I've struggled with obesity for essentially my entire life. I got into fitness around November of 2012, when my heart gave me a scare. Went to the doctor, EKG came back with no problems, but why was I going to wait around for something bad to *actually* happen? I weighed 310lbs, my body fat was 40%, and I wasn't too too crazy on the idea of dying before my 30th birthday. Like a sign of some kind, Gold's Gym was offering a 12 week challenge on weight less for anyone who was a member. I was a member of that gym for several years, but never went for years at a time, so I canceled my membership. But, I was serious about it this time. I signed back up, and signed up for the challenge at the end of December. I had been reading as much as I could about what to eat, what not to eat, how MUCH to eat, water consumption, supplements, pretty much everything I could get my hands on. My trainer helped push me in the right direction and kept me on track. My first weigh-in was in December when I signed up, and I was looking at 290lbs and 37% body fat. But even still, week after week, I blew my own mind by how much of a difference I was making, and let me tell ya, my gym is one of those "Look at that fat guy trying to do that exercise LOL!" type places. That's one thing I feel that a lot of people don't get is the anxiety that really skinny/overweight people feel by going to the gym, but that's another story. This wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination. Physically? No problem. I was making steady, gradual gains in strength. Mentally? Picture the Tasmanian Devil when he spins around. I'm a food addict, most heavily overweight people are, but trust me when I say that we quite possibly have it worse than other addicts. When you were born, you had no concept of gambling, drinking, drugs, sex, or anything like that. You can literally live your entire life without ever doing any of those things, and nothing would be wrong with you. But, if you don't eat, you die, plain and simple. So to get that under control, good god, I felt like I was riding a bull down at the Rodeo. Even today, I have to resist the urge to call Domino's and order a whole pizza that I would normally eat entirely, along with whatever sides I would get (and I always would). That's just one meal, too. So, the one thing my trainer and I discussed was cheat meals. He (and now I) stressed them like crazy. "It's totally okay to go off the path for a day, because you KNOW, 6 days out of the week, you're going to be vigilant, dedicated, and precise with what you do," is a paraphrase of what he said. You don't even have to do it once a week. You can do it once every two weeks, or three, or go a whole month. The entire purpose of it, I feel, is to keep yourself from burning out and outright falling apart. So, with that mindset, things started picking up once again. I play in a band (hence my username), and we were shooting our first music video in April, which was conveniently three days after the contest ended. It was like the perfect goal: Win the contest, look good for the music video, never have to worry about bringing my band's image down, all that stuff kept me going, cause from experience, I know how easy it is to just give up 2 months in and relapse. I've done it for 15 years, I know what it's like. So at the final weigh-in, I knew that I had done a good job, but secretly, I did want to win, cause who doesn't like the idea of first place and winning a ton of money? I don't have the measurements anymore, but from November at 310lbs and 40% body fat, I weighed 257lbs and dropped 10% body fat! It blew my mind. I felt great. As it was, I found out two weeks later that I actually won the first level of the challenge. There were four levels: Local (your gym), City, State, and National. 5 age group categories (I was in the 18-29), and one male and female winner per. So, I ended up winning at the local level, and that was pretty much it. But, at the same time, it was a win no matter what, even if I lost all together, cause I did a great thing for myself. I maintained my weight for another year, but was getting bored. What was my goal? What was I gonna do? There was no contest, no event, I wasn't in nearly good enough shape to do Tough Mudders/Spartan Races, I have horrible shins for running, so I sort of stagnated. But one of the trainers came up to me at the gym one day and asked if I would consider signing up for the challenge one more time. I took a little bit of time to think, then decided, why not? So that's where I find myself currently (I gotta update this when I finish :p). I started at 255lbs and 27% body fat, and currently, my weight is sitting between 232-233. My goal for the end of this month is 225. Scott had one of the first YouTube channels I came across once I started doing my research. I'm a big time fan of old schoolers like Vince Gironda, but I've found SHF to be very resourceful. He's a 'real' dude, not just trying to sell you products like Mike Chang, and actually takes time to stay connected with fans, or people who just have questions. Yeah, it's his business, but he doesn't *have* to do that, so seeing that is pretty cool, I think. I wasn't too sure if I wanted to join the forums (for anything, really, not just SHF, but just anything period), but I made a comment about Creatine on one of his posts on Facebook, and his response and invitation to join sort of made me think, "Hey, why not? I'll give it a shot, I can always learn more." So that's where I find myself now. Props to you for actually reading everything, seriously, I kind of went crazy on it. Looking forward to gathering more information and help on my own little journey like everyone else is on.