My name is Dana, I used to go by "DanaToGo" on the 100+ boards, but changed to WeightWatchinWoman a while ago.

I'm 36 years old and am single, but have a wonderful boyfriend. I live in Richmond, Virginia. I have 5 cats!

I have battled with weight most of my life. When I was in the 8th grade, I weighed 180 and thought I was so fat! When I graduated from high school in 1988 I weighed about 275 and was really just accepting the fact that I was fat and would continue to be fat for the rest of my life.

In July 1995 I started working out at a gym. I was pushing 300 pounds at the time, and by February 1996 I was down to 218 pounds. On February 12th I had my gallbladder removed. From then until about November 1996 I gained about 15 pounds, then I moved to New York to live with my boyfriend. I think I started seriously gaining weight the day I moved! Well, by April of 1999 I was above 350 pounds! I was fat, miserable, angry, and just not well. A lot of unhappy things happened to me while in New York. I was diagnosed with PCOS and then there was a cancer scare. Things were falling apart at home, my parents separated, and my boyfriend was being a real jerk! So, I left my boyfriend and came home to Virginia.

From April 1999 to June 1999, I did nothing. I was really just trying to adjust to living back in Virginia. I went to see my Doctor in June 1999 and I weighed over 350 on his scale. I was diagnosed as having hypothyroidism.

Skip to January 2001. My sister joined Weight Watchers and she was doing very well with it. My Mom had been doing WW for a few months and was doing well. I decided that I could do it too, but I had to wait until I was ready to join. That day came on March 24, it was a big step for me, but I was happy (strange) to weigh-in at 303.8. That meant that I had actually lost weight since seeing my DR in June! How did I manage that? I think that being around my Mom and sister a lot had a lot to do with it, I pretty much ate what they ate. Also, I had started being more active, doing "little" things like vacuuming every week, cutting the grass.

So, I joined up in March 2001, and by August 2003, I had lost over 120 pounds with Weight Watchers. Now it is January 2006 and I have put back on almost 40 pounds in the past 2 years and am slowly working to take them back off, but am proud that I have kept off 80 pounds.