Racertex
My earliest memory of being over weight was in elementary school. It was pretty obvious that I was one of the strongest kids in the class, so I didn't understand why I couldn't pull myself up for even 1 chinup no matter how hard I tried, while the other boys could do alot. Somewhere around those years I got a few new nicknames from some of the kids. I remember being shocked to find out that fatso wasn't a term of endearment.
Weight Watchers became a household word for us very early. As a matter of fact, my parents both lost alot of weight from 1970 - 1972, and that was on the origional WW plan(and kept it off for quite awhile!) I think it could have worked for me too, but I was a rather resourceful kid and always found a way to cheat. Through high school and college I steadily put on more and more weight and developed a cigarette habit to boot! Not sure if I ever got to 400lbs, but I have seen scales so close that it hurt. Over the years diets came and went, some had a bit of merit others didn't. Herbal Life, the grapefruit diet, low fat high carb, high fat low carb, low fat low carb high protein, the fat blocker pill (what an experience!) Phentermine, TrimSpa, blah..blah..blah..blah..etc.
Sometime around 1985 I joined a gym in Austin Texas and started on Herbal Life. I stuck to it pretty well for quite a while, even got into bodybuilding for a couple of years, even got down to 220 or so. Boy did I feel like the cock of the walk! But after awhile, the 6 day a wk workouts and extreme low fat low carb high protein diet got too much for me. As soon as I went back to eating "normally", here came the weight back. In 1997 I went back to school (at 33) and got back into the heavy workouts and low carb diet again. Got down to 240lbs, felt and looked pretty good. Then I graduated and went to work at a chemical plant where I am required to work rotating 12hr shifts, switching from day shift to night shift every week. That in itself isn't very healthy, but its the nature of the beast! Soon the workouts slowed and finally stopped. Going back and forth from nights to days, it can be very easy to end up eating 4 or 5 meals a day several days of the week . It seems to me working nights I tend to get hungry more often than when I'm on days. It wasn't long before I had to start ordering bigger uniforms every 6 months or so.
Soon I began to have hip pain, lower back and knee pain. An my feet always hurt! My GP found that I had 2 herniated discs and a torn ligament in my left knee. These problems, along with my blood pressure and cholesterol on a steady rise, prompted me to ask my GP about weight loss surgery. To my surprise, he was on board with it. He is also my father and mothers GP and when he started to compare my history with my dads, the similiarities were scary. Then the insurance company dog and pony show commenced! It took the better part of 3yrs to get approved, but here I am 2 days pre-op. I hope this tells my weight story to this point, or at least a rough outline of it. God willing, I'll have a new more permanent chapter to add real soon!!!
Thanks for taking the time read about me!
God Bless,
John
