of 2007. Its goal, like that of the Spark People group, is to make healthy lifestyle changes so that we'll lose the weight and be able to keep it off permanently. I started at 297.6 pounds (I'd lost over 17 on my own in the previous several months), and by the end of the program I had lost 35 pounds. Since that time, I've had some major medical issues and regained 30 of those pounds back; since late 2008 I've lost those extra pounds, but now seem to be stuck at a nasty plateau.

I am excited about finding the SparkPeople website. I discovered it as I was searching for nutritional information on some of the frozen meals that I was using in my weight loss plan, and I didn't get off until 4 1/2 hours later. I'm looking forward to learning more about the website and to meeting a lot of you wonderful people who are making the journey with me.

I have a lot of health problems, and one in particular has the potential of keeping me from attaining my weight loss goal. I've been diagnosed with Addison's disease, which is a somewhat rare disorder in which the adrenal glands do not function properly. Specifically for me, my adrenal glands do not produce cortisol, which is a hormone needed for nearly every bodily function. Doing without cortisol for long periods of time will lead to death. To avoid this, I'm having to take hormone replacement therapy in the form of Cortisone twice daily. One of the side effects of cortisone is increased hunger, a definite problem when one is trying to lose weight. In addition, the steroids for treatment of asthmatic bronchitis has caused me to become diabetic; treatment for this disease is coming along well now, following several months of bad problems. With my doctors' help, I think that I will be successful with my weight loss this time. (I thank God for my doctors every day. Without them, I'd probably have never seen my 57th birthday!)

Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this community. I hope to meet lots of you very soon!

Update: My adrenal glands are now working, not very well, but they're working. So I'm no longer taking any of those oral steroids!

Update (8/21/2012): I am recommitting to my weight loss journey using SparkPeople. So much has changed in the past 5 years. I had actually lost 90 pounds, and then I started gaining again. My husband passed away on January 26, 2011, and then I lost several cousins, my mother, and an aunt who was my second mother in the following 13 months. In July 2010 I started having excruciating pain in both hips, and in November I was diagnosed with avascular necrosis (due to having so many steroids to cure severe asthmatic bronchitis. I had core decompression surgery on my right hip in January of 2012, and I had the same surgery on my left hip on August 2, 2012. I'm currently pain free, but I'm restricted to 50% weight bearing on my left leg. I get aerobic exercise just walking in the grocery store (or anyplace else) with my walker, but I have trouble doing it for long periods of time. I'm doing a lot of exercises to strengthen my legs and to improve my balance. I'm going back to the very beginning, and I'm looking forward to meeting my goal weight by my 64th birthday (March 23, 2014).

Update - May 31, 2013
I'm really going to have to kick it into high gear in order to meet my goal weight by next March. In fact, I've regained more than 40 pounds of the 90+ that I had lost. As of today, I'm back in the game, starting over from the very beginning of the Spark plan. I'll be participating in a 4-week challenge with my beloved White Hawks, starting on Sunday. I'm going to make time for myself, even if it means slighting some of the work that I'm supposed to do for charitable organizations. Here we go, back to day 1.

Read More About MJPECK7015 (Updated May 31)

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