Hello I'm Shawn. I'm 28 years old, and I've been trying to lose weight for 3 years now, with little success until about a year ago.

When I was younger I was a really skinny kid. In fact, that didn't much change for a very long time. All the way through elementary school, I was one of the skinniest kids around. I occasionally got teased about it, but I didn't really take it too seriously. I had other things to worry about. I was just happy that I wasn't getting made fun of the way the fat kids were. When I went into high school, still nothing much changed. As the years progressed, the other guys were getting taller and broader, gaining all kinds of weight in muscle - i grew a little, but not much. It became an insecurity issue. I didn't feel like nature was giving me a fair deal, so I tried to tinker with things a little. I all of a sudden started eating a lot. Seconds at every meal, snacks at all times... I invented meals where there weren't ones before. My parents were clueless, they chalked it up to me being a growing boy full of hormones. But before long I was growing, in a whole lot of directions. But things got crazy, I didn't feel any better, and I was too lazy to work out and turn it into muscle. So my plan backfired. I stilll didn't get the respect I wanted, and now I was being called "fatty." Then I started eating junk food to make me feel better, and that was the worst thing I could have done, because I developed all these bad habits. I was no longer eating the crazy diet I had started with, but I was eating a lot of bad snacks, so I wasn't getting any smaller.

Through college, I was stuck with all that weight, and I wasn't happy about it. I still had a good time and everything, but I had trouble with women because of my insecurities, and that made things worse. I continued eating comfort food to help me with my unhappiness and loneliness, but all it made me was bigger. By the end of college I had grown to over 230 pounds.

When I got out of college, I had a lot of trouble looking around for jobs because of my size. I felt really insecure in job interviews, and felt incapable of doing the jobs I was applying for, even thought I was totally qualified. I had very little energy from all the walking around, and couldn't stay out for very long periods. Before I knew it, a year had gone by and still no job, and I was still living in my Mother's house (with plenty of access to free food). I knew I needed a plan, to do something about this weight before I went any further... or got any bigger.

I moved out of the house, and got myself a nice apartment downtown. My reasoning was that spending all that money on rent would limit me to what I could buy and eat from the grocery store, and it's true, that's exactly what happened. Also, I got a job working outdoors - at a golf course. I was overqualified for the job, and they didn't pay me as much as I wanted, but I figured all the manual labour outdoors would do me some good. I was right. The final thing I needed to do was cut the cravings. I was still eating too much junk, the problem is that it's so cheap! I could get a fast food meal for $5 and I wouldn't have to cook. But I knew I had to quit doing that, it's just that my cravings were overpowering sometimes. I wanted to try appetite suppressants. I wasn't thrilled with the concept, but I wanted to do whatever I took to lower my huge appetite. Nutrisystem had the best reputation that I could find, so I got started right away. I can't even begin to tell you how dramatic the improvement was. I only ate what I needed, no more. And I no longer ate fast food because it filled me up too fast. What a miracle. After just 10 months of applying a conscientous plan of proper diet and exercise and the Nutrisystem program, I've dropped down to 160 pounds - that's 70 pounds lost! I'm so much happier now, and I've even begun looking for jobs and doing interviews again - I'm carrying myself so much better these days, and I think I'm going to find a job in no time.