Hello everyone, my name is Steph and I'm overweight. (Well, there's a start!) So, my name is Stephanie, and I've just turned 21 last month. At the age of 9, I was announce to my class that I was overweight and had to attend a special exercise program during my lunch break in school, while my thinner friends got to eat and play on the courtyard. Growing up, I learned to hate my weight, my body, my reflection, and this was (somewhat) encouraged by the way my parents constantly criticized my body. I knew I had to change, but I didn't know what - so I continued to do what I did, pretending that their words didn't hurt me, and eating whatever I wanted. Last year, I arrived in Melbourne, Australia, to pursue my tertiary education. I joined the gym, worked out twice a week, joined some dance lessons, and was finally looking good and feeling good about myself for once. This lasted the year, and then I went home for the holidays. At home, I ate whatever my grandmother cooked, which was often grain heavy, I lazed about the house doing nothing, and continued munching away on food that I knew I wouldn't get in Melbourne. Guess what? A year's worth of exercise went down the drain in 2 months. Fast-forward to today (To stop rambling on). I haven't been exercising since I left the gym at the end of last year. Even though my boyfriend and I try cooking at home, we both put on weight and did nothing about that as work, University and life took over. Recently I told my boyfriend about the Paleo diet and he took to it like a fish to water, and now we've been on the diet for a week. While he's doing great, I'm not doing so good, so I figured I should come here and publicly record my progress, we'll see how I go. Hopefully this will encourage me further! :) Short term goals: Completely quit grain products (i.e. rice and bread) Work out a Month-to-Month meal plan that is sustainable for a student Increase the amount of exercise done weekly Long term goals: Gain mental and physical strength Be a good example to my baby brother (He's actually 17 now) Be a good encouragement and partner to my boyfriend (Who is also trying to lose weight) Learning to love myself again