Background: 38M 6'2" tall (wife says 6'3" but...meh). SW 363.6 lbs. GW 275 lbs CW 345 lbs. I started on 1/30/24.

At my largest, during COVID, I was up to 385lbs. It was not pleasant. I went HARD with keto and calorie restriction. I started walking around the apartment complex we lived in at the time. It was working, and it was work.

Life happens. Family all has different dietary needs. One kid is dairy free. One thought he was gluten free for a while until we pinpointed a GI thing with him that wasn't gluten. Wife can (and will) live on pasta, bread and veggies... and we all have a sweet tooth.

Keto and hard work had gotten me down to somewhere around 330lbs over probably 6 months. I ballooned back up to between 355 - 365 lbs and held it there no matter what I did. Got a treadmill, was doing that and pushing water. Tried calorie counting w/o the keto. It was back and forth for over a year. I was on the verge of considering something extreme like surgery because I am just sick and tired of always being the "biggest" guy in the room in all the unflattering ways I could be.

Then I finally broke down the end of last month and started WW. Not even a month later, in which I still had Popeye's drive-thru food, pizza, pasta, chocolate, beer, liquor... and I'm DOWN.

It's teaching me how to find balance. That's what I am enjoying the most. I know I won't be doing Popeye's all the time... but it's nice to know I can sometimes. It's nice to know I can have a slice of cake at a party or a beer with friends and it's not going to hijack my entire thing I have going on.

I'm working out less but more effectively. I'm really THINKING before I eat something, instead of just eating according to circumstances, emotions, boredom... I'm stingy with budgets... so I'll check that snack I think I want and usually land on "Nah... that's too expensive right now..." and then go eat something zero points. I've eaten more fruit, veggies and eggs in the last three weeks than ever before.

I am excited this is going so well. I feel like I will be able to sustain it. I want to build up my activity and adjust my goals around that in the coming months.... but really I'm just thrilled to be here and that it's working.