My brother turned me on to fatsecret. He has lost about 60 lbs over the past four months on the Slim-Fast diet, which was inspiring enough to get me to try it.

I've had a weight problem since high school and I've tried many approaches from ignoring my obesity to seriously working through a variety of diets. I have lost substantial amounts -- in university I got to my ideal weight by simply counting calories and living on 1500 a day. About five years ago I lost over 40 lbs. on the Akins diet. But each time, I bounced back to 260, which has been my average weight for the past 20 years or so.

Aside from my weight... I've been living in Japan for the past 30 years. I run my own business here teaching English to Japanese children. Before I came to Japan, I was a psychotherapist, working with adolescents in Los Angeles. I'm married for 28 years and we have two sons, both in university. I've got a lot of hobbies and very little time to indulge them. I love travel and manage at least one trip abroad per year. I enjoy playing, watching and listening to a wide range of music. I love photography and probably spend more time on that than all my other hobbies combined.