Let's see.. I've been chubby my whole life. I lived with my grandmother who is a fantastic cook, with all the sorts of delicious and fattening meals that a lot of us were raised on. Always encouraged to have another helping, after cleaning my plate.

When I was 18 I lost a lot of weight (50 pounds) after graduation, having had enough teasing in high school. I did all the right things for the wrong reasons. Mostly for my outward appearance and fear that my boyfriend at the time would leave me. I discovered two years later that he was cheating on me and I fell into depression, being lonely and eating away my sorrows but my increasing exhaustion only made me more unhappy.

Then when I turned 21, I discovered Dance Dance Revolution. Always having been a fan of video games and other such sedentary hobbies, this was a breath of fresh air combining a game with the types of music I love best. I lost 5 pants sizes (didn't own a scale at that time) over the course of a few months and developed incredible stamina, eventually playing DDR competitively. I wasn't dieting at that time, eating everything like a horse on whatever I wanted and my size continued to shrink because of the immense amount of calories I burned at tournaments and with practice.

The expensive entrance fees and gas prices left me unable to compete after a time, or even practice. When I went back to the game I found my stamina had withered, my skills rusty. Devastated, I gained more weight until I was almost back to my all-time largest size and heaviest weight.

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things now, learning to love myself as part of a healing process for a lot of emotional stress in past years. Taking care of my body, becoming active again, and trying to look at the big picture are all a part of this.

Weight loss goals:

Current Weight: 203.9

Goals: 199.9 by November 26

189.9 by January 1

Non weight loss related goals:

Finish my writing projects in progress.

Work my way back up to playing DDR on Heavy without feeling like a truck hit me.

Find some sort of obscure fitness class that would be epically fun to do, like belly dancing or aerobic pole dancing, lulz.