I'm 37 and have a 13 year old daughter. I found this site through the Atikins community and think it's a godsend. The only successful diet I did was when my boyfriend helped me to lose weight. I just couldn't do it on my own and I let him take control. He loved the way I was but was tired of me complaining, so one day he said 'I can't take it anymore, either you let me help you lose weight or just shut up about it!'. I handed over control and over 4/5 months lost about 25lbs and 4 dress sizes and was so much fitter. He got up early with me and trained me basically took over the cooking. It worked. HOWEVER, what I realised is that I need to be able to do it for myself. This realisation came after we broke up and I put the pounds back on. What I remember from those times I've kept close - the feeling of happiness when I could buy clothes in 'normal' size shops and thinking how inexpensive they were, having a lot of energy, and just feeling more motivated.
Now it's time to do it for myself. I would love to have more children but given my age and weight it's going to be harder to concieve. So that my goal - to lose wieght and have a baby.
Support from people on this site will be invaluable to help me when things get tough. I hope I can pass on some tips too, afterall, one thing big people know all about is diets and what to eat or rather not eat - the difficulty is putting it all into practice.
2010 is going to be my year to help myself and I hope anyone reading this will join me on the journey.

Claire xxxx