The Roller Coaster to Obesity

Over the last twenty years I have dieted and exercised , I have drank more water every day than I really really wanted to . I wanted to stay healthy so I made the effort and did what it took to keep the fat off and stay strong . I love to run , so that is what I did , I ran and watched what I ate . I was 29 years old , 6'4" tall , weighed 195 lbs and had a 34 inch waist .

Well, I moved down the highway of life and in the course of two years, my disciplined running program was just physical fitness roadkill. I still watched what I ate though, in fact I was always watching for something else to eat. When it was over I weighed 230 lbs and had a 36 inch waist.

I decided to take action .

I scraped up my roadkill running program and started working out .I loved working out, so there was not much of a struggle to get that going again .
The food on the other hand was a different story, I was happy with eating whatever I wanted to eat , so changing that was like torture . I would decide on a Friday that on Monday I would start my diet. So the whole weekend I would eat whatever I wanted and as much as I wanted because, Hey, I was starting my diet on Monday, I might as well party this weekend because on Monday I was going to put the clamps on and really get down to business on this diet thing.

Right.

It took a month of Mondays to gather the courage to actually start getting my eating under control . I gained 8 lbs just planning to go on a diet.

Eventually my desire to get back into shape became greater that my desire for food and I did it. Sort of ... I didn't get back to 195lbs but I did get down to 205lbs , not really back were I started but I was happy . My waist was not exactly a 34 , I could fit into 34's but they were a little snug . The size 36 jeans were much more comfortable though with room to spare . People congratulated me and commented on how much weight I lost .I was proud of myself , I felt great.
Had I stopped right there and maintained the gains I made in my diet and health this would be a very short story , but the fact is this scenario repeated itself about every 18 months for the next 20 years.
The one thing I just could not overcome was the relentless craving for food , especially the wrong kind of food .

My wife and I would go out to a nice big dinner with appetizers, steak, and baked potato, coffee , and desert. I would be stuffed . We would go back to the house and 20 minutes later I would be pulling something out of the cabinet or the refrigerator . She would say " If you eat one more thing you're going to make me throw up ". I couldn't help it, I wasn't really hungry, my stomach felt just as full as my wife's did ,yet I really felt like I had to eat.


If I stopped for gas somewhere I always got something to eat , in a grocery heck out I would grab a candy bar or those little fat pills they call salted peanuts . My energy levels were very low during the day, there were times when I would have these deep sinking feelings like I all wanted to do was go to sleep.

Eventually I would get sick and tired of being sick and tired and pull myself out of it only to repeat the cycle all over again .


Remember how much I weighed when I started ? I was 195lbs and after two years topped out at 230 lbs but then I decided to get healthy again and lost 25lbs to wind up at a respectable 205 lbs .
So I lost 25 lbs right ?

NO !

I gained 10 lbs

My Ideal weight is 195 lbs , thats the standard to measure from in order to tell how well I am doing in terms of my health . Every time I went through one of these cycles and got healthy again I was thrilled if I got to within 10 lbs of my last weight gain . I kept mentally moving the benchmark .

By February of 2006 I weighed 286 lbs and had a 42 inch waist , strike that , I wore a size 42 waist pants . Thats another bit of fat math that guys do . In high school I wore a size 34 pants because I actually had a 34 inch waist . Ten years later I've gained 50 lbs and still wear a size 34 pants and say to myself " I'm in great shape, I'm in the same jeans that I wore in high school " . The problem with that is , I'm wearing my belt 5 inches south of were my waist actually lives . The low rider jeans fad was not created by Britney Spears , think about it .

Over the course of 20 years I gained 91 pounds , how did I do that ? 20 years = 240 months 91 lbs divided by 240 months = .379 lbs per month
That's 6 ounces per month , six ounces ! why should anyone be concerned about gaining 6 ounces ? Because like compounding interest in a savings account it continually drips in little by little and after 20 years your bank has a big fat savings account and your body has a big fat ....

I work in commercial construction, on the fourth day of working on the project that we are currently building I fell onto some wire mesh and and wound up with 15 stitches in my knee . I went back to work the next day and understood that I had to make a choice , either find an easier, lower paying job or lose weight and get in shape . I chose to get in shape .

At 286 lbs I had a long way to go so I started again , fought the cravings as best I could and started to lose a few pounds .

About a month into my new program I found the solution !

The Answer to the out of control cravings and those sinking feelings of lost energy during the day . The Answer had been right in front of my face for two years ! I take nutritional supplements , when I was younger I had no use for them , but as I am heading toward 50, and the strength of youth can no longer make up for my lack of wisdom, I see how valuable and neccesary they are . The company I buy my supplements from has a line of weight loss products .
I knew about them but basically ignored them because I had pretty much given up on the whole weight loss thing .I was not real excited about starting this five day program but I read some literature on the product and the idea of getting rid of the cravings for all the wrong foods was very attractive .

I also thought about the benefits of losing weight , like being able to bend over and tie my shoes ...... and breathe at the same time.

I did the five day program and all I can say is .... WOW ! By the beginning of the fourth day the cravings were GONE . I mean absolutely GONE . I lost 5lbs , which was great, but I was really excited about how I FELT . What a relief to be able to make good decisions about what I eat without that nagging " I gotta eat feeling ". I walked by foods that had always defeated me in the past candy bars , muffins ,pasta , pizza , fried chicken , soft drinks and thought " Naaaa " I really don't want that . This time I wasn't forcing my self to not want it, really deep down I was not interested in eating that stuff . Imagine how you would feel , being able to walk by that stuff and say "Naaaa" , I don't want that and you really don't want it .

After the five day RESET Program I did the Phase Two follow up program and on November 15, 2006 I weighed 214 lbs. I lost 72lbs in 9 months.

I did it without the nagging craving for food, I have the freedom to chose the right food without it seeming like torture .

The RESET Program will put your body into the proper metabolic state , basically your blood sugar will move up and down in the narrow range that it is supposed

to operate in , this controls your false cravings for food and sets your body up to

get rid of fat instead of storing it .

The follow up program will keep your body in the right state so that it you will

continue to burn fat and make steady healthy progress toward your goal .

It is a life changing journey !

You can go to ourdreams.usana.com to check out the RESET Program .

See You soon ,

James Lange