CHANGES

The day before Easter I had hit a brick wall. I was unhappy with my life and I was mad, hopping mad. I had a house, 2 good cars, 2 great kids and a wonderful wife so what could be wrong? After a lot of thought I decided that I needed to work on 3 things. 1. My personal and my families spirituality. 2. Our finances. 3. My weight. I have always fought my weight. It had ballooned in the late 80's to over 300 lbs and I was able to get back in shape (Hey, I wanted girls!) and get down to around 235 lbs. Well, life and marriage had gotten the best of me and by 2003 I was up to 450 lbs! I could not believe it either since they had not found a scale to weigh me on in a long time. I finally found a doctor who helped me get approved for Gastric Bypass Surgery where they make your stomach smaller. At this point I feared for my life so even though the surgery scared me to death I was willing to do it. The surgery was a success and I lost over 100 lbs! The problem was that I felt that I needed to get back to work a quickly as possible. My first aid customers need me, I needed the income also from the DJ work that I was doing. So I did not take the time to really read, study and make lifestyle changes. I just knew that now I could eat the bad foods but just less of it. I was working out but not as much as I should have been. And my back didn't hurt and I could now move without huffing and puffing so I was "satisfied" that I had lost 100 lbs and moved from a size 60 to a size 50. Flash forward to now and I had gained back over 30 lbs. since then from all of this great Texas food! I was still the same size but I was not happy with my weight. I decided then and there to get my weight under control. I made a personal commitment to cut back, cut out and work out. No diets, just using common since when eating. I started small by seeing my doctor and a nutritionist. Turns out that besides my sleep apnea and high blood pressure I also had a high insulin level and bad cholesterol. I started out small working out 3 days a week at one of Allen's city gyms doing both weight lifting and the treadmill. Recently I have also added 2 days of swimming. I have also spent a lot of time studying ways of eating healthier and exercising. So far I am down 30 lbs. and I must always now wear a belt! One of the greatest things that has helped me is the support of friends on Facebook. Sometimes just a little "you can do it" goes a long way. In work ,my best sales managers were positive and motivating and I am finding that is the type of friends and family that I want around me too. My next goal is to get below 300 lbs. and then finally below 240 lbs. I want to be healthy and strong for my family and to just stick around for a long time and I know that can do it!