Hi, I'm Kevin and I'm in the DC area. I'm a weather nerd, tech nerd, and general science nerd. I just found out about NF from a friend a couple of weeks ago. The timing is great because I've been really wanting to finish what I started over a decade ago. I'm 35 and I was raised on the typical American diet of fast food, big home-cooked meals (I'm from the south), and so on. Obviously that made me overweight very early, withdrawn socially, and not apt to go out after school or try sports. By the time I went to college I was over 250 lbs at 6'0". I peaked out during my undergraduate days at least 267 lbs (that was the highest measured at a Doctor's visit). My blood pressure was out of control and I started noticing heart palpitations. This motivated me to get out for some simple walking and jogging, and to undertake a diet overhaul - eliminating sodas, fried food, and junk food. Through those efforts I was able to shave about 80 lbs slowly over the course of a couple of years, dropping to under 190 lbs. In hindsight just doing some cardio was not the right approach, because I also burned a lot of muscle with the fat. Unfortunately it didn't stick. Over the course of the next few years I gained back almost 50 lbs, so now I'm back in the 225-230 lb range. And I'm starting to see the same high blood pressure and other symptoms. It has crept up slowly and I realize the triggers have been a lot of stress and uncertainty associated with my job and social life. I've been getting a lot less confident, and more and more depressed and socially withdrawn as the weight has slowly come back. Clearly a lot of the issues that trigger overeating were still there under the surface. I'm ready to finish the job - this time the right way and permanently. My job and social life situations have stabilized, I have a growing support network, and now I have resources about what's good to eat, and how to lose weight this time without burning muscle. Thanks for reading. Let's go!
