Some Background and "The Plan"

I'm 39 years old. I refuse to weigh upwards of 200 pounds when I turn 40 in April. I have 3 children (I can only blame the one biological child for any of my weight gain, but he's almost 10 years old, so who am I kidding, seriously?) I have been married for 14 years this December to a man who loves my big ass and tells me that on a regular basis :)

I used to work full time as a restaurant manager, but I retired back in March. To counterbalance in the lack of exercise that I wouldn't be doing (walking around the restaurant constantly, and lifting heavy items), I decided to get serious about going to the gym.

In the 3 months that I have been going regularly to the gym, I have lost no weight. I have actually gained 6 pounds. What the hell? Went to my doctor to see if my thyroid is out of whack, but in the meantime, I decided that this is it. I have to do something. My biggest fear in the world is dying, yet I live everyday doing things that are going to kill me - not exercising - watching TV - eating like shit. So that's it. I'm done.

But what do I do? Weight Watchers? Fad diets? Starve myself? I bought a book called Lose It! and as I was devouring it (I read it in one day), I thought to myself, "Who do I know that is my age and is in great shape?" I'm not taking advice from some 20 year old with the metabolism of a small rodent. My thoughts immediately went to my friend, Jeff, who has a fantastic physique, yet I know for a fact that the man eats pancakes. So, I reached out to him to see if he would help me.

Thankfully, he seemed happy to help. He sent me a long email with a ton of ideas on how to change what and when I eat. Eat small meals every two hours. No sugar, no refined foods, extremely little dairy. Lean meats & veggies, whole grains. You know, what you're SUPPOSED to eat.

I guess that's it - I'm going to give it my best shot and see what happens...of course, I've lost 2 pounds already, so I'm pretty damned motivated to keep going!!!!