I'm 49 and a single mother of three great teenage kids. By dealing with numerous stress factors, I'm letting go of 85 pounds that's crept on due to an accident that's resulted in chronic pain, serious meds and has permanently ruled out all the recreational/sport activities I normally enjoyed.

In trying to support my kids, I found myself working for a technology company on Wall Street through what may be the worst financial crises in history only to end up eventually unemployed along with 500,000 other innocent, non-golden-parachuted-type-people from that tiny street--I'm not alone, I know, millions of Americans have financial stress. We must help each other instead of isolating.

One of the worst stresses for me, though, has been loss and grief. The love of my life made choices that put us on separate paths. This is the kind of stress that makes me want to use food to comfort the pain of everything else above, if only for a few moments. I guess because this is the stress of being alone.

I started out on this journey a couple of years ago on South Beach and Atkins, but am doing a slow carb diet now because of an issue of ketogenic diets causing adverse reactions with the medication I'm on. I'm okay with it, though, because I can have a cheat day once a week, too, and still be 100% on plan.