Hi all,

Just a quick introduction of myself...I plan on using the forum often so I may as well get the formalities out of the way!

I start my LCing in two days, Monday the 20th of January. I'm excited for it, I need a good change. My primary motivation right now is weight loss. I was in very good shape a couple of years ago, but then injured myself doing martial arts. I decided to take "a little time off" and recover. Well, two years and 40 pounds later, it's time to get back into shape.

I turned 30 last year, which really didn't seem like a big deal to me at all. I figured that I would feel the same as I did in my twenties. <b>Was I ever wrong!</b>

Within the last couple of weks, I have discovered that I have liver damage from a medication that I was taking 1 1/2 years ago (for my injury), I need to have my gall bladder removed (the consult for surgery is next Friday), I developed "severe" pneumonia (the doctor's words, not mine) and my hip injury was never that bad, instead I have a disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis (essentially, a painful and progressive rheumatic disease...kind of like arthritis in your spine and hips, but certainly not life threatening).

So I guess that my theory about turning thirty not being a big deal was wrong! However, I'm getting healthier now, and both my GI and my orthopedic surgeon have told me to drop weight NOW. The GI wants me to for issues related to my liver, my OS wants me to so that I can increase my flexibility and start exercising again (ironically, back to martial arts, the same things that we thought originally injured me!)

But enough boo-hooing; and no, I don't have Munchausen Syndrome (a little medical joke...if you don't know what it is, look it up). I'm excited to start LCing! I'm anxious to get back in shape, and I'm sort of hoping that the LC lifestyle will help some of these other issues that have popped up.

I want to thank those of you (and obviously there are many) who have publically displayed their successes and defeats with LCing here on the board. It's great to read about how others are doing things, and to learn from them.

I look forward to many post to the forum!
Matt