On January 1, 2014 I was fed up with being fat and decided that "enough was enough." I had let myself get to a slovenly 394 pounds and that is FAT... even for a 6'1" big man.
I could not walk more than a few steps without getting shortness of breath and if I walked much more than 50 feet I was exhausted. I knew that I had to do something or I was going to die, and I had to do it fast.
My immediate goal was not to lose a huge amount of weight, but rather to stop gaining weight. If I could do that, I could then begin to consider short and long term goals, but I knew I had to make some changes in my life or I was not going to live much longer.
I won't bore anyone with the morbid details but I have a weak heart which was at approximately 20% functionality due to some undetermined (by my cardiologists) disease or infection that I had experienced in my adulthood. It was only after some pre-op testing that the seriousness of my heart condition became an issue. I was going to have a simple shoulder operation to repair some damage and remove some bone spurs that were the result of a terrible 18-wheeler accident that I had been involved in years ago. When the EKG came back abysmally abnormal the surgeon postponed the surgery in lieu of a full examination by a cardiologist. Further testing by a cardiologist found the extreme heart damage and the surgery was put on a back burner as my heart problems were being addressed.
Subsequent cardiology testing resulted in my being classified as "Totally Disabled" and thus my working career as a truck driver came to an end. I was now a retired man whether I liked it or not.
The surgery was planned in 2006 and my eventual classification of total disability came in 2007. At this time I was already a big man... too big... but not as big as I was about to get. Since I could no longer do any physical activity I was pretty much relegated to being a couch potato. Maybe that is a stretch but it is what I became and since I didn't make any effort to change my eating habits I began to gain weight.
Like most of us, eating has always been one of the pleasures of life that I really enjoy. I absolutely love the taste of a good hamburger, tacos, pizza, bacon, cheese, bbq pork, and you can fill in the blanks from there on out. Oh... don't let me forget how much I love the taste of a Snicker Bar... or even maybe a bag of the small ones. Wow! I love my food.
Needless to say my weight climbed and climbed until that day in January of 2014 when it approached 400 pounds. The last weight I can actually remember seeing on the scale was 394 but I am sure I was heavier than that before I dedided that I had to change my life.
Over the next 18 months I lost 180 pounds and I felt like a new man. There is no other way to put it. I have a life again. I now am back to doing things I really love to do and I am getting out and visiting friends I hadn't seen in years. I have my life back and I am a happy man.
BUT... I am confused. I have told quite a few people... I even posted on Facebook about my weight loss... and I am absolutely flabberghasted that NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON has asked me how I did it. Wow!
The 180 pound mark was hit in July 2015 and now it is only a couple of days away from being October of 2015 and not one person has asked me about how I did it. The thing that amazes me is that even after I told everyone that I did it without one single bit of exercise (because of my heart condition), I STILL did not get any questions from anyone. I have thought about that and I have a theory which unfortunately I am thinking is right on the money.
Here is my theory:
PEOPLE DO NOT WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT.
Yes, you read that right. People simply do not want to lose weight because it does include sacrifices... actually, a LOT of sacrifices. People wish they weighed less, but they simply do not want to go through the process of losing weight. Am I wrong? I might be... but I don't think I am.
That's okay and I can not be judgemental, because I ate my way to an enormous weight and was classified as being "morbidly obese" and if there had been a higher classification of obesity I would have qualified for it. The simple fact is that a person can not and should not think that they can lose weight simply because they think they would like to lose some weight. People who lose a lot of weight usually have to have some sort of event in their life to make them realize that they simply do not have a choice and that they absolutely MUST lose some weight and will do WHATEVER it takes to do it. Otherwise you are simply kidding yourself and you know it.
I hope those of you who have gone through this can identify with what I have done and I applaud you for what you have done. Life is great, isn't it?
