I was never skinny but weight wasn’t always an issue. I was a three-sport athlete in high school and a collegiate wrestler. This allowed me to eat what I wanted and still maintain a healthy weight.
After college I was still pretty active, I played indoor soccer, racquetball and tennis on a pretty regular basis. I put on 15-20 pounds but seemed to maintain that for a while. I didn’t think this was a big deal so I never tried to lose it. While playing indoor soccer I injured my neck and eventually had surgery to correct a bulging disc. After that I stopped playing soccer and didn’t play racquetball or tennis nearly as much as I had before the injury. As a result I started to gain weight and never looked back. Over the next 10 years I got married and had two children and slowly kept gaining weight until I hit 280 pounds.
During those ten years I tried Weight Watchers, Biggest Loser contests with friends and various diets with moderate success. The only thing was once I stopped those diets I gained it all back plus some extra. It got to the point that I started to believe maybe I was just meant to be big.
This started to impact my health and more importantly it affected how I was able to raise and play with my boys. I volunteered to coach my oldest son’s soccer team and I would sweat and be out of breath just from running around with a bunch of five year olds. I began to wonder how I was going to do this when they got older. Over the years medical issues started to pile up. I developed GERD, severe sleep apnea, fatty liver, arthritis, and my asthma worsened.
Finally in August of 2009 while I was sitting in my ENT’s office, I saw a pamphlet for Medical Weigh Loss of CNY. The pamphlet said losing weight was a science and as an engineer that appealed to me. I took the pamphlet home to my wife and we discussed it, I researched the website, and decided to go to the informational meeting. Once I got home from the meeting, my wife and I discussed the pros and cons, the expenses, and whether or not I was ready to make such a large lifestyle change. I decided I was and made an appointment to see Dr. Scinta.
The results of my physical were scary to say the least. I was morbidly obese (BMI = 42.5), pre-diabetic, my cholesterol levels were high as well as my triglyceride levels, I had high blood pressure and my liver function tests were abnormal. Dr. Scinta said that this could all be reversed and we decided I should do the full meal replacement program. With the help of my group meetings, and weekly visits to the office I was able to successfully stay on the program for 16 weeks and started transitioning to normal foods shortly after Christmas 2009. More importantly during this time, I was given the opportunity to realize that I should be “eating to live and not living to eat.”
After my transition I rediscovered that I actually enjoy working out again and recently decided to train for a triathlon and half marathon. I now work out 5-6 times week swimming, biking and running. When I started working out I was barely able to finish a mile run and yesterday I was able to finish a 5K run in 30:50.
Thanks to Dr. Scinta and her wonderful staff my weight is now approaching 200 pounds, my body fat percentage is getting close to being in the healthy range, my blood pressure is normal, as are all my other levels. I am now able to play with my kids without being out of breath and sweating. My kids keep asking when my diet is going to be over. I tell them my diet ended in December and this is my new lifestyle. My lifestyle has had a positive impact on my family as well. My boys are more aware of the food they eat and are making healthier choices to be like their Dad and my wife has started to workout as well.
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