Hello to all! Thank-you for taking the time to read this post.
On 9/1/2004, I weighed 429 pounds. I am 6'3" and was 34 years old at the time. I had high blood pressure and that seemed to scare me more than anything else. I also knew that my physical health was in serious decline, and I would start to notice the effects within the next decade of my life. So on 9/1/2004 I put the pedal to the metal and with a determination I couldn't describe, I began my odyssey.
At first the weight came off slowely. I was working my way up on the exercise. I kept a calendar of all of the dates that I exercised during this time. When I started, I was barely able to sqeeze out 18 minutes. After I had been going for a few months, there were times when I would go for 2 straight hours on that eliptical. And I felt great.
The long and the short of it is between 9/1/2004 and 6/10/2005 I lost 110+ pounds. I didn't subscribe to any weight loss programs other than the tried but true method of eating less and excercising more.
I am an emotional eater, and there were times when I did binge, but the binges were very few and far between. I would focus on a week and then a month and that would get me through.
So the summer months come and the eliptical got bannished to the corner. I quit riding it cold turkey, and I really wish I hadn't. The most important part of my program was momentum. The momentum carried me through the plateaus and the doldrums. So somewhere around June 10th, I stopped my exercise, although I tried to continue my diet.
Fastforward to September 12th, (today), and I am sick with myself. I have reverted back to my old habits. I binge eat with regularity. I eat all the wrong things: pizza, burgers, cakes, donuts, cookies, chocolate, sweets, etc. One thing that I did do during the nine months is I would not consider any food off limits. Rather I would accept an occasional "pizza night" with my family as part of the program. Now, however, I have made Papa John part of my family again, and Wendy is once again my adopted sister. And I see them regularly. I have gained about 50 pounds back, and I am sick about it.
So now the summer is over, and the crap is hitting the fan for me personally. I am ready to start again, but I am afraid that I will make the same mistakes as I did this past year: I will begin a program where I kick butt for 8 or 9 months, and then I will ease off when the summer months come, and the cycle will repeat itself....
SO I come to you dear people, and I ask: What should I change?
One thing I recognize is that I lost a lot of weight in a short period of time. I really didn't think that I did at the time, but after reading through this post, it seems like I might have lost the weight too quickly. During my nine month program there was never a month where I lost more than 18 pounds, and there was never a month were I lost less than 12. It was steady and the weight seemed to come off each month. I did excercise 5-7 days a week and I was very disciplined. But just as disciplined as I was to loose the weight, I unconsciously seem to have been just as determined to try to gain it all back over a very short period of time. And as a side note, in April, my blood pressure was back to normal. As of last week however, it is elevated again.
I have tried to get started again for the past few weeks, but I am really discouraged. This discouragement has led me to abandon exercise after only a couple of days, and to emotional binge eating like never before.
Any advice, suggestions, or critiques would be greatly appreciated.

Thank-you again for your time.