Hi, Mike
I just wanted to chime in here, too.
I am also one of those people who has always been overweight...for at least for 20 of my 25 years. At a meager 5'5" tall I topped out at 271lbs at 22 years old. My bad habits led to having my gall bladder removed when I was just 21. I had the horribly diseased stone-infested gall bladder of an 80 year old woman that, I found out post-surgery, could have killed me at just about any moment due to the size of my stones threatening liver failure. While I was sick, I probably went from about 230 to about 200lbs. Afterward, I could
eat again and eat I did! Even though my surgery and my health problems had scared the daylights out of me, I allowed myself to pack on over 70lbs. In January of 2006, I picked up People magazine's Half Their Size issue, learned about MF, ordered that night and never looked back.
When I went off MF for a while for financial reasons, I never forgot the MF principals and I attribute all of my success to MF. I basically took to eating several small L/G meals every day. Recently, I've been struggling a bit because I am
so close to the finish line, and yet I often feel like I am a hamster running in my wheel to nowhere. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that I have lost over 30lbs since April 7th and that is no small feat - so no, I do not want that pizza, and no I will not feel cheated for passing while others pig out.
The point of my rambling is, I feel where you are coming from. I understand that feeling of starting all over again. I'm pretty good about staying compliant while on MF, but I feel, in general, as though I have restarted this whole weight loss process at least 1 million times. I've often been in the process of restarting and found myself berating myself for not just sticking with it, instead of being proud of myself for jumping back on the wagon when other people would have continued down the slippery slope. In the midst of your quest to stick with it and get it done, never lose sight of how far you've come and how many lives you are helping to change for the better today, including your own and that of your lovely wife. You are a role model and you are an inspiration and I cannot wait until you and I can coast into Maintenance Land together!