Well, I'm now 40. I had hoped to get some weight off before turning 40, but that didn't happen. But I'm hoping this next year will be different!

I'm a compulsive eater, will eat for all kinds of reasons, and I sabotage my own diets all the time (make brownies the second day of a diet, go into a CVS to get a prescription just so I can buy myself a candy bar, eat candy at work or in the car so my family doesn't see me doing it)

At my top weight I've seen 244 on the scale - and thought to myself, I don't want to be 250!

I want to get down to my goal weight, and was hoping for 10 pounds a month. But instead of focusing on the scale, I'll post here the reasons I need to lose this weight:

- My knee started buckling going up/down stairs, and still "clicks" - trying to avoid a knee replacement
- Want to not have weight keep me from experiences (couldn't ride mules into the Grand Canyon due to weight)
- Don't want high blood pressure / diabetes. Want to get to where my cholesterol is normal
- Don't want to avoid going to the doctor just so I don't have to get on the scale
- I'd love to go to the store, try on anything, and actually think I look good, rather than just "not terrible"
- wear a bathing suit without covering it completely up with a shirt and bike shorts
- get rid of the double chin - it looks horrible, and I don't put my hair up because of it
- not get out of breath carrying laundry from the basement to the second floor
- not be the one holding my family back on trips (climbing up from the Canyon, everyone was waiting for me, I wasn't sure I could even make it)
- live long and spoil my hopeful future grandchildren
- actually be able to remove my wedding band and engagement ring - they've been stuck for years now, but I don't want to get them cut off

I will get there, I will get there - just gotta keep repeating that!