I have been a single mom since '82. Three grown children, 2 grandsons, 3 American Bulldogs, and a bird. I have been overweight most of my adult life. The highest being 298 lbs. My average was 260 lbs. Alot of it was from stress eating, bored eating, and low self esteem eating. Let's face it. I am a COE (compulsive over eatter). I've tried all kinds of diets but couldn't stay on them. Then 4 years ago, I managed to stay on one and got down to 135 lbs. That was too thin for me. I slowly gained back to 145 and was happy as a lark. Then problems arouse from work, home, and I started back with my stress eating again. Last March my girl became serously ill, and I stayed by her bedside in the hospital round the clock for 2 months. Needless to say, all I did was sit by her and snacked on junk. Hospital food is nasty and even the cafeteria was bad. So vending machines and gift shop got most of my business. She is still not out of the woods, and I am not very active in the mean time. I have all these beautiful clothes I can't wear and I can't afford to go out an buy more. Solution....get off my behind and get back into those clothes. Plus I feel like a failure for gaining all this weight back that I am embarrassed to go out in public. I used to go to another site for support in the past, but that site no longer exists. I hope I can find some buddies on this site for the support I know will help.