I'm 34 years old, I live in the southern United States and I am a recovering substance abuser. My substance? Dairy Products. Okay and maybe steak. I have a desk job and spend most of my work day sitting and stressing out. Since joining SparkPeople, I've realized that although I thought I was eating healthy or "not eating that much," I was not eating balanced meals and I was often eating more than I should by guessing at portion sizes or more often by indulging without giving it a thought. I ...

I'm 34 years old, I live in the southern United States and I am a recovering substance abuser. My substance? Dairy Products. Okay and maybe steak. I have a desk job and spend most of my work day sitting and stressing out. Since joining SparkPeople, I've realized that although I thought I was eating healthy or "not eating that much," I was not eating balanced meals and I was often eating more than I should by guessing at portion sizes or more often by indulging without giving it a thought. I started this journey in July 2011 after seeing pictures from my 33rd birthday party. I had been a vegetarian for over 10 years (Disclaimer: cheese and Guinness are meatless and I used them both liberally) but went back to eating meat the year before and had put on a good amount of weight without really acknowledging it. I did not even own a scale until September 2011 and I was shocked to find out that I weighed a full forty pounds more than I thought I did. By December 2011 I had lost thirty pounds and hit a plateau; I would cycle through spending a few weeks walking on my treadmill for 20 minutes every day and then lose momentum; eat healthy meals and then go back to whatever was convenient or sounded good. In April 2012, I was doing a web search to find a weight loss program or service that I thought could work for me and I found SparkPeople. As I've seen so many other people say, it changed everything for me. I switched from using the generic nutrition logger that I had been using to the Spark nutrition tracker which led me to purchase a food scale; what a HUGE DIFFERENCE this has made. One of the first things I learned was that a boneless skinless chicken breast is NOT a single serving unit! MIND. BLOWN. Those little suckers are usually 10 or more ounces! I have become the mad scientist of my kitchen, always weighing everything and writing down my "formula" on little scraps of paper so I can track it as soon as possible. This isn't a diet, it is a lifestyle change. It's hard to believe but I eat more now than I did before but now I make better choices and plan all of my meals and snacks in advance so I'm not frantically looking for food while in a hangry rage. You wouldn't like me when I'm hangry.

If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results. - Jack Dixon

Read More About PATSYDARLING (Updated January 18)

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