Fat to Fit, Part I - Decision

As the holiday food binges begin to show up on our scales, today is either a great or terrible day to talk about obesity, depending on your perspective. Mine is this: I was obese from the age of ten (maybe earlier) until very recently. Do the math and that turns out to be 55 years give or take. I did every diet known to humankind and lost hundreds of pounds over those five plus decades. Like most dieters I gained it all back and then some. Like most overweight people I suffered intensely over weight issues - and ate to alleviate my suffering.

By 2008 I was within shouting distance of 350 lbs and quite desperate. I underwent gastric bypass surgery and in nine months lost about 100 lbs, almost exactly the 70% of excess weight the surgery statistics predict.Over the next three years I gained a little and lost a little without much effort either way and by September, 2011 I had regained 15 pounds. I was no longer morbidly obese but I was still overweight. I was not particularly ill nor was I really healthy.

Within a two week period I had both a cancer and a cardiac scare, a daily double wake up call. Though both turned out to be false alarms, they did show me a future I wanted no part of, including being caught up in the jaws of the medical industrial machine. I made a decision that month that I believe has changed my life.

I did not decide to go on yet another diet. I did not decide to experiment with the sundry drugs or supplements touted from time to time as the cure for America's weight problems. I did not seek out a celebrity chef/fitness guru/diet expert/or life coach.

Instead, I decided to live healthy. I sought to change my life.

To do that I knew I needed to eat healthy and exercise - no magic answers and no pills. There were other things as well but those two were the core. Motivation is a decision plus a committment. I made the decision and committed to doing whatever it took to live healthy, whether I wanted to or not, whether I felt like it or not.

Since September, 2012 I've lost 56 pounds, dropped six inches from my waist and two from my neck, increased my endurance and strength tenfold, and have blood work that tells me everything is good. I am healthier than I've been since I was 10 years old. I've also bought and discarded several wardrobes and begun to (a little, anyway) enjoy clothes shopping. For the first time since I can remember, I like the way I look and I enjoy (though not always gracefully) the compliments I get.

And the journey isn't over. In Part II, I'll describe exactly what I did to achieve these results.