Hello all,

Been lurking for awhile. Thanks for reading and for any support.

Quick intro for me is: I'm 33, I've always slightly overweight, and I ballooned to 232 pounds in 1998. Then I got down to 185 after a year of aggressive dieting and exercise (Atkins diet). Got sick of eating the Atkins way so the weight slowly crept back on. Had two beautiful kids in 2004 and 2005 (only 15 months apart) and my personal health and fitness took a nosedive.

In 2008 I hit my alltime max of 247 lbs. I felt so unhealthy, lethargic, disinterested in any kind of activity. I also, frankly, had some real esteem issues based on my appearance and the sloth-like image I was portraying, rather than the formerly energetic and relatively successful person I was accustomed to being.

A friend convinced me to start his diet, a system he personally advocates and helped develop. It is not a fad diet or anything too out of the ordinary, in fact it is used to develop athletes. It's based on the basic math you have to follow to create a caloric deficit to lose weight.

The diet focuses on fruits, vegetables, and grain with whey protein and very low meat intake during the initial phases of the diet. You eat 10 small meals per day on the diet rather than 3 major ones. I researched it and I believe it's healthy.

I started the diet and I'm 10 days into it. I'm really excited because I really think I can eat this way for the long-term. It's all about keeping the calories down, the veggies and whole-grains up, and lots of protein. Unlike Atkins, in which even a tiny error throws the body out of ketosis, I can modify the daily diet in small but significant ways so that my cravings don't get the best of me. Most importantly I feel really fantastic after 10 days of eating such healthy food. I have been addicted to Diet Pepsi for 16 years and as recently as May of this year I was drinking as many as 10 per day, but since starting this diet I haven't even wanted to drink them! It's really amazing to me because every other diet, including my semi-successful (albeit temporarily) Atkins diet was a tooth-and-nail struggle.

I know I'm just 10 days in, but I've never felt this good on a diet before or had so little desire to get off of it. I'm not even thinking about reaching for a Diet Pepsi in the morning or eating unhealthy food -- because it makes me feel bad!

What I'm up against, really, is that I simply love to eat. The hardest part is changing my thinking from the idea that eating food is a fun, enjoyable, pleasurable act. This is how it was growing up in my family, and even now going to my parents is a tough experience because my mom likes to have tons of fattening food lying around. Now eating is a utilitarian act, something that must occur, and should result in feeling good day in and day out as a result of putting the proper foods in my body.

So I'm here, I hope to participate and I hope to get a few comments on my blog as I go, the URL for which is below. Don't worry, I'm not selling anything or even going into great detail about my diet, I'm just an overweight guy who's trying to add a little pressure to make the pounds come off by making it somewhat of a public event. I will try to contribute also to others if there is an openness to that.

My "Body transformation" blog: (yes, it has pictures, be warned)

Body Transformation Project

Thanks and I hope to join this community and contribute as well as enjoy the input of others.