The Beginning

Let me start by saying that I do not eat fruits or vegetables! An occasional apple or banana, although I will eat salads. By salad I mean just lettuce smothered with blue cheese dressing. Sometime I make it a little "healthier" by adding chicken breast with buffalo wing sauce.

My diet for pretty much my entire life has been fast food and food loaded with fat and carbs. I guess the only good thing about my diet is I don't really care for sugar and sweets. French fries, tater tots, hash browns, potato chips....along with pizza, mexican food, hamburgers.  (In n Out Burger for those of you on California ) You get the idea, nothing healthy.

So at 42 years old where had this kind of eating gotten me? At my peak I tipped the scales at just under 300 lbs, 298 to be exact! That wouldn't be so bad if I was say 6'3", but at 5'7" it's pretty sad. I have been fortunate to not have many health problems. I have occasional back pain, headaches, and numbness on my right thigh. Slightly elevated blood pressure. Last physical was 18 months ago and my total cholesterol was 198, LDL, HDL at the higher end of the scale,  Triglycerides...a whopping 277 (150 is desirable).

 I have always exercised and worked out, sort of. Meaning I would go through periods where I worked out and exercised for months at a time and was in pretty good shape, although still over weight. I haven't been under 200 lbs since I was 22 or so while in the Navy. These periods were always followed periods on no activity and weight gain.  I have tried many fad diets over the years; The Zone, which I did really good on. Made it to 205 once in 1999, it took about a year before I was up to 250 again. The Master Cleanse, which I lost 25 lbs in 10 days. In the process destroyed my taste buds and to this day I can't eat lemons without gagging. And many others...

Around three years ago as I was looking at age 40 I hit 298 lbs. I was in the process of getting divorced after 17 years of marriage, depressed, angry, and really disgusted with myself. Needed to make a change.

I started working out aggressively, mostly cardio and trying to eat less. There was some ups and downs but by October 2012 I was able to get down to 235 lbs, the lowest I had been in years. I was feeling pretty good about my progress and was looking forward to getting below 200.  Well...Sept 1st  , 2013 11 months later and I'm back up to 265. Many things have happened the last 11 month. A new relationship that I thought was going somewhere, turns out it wasn't. The economy started to hit my business and my caused my stress to go through the roof. One of my best friends since childhood died of a massive heart attack. All of these are just excuses...truth is I stopped working out as much, but more importantly I never changed my eating habits. I was still eating all the wrong foods. 

I have known for a long time what I should be eating but just have chosen not to do it. Hopefully that is all about to change....