How I lost Weight and why I should Keep it off

I recently saw someone that I hadn't seen in 3 years and they didn't even recognize me. I think it is because I used to be 40 pounds heavier. About 2 1/2 years ago I was fed up with being overweight. Also, my father had just had a massive heart attack at the age of 52 even though he was as skinny as could be. Diabetes is on both sides of my family. The risks are high in my genes so I knew it was time to lose weight and to become fit and healthy. Here are a few before pictures. I almost can't believe I am putting these on my blog. It is hard to believe that I ever looked like this.
This picture was taken just a few months after I had met my goal to lose 40 pounds. Actually my original goal was 30, but I kept losing and was happy with the 40 lb loss.
This silly picture was taken a few months back at rehearsals for the Tribute concert. It was one of the only full body pictures I could find.
How did I lose all the weight. I found a free web site call Sparkpeople.com. The great thing about the site is it just teaches you how to be HEALTHY. There was no crash dieting, just good old fashioned exercise and eating right. It has wonderful trackers to keep you..well..on track. My biggest problem was that I was eating way more than I needed. Your body will lose weight if you eat less calories than what you are burning. Now that said. There is a healthy range of calories. You should never go too low or your body won't lose anything. It will just hold onto everything because it will think you are going to starve.

It taught me healthy habits and got me excited to take care of myself. Now with all of that said...I have been giving in more and more to unhealthy foods recently and I have decided that has got to stop. No more snacking 5 times after dinner. I need to be healthier not only to maintain my weight loss, but to prolong my life and keep myself around longer for my family. I wasn't kidding when I said that there are a lot of health problems in my genes. I am bound to beat the odds and I know I can if I can by healthy.