Well, another year has come and almost gone. Yup, it's that time of the year to make new resolutions and reflect on lessons learned in the years previous. New Years marks the start of many diets as part of resolutions to lose weight, but part of this process should be exploring the big question "Why did you gain weight?"

Folks, if you feel like sharing, please help me and others learn from you by telling us about how you gained weight. Was it a poor diet, no exercise, pregnancy, an injury? There are so many reasons that can cause our weight to get away from us.

For me, I started gaining when I was in my early teens when my parents separated. I turned to junk food for comfort and at the time it wasn't so bad because I was still pretty active. Then, when I went to university and then found an office job I spent a lot of my day sitting, but still indulging in those goodies I loved so much. I had little jars of candy everywhere, chips in my desk, donuts at home, chocolate bars in my sock drawer, and so on. I was the ultimate junk food junkie and without an active lifestyle the weight just started to pile on. (I think my worst mistake ever was buying stretchy waisted pants. Before long I didn't fit into any of my clothes .)

Well, this is how I gained weight, and lots of it. How about you?

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Guinea Piggy is one of Weight Loss Center's esteemed Weight Loss Blog Authors.

Guinea Piggy, I agree that this is an excellent question to ask ourselves. I hope that some people will share their own stories with us. Thanks for being so open about your struggles with weight . Keep up the great effort!

Guinea Piggy, I love your question. Thanks for asking. I think a lot of people don't like talking about how they gained weight. It's not usually pleasant to examine our faults, but it is a necessary step in coming to terms with our weight and finally working towards losing the weight and keeping it off.

I hate admitting to this, but here goes... I gained weight because I was LAZY. In highschool I didn't really have much of a problem, but I've never been the sporty type. Then, when I went to college and discovered alcohol and other substances there was a noticable and dramatic gaining of weight. I saw it, I knew it and I ignored it. I have kicked myself over and over for ignoring how overweight I was becoming, but at the time I just thought "Hey, I'll just lose this weight with a few months of dieting". Well, we all know that's not true.

I tried dieting a few times, but couldn't stick to it. My friends and boyfriend at the time did not help me at all to lose weight, and in many cases were very bad influences, eg. bringing candy, junk food and beer over to my place all the time. At the end of college I had gained over 90 pounds and tipped the scale at around 230lb.

I would love to tell you that once I left college I lost the weight, but I didn't. I just kept going. Here I was blaming others for my weight gain and completely ignoring the fact that I couldn't keep myself away from junk food. It was a number of years, a few scary doctor visits, and about 5 breakdowns before I really dug my heels in and committed myself to losing weight.

It's a long journey, and a daily struggle to keep on track, but I'm doing it. What has changed the most, and is the reason I'm losing instead of gaining, is that I have stopped being lazy. I make myself go out and exercise 5 times a week and I prepare my meals instead of buying them. I have taken an interest in my own health and I don't rely on others to make me happy.

Thanks again for the question G.P. Sharing this story with others is an important part of my healing process. Happy New Year to All!

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Okey Dokey is one of Weight Loss Center's esteemed Weight Loss Blog Authors.