How does one become "morbidly obese", and how do you fix it?

Ok, so I guess it is time to go on record about the weight and diet situation. You see, about 4 years ago, I had reached an all-time high in weight. It happened over about a 20 year period. Every year when summer was over, I would be lucky to find that I had enough work clothes that actually fit me to last through the year. So I had a doctors appointment because I had a sinus infection, and found out that I had topped out at 290. Yes, that is not a misprint. How did this happen?

Reason number 1. I like food. No wait, I LOVE food. All kinds of food, Mexican, Chinese, American, Italian, Thai, Seafood, the list goes on and on. I love cheese, I love beef, I absolutely love chips. Here are the top 3 terrible foods that helped me on this path.

• Cape Cod Salt and Vinegar Chips - I had a 99 cent bag of these almost every morning.
• Taco Bell Volcano Burritos
• Pizza, any type, style, from any restaurant. I would even buy Tombstone pizza's at the grocery store and add more cheese to them before I put them in the oven.

Add to that list any all-you-can eat buffet, fast food establishment or anything fried, and you can see the problem. So on the way home that afternoon, I had a long talk with myself. I had to do something, or I was beginning to look at serious health issues. So the next Monday, I started a whole diet/lifestyle change. I was online looking for a calorie counter and stumbled upon the site Sparkpeople.com. I signed up, spent the next 12 hours reading everything I could on the site, and used that to lose right at 70 lbs. From morbidly obese, to just plain obese. Then I hit a plateau....I was exercising, I was eating all the right things, I had found a new love...hiking. Nothing I did helped me bust the plateau.

So fast forward to the next 3 years. A lot of the old habits were back...I still watched my diet most of the time, but when I didn't, it was bad. Hiking became less fun because I was getting so out of shape again. I had absolutely no desire to exercise..none. So in late October I decided I had to get back on a program, or all that earlier work would have been wasted. Janet had met a couple at her church that have transformed their chiropractic practice to a health eating clinic. She came home from church several weeks in a row talking about people who were on the program, and the changes they were seeing in their health. She went to a free seminar to hear more about it, and came home all psyched up. It was contagious. So the next week, I went to a seminar too.

So 5 weeks ago I started a "candida" diet. According to the health evaluation, I had a huge build-up of candida in my body. Basically we ate fresh vegetables for 9 days, did a detox cleanse for 5 days, ate veggies for 2 more days, then added protein. After day 22, we could add fruit. So that is it,that is the program. No red meat, no dairy, nothing processed, no sugar, no vinegar, no bread at all. It has been very hard, but as of today, I am down 30 pounds. Yes, 30 pounds, in 5 weeks. I know that weight loss will slow down, but for now I am happy. We are exercising some every other day, and I am kinda considering a couch to 5K program. I have never been a runner, even through all the sports in high school and college, but for some reason, this is calling to me right now. So we will see.

Until next time.....

You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through- Rosalyn Carter.