Introduction
I am a middle-aged man and battled obesity almost my entire life from high school and well into my 40's. I was that guy in high school that would spend my lunch money at the vending machine buying a Hostess fruit pie and a Pepsi. Almost every single day that is what my lunch consisted of.
When I got home things didn't get much better. Health and nutrition weren't a thing in my family. I drank at least 6 more Pepsi's after I got home and had pizza or whatever garbage frozen food my parents had.
The following is my journey with obesity and eventual complete and 100% victory over it.
Early Years
Back when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's, focus on nutrition and exercise wasn't a huge focus we had to think about because food producers still produced non-poisonous foods and society revolved more around not sitting down like it does now. We had no computers to sit on for hours on end. We went outside and played. In fact, my 6th grade field trip was to ride our bikes on a 3 day, 45 mile trip. Imagine that. A bunch of 6th graders on ten speeds riding about 45 miles to and from a destination. Every single kid did that. There were no fat kids back then.
We had 2 sixth grade classes in my elementary school. The other class went on a ski trip. Both teachers did things that focused on exercise. Truly astonishing when you think about it in context of today's America.
However, that started changing in the late 80's/early 90's. At least in my area of the country, we started to get vending machines with candy put into our schools. We started getting computers. We started getting video game systems. It drove a lot of us to sit down more than we should and play video games and plink away at the computer for hours on end.
I fell into this trap by eating from the vending machine every day at school. I drank 6 or more sodas a day. I played video games endlessly. The food started becoming frozen food TV dinner type dinners and that's mostly what I ate because it was quick. I don't think my parents knew of the damage they were doing to their kids by feeding them that garbage. To them it was a way to make dinner fast and I can't really blame them because they were busy and this saved them some time. It's easy to fall into that trap. Not to mention, we just didn't have access to as much information as we do now.
Adult Years
In my adult years I started working at a Little Caesar's pizza place. That was the last place I should have been around. I got free pizza and crazy bread every day! Plus free soda! That is what I ate every single day. That did not help my weight, of course. I then started picking up the habit of drinking beer. This, of course, threw fuel on the fire of my weight problem. Before I knew it, I had ballooned up to about 330 pounds.
I was a walking dead man. The damage I was doing was not sustainable forever. That reality hit home to me a little over 3 years ago. I woke up in the middle of the night and my heart rate was about 120bpm. Of course, this is not normal for a resting heart rate. Especially out of a dead sleep.
I tried for a couple of hours to get it to come down by taking deep breaths, splashing cold water on my face, and whatever else I could think of, but it just stayed there. I was in denial that something was really wrong.
My wife eventually convinced me to go to the hospital. She drove me down to the emergency room. It was about 3am. Of course, right when I got to the hospital my heart rate returned to normal. However, the doctor at the ER wanted me to stay for some testing since my dad had died of a heart attack early in his life.
I then did a stress test and it showed an abnormality. So they scheduled me for surgery 2 days later. So for 2 days I laid in a hospital bed waiting for that surgery. I was awake for the surgery as they just stuck a camera into my artery and I was able to see the video output. What the doctor discovered was VERY serious.
It turned out I had a 99% blockage of my LAD artery. This is the artery that they call the "widow maker" because if you have a heart attack due to blockage in that artery you are most likely going to die. The heart surgeon quickly barked to his staff to prepare a stent for my closed artery to open it. I was really on the razor's edge of death. See below pic for before and after of my artery:
The Battle
As detailed above, the way I treated my body was terrible the majority of the time. Of course, I wanted to lose weight, and I tried many different things. None of it was lasting.
I tried Weight Watchers. I lost weight for a 2 or 3 month period, but then put it right back on.
I tried NutriSystem probably 5 different times with the same result. Boy, that food was bad. They had some meals I wouldn't even feed to my dog.
I tried counting calories and low carb diets. I even tried drinking only vodka instead of beer to keep my carbs down.
It all worked for a few months, but then I went right back to being fat again. I would bounce between 275 and 310 constantly throughout my life. I was actually happy if I was "only" 275. It was a constant battle.
The Victory
Finally, after having my heart surgery, my cardiologist recommend I read a book called, "How Not To Die." That book was a game changer and the information contained in that book helped me overcome obesity forever.
It turns out that all you need to do is eat foods that God made for you. This means eating mostly fruits, vegetables, and whole grains with maybe some salmon thrown in. When I started doing that the pounds melted off quickly. I didn't even have to watch how much I ate. I just ate until I was full. I didn't even have to exercise any more than the current daily walk I go on with my dog.
I lost about 60 pounds within 3 months. Further, my high blood pressure controlled with pills simply went away. I was able to stop taking them. This was all in 3 months. It's truly amazing how your body heals itself very quickly when you put the proper God-made fuel in it. Over the next 3 to 6 months I lost another 40 pounds. In total I ended up losing 100 pounds. From 305 to 205. I have kept off those pounds for 3 years now just by eating what God made for me to eat. It's literally that simple. Eat only foods God made for your body and 0 processed foods.
All Thanks To God
I believe God gave me a gift by putting me in the hospital so close to death. He rescued me from a bitter end with eternal consequences. At the time I was not saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. If I would have died, I would be sitting in hell right this very second for eternity.
Instead God got my attention, saved me when I should have died, and led me to him. I am forever grateful to him for that. He saved me even after all the drunk nights and other sins I committed. Even after all the times I thumbed my nose at him during most of my life. He still saved me. I don't deserve that, but he loves me and everyone else so much he is willing to do that. I give all glory to him for this.
Do You Want To Be Saved?
The beautiful thing about God is that he offers his free gift of salvation to anyone. No matter what you've done. All you have to do is realize you are a sinner and that Jesus died for your sins on the cross, was buried, and then was resurrected 3 days later. He offers this gift freely. All you have to do is accept it. Here is what the Bible says:
(Acts 16:30-31) "And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? {31} And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."
(Romans 10:9) "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
(John 3:16) "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
It's that simple. If you'd like to read more about salvation and how you can live a victorious Christian life, a guide to salvation is pinned to the top of my main page here.