My Battle with Weight Loss really began in High School in Bellevue, WA. Then the Army, as a Soldier in the Paratroopers. It continued on until I had a heart attack, surgery, and then a stroke at the age of 52. Truth be told, it has been a problem for me psychologically as well as physically. For as long as I can remember, this has been an ongoing problem. It was not until I hit 52 that My Battle with Weight Loss became manageable. It just took a heart attack and a stroke to wake me up. It was as much a psychological as a physical thing, but until I changed my attitude, I was never going to change.
Growing Up:
I have always been the biggest kid in my class. Always reaching a foot or more than almost all the kids that I was in class with. It wasn’t until high school that people started to catch up with me. Because I was so big as a little kid, I stuck up for the little guy, and I had a personality. My attitude said, Don’t mess with me, or you might just get more than you can chew. I was always rooting for the little guy. I did not get into hardly any fights because of my size until later. Then the playing field got a little more even. But that is for a different chapter of my life, lol.
MRE’s and My Eating Habits:
Meals Ready to Eat, also known as MRE’s and My Eating Habits, got me in trouble in the Army. They carry so many calories in them that you need to be very careful about how many you eat a day. In cold-weather training in Graffinveer, Germany, I had not heard of this. I gained weight by eating just two of these MRE’s a day, and then we got back to base. After eating 2 MRE’s of 1,300–1,400 calories each day on a 3-week cold-weather training program, I gained over 10 LBS. All because of MRE’s and my eating habits, I no longer passed the weight test.
When we were deployed to Northern Iraq, we were issued 1 MRE per day and never thought of it. I never gained weight, never got tired, and always maintained what I thought was a healthy diet. I never really worried about it until I got back to base in Vicenza, Italy, and had the weirdest cravings. Uncomfortable, I, as well as the whole battalion, had to spend hours on the toilet. Because something in the MRE’s stopped everyone up, lol. I craved fruits and vegetables, which did no good for the bathroom visits either. I also started to look at girls again, which was weird because I had noticed them in Iraq. Never before had I remembered them the way I was noticing them now. I swear they must have put something in the food because there is no way to explain it.
Needless to say, I was now 15 pounds overweight. Or, according to their charts, it might have been a little more. Anyway, I out-processed from the military and went to my mother’s house to re-acclimate to being a civilian. Which was harder than you thought it would be.
Weight Loss in a Truck:
I bounced around for about two years after I got out. Until I landed a job with North American Van Lines driving a big rig. They would finance a big semi if I worked for them for six months. They sent me from Spokane, WA, to Billings, MT, to learn how to be a truck driver. I took to it right away, and I was a natural. Needless to say, I found myself driving down the road in a big rig two weeks later, trying just to keep it straight.
I wish I could tell you that My Battle with Weight Loss is better. In a big rig with tons of exercise, it is easy, but, oh my gosh, no. So I move people, pull up to their house, and take all their stuff onto the trailer until it is full. Then I drive for up to 3–5 days and deliver all that furniture to the same people in a different state. You would think that with all of that running in and out of the trailer, I would easily lose weight. No, sir, I gained weight due to the unhealthy lifestyle that most truck drivers get into. Every meal is a buffet, and what do you do at a buffet? Eat all you can until you cannot eat any more. During my days as a truck driver, my weight went from 220 lbs. to 245 lbs. in 7 years.
Real Estate & Weight Loss:
I have given up except for trying to do gimmicks that are on TV, but nothing is working. I got into Real Estate, and I am good at it. Heck, I’m awesome at it, and I take to it so easily that I will have my own Keller Williams franchise in a year. I get married, and things couldn’t be better, but there is always something in the back of my mind. My Battle with Weight Loss is consistently there, poking the bear, so to speak.
I’m 265 lbs., but I don’t feel any worse. Have you ever heard the story about, “How do you cook a frog? You put him in a pot of water and slowly raised the temperature of the water. The poor frog never knows that he is being cooked alive.” Well, I am the frog in this story being cooked alive.
I ended up in Myrtle Beach, SC, where I bought another franchise that is having problems. Not a great idea health-wise. I was doing exceptionally well, having added to the agent count to have over 200 agents. I also tipped the scales at over 288 lbs., so something had to give, and it did one day.
Heart Attack, Double Bypass, and Stroke:
It all started one morning when I went to put some air in my driver’s side front tire. I bent down with the hose and could not get up off the ground. When I finally got back into my car, I was scared. I called the office and told my girlfriend I wasn’t feeling well. Could she come and take me to the hospital?
Two hospitals later, after an angiogram, I learned what I had. It was a 96% blockage of my main heart artery, known as a Widowmaker. They took me into surgery two days later, after the blood thinner from the angiogram was out of my system. They performed a Double Bypass. They take a graft of your artery from your chest and inner thigh. Sent me home a week later and told me to stop eating so much crap. It finally began to sink in. Just how lucky I was to be alive, but wait, there’s more to the story.
About one year later, I had a massive stroke. Because of the heart attack, I sold my company in Myrtle Beach, SC, and moved to Richmond, VA. The idea was to take a job as a Principal Broker at a local firm. That was short-lived because of the stroke. Again, my life is turned upside down because of my weight, and I have had it.
My Battle with Weight Loss is about to undergo a huge change by adjusting my psychological outlook. This will enable the physical side to start changing as well.
Weight Loss is Slow, But it is Happening:
So I had the Heart Attack and the Double Bypass, not because of a blockage due to fat cells. But I had the blockage due to the shrinkage of my arteries due to blood sugar buildup in my system. Which was due to what I ate for my diet. Remember, I weighed in at 288 lbs. during the Heart Attack? Later, I found out that everything I had built in Real Estate was going to have to be sold. My body could not handle the stress again. So I sold it and moved to Richmond, VA. The plan was that after I recovered from the surgery, I would take charge of an office up there. I weighed 260 lbs., I had lost 28 lbs., and I was on my way.
Close to 1 year and 3 months later, I was the Principal Broker at a Brokerage in Newport News, VA. I was interviewing an agent to come join our company when, all of a sudden, I could put a sentence together. The agent I was interviewing was a nurse and told me I should go to the hospital, so off I went.
The Stroke & Weight Loss:
This was the final straw that broke my will and made me see that I had no more choices. When I calmly walked into that ER, I still thought I had time. Then I remembered nothing but bits and pieces. Then I wake up in a rehabilitation center or hospital in Williamsburg, VA. I’m in a bed with a hospital gown on, and I am informed that I have been there for 5 days. Oh, and my right side is partially paralyzed; I am wheelchair-bound.
My girlfriend makes an attempt to put on a good face. She pulls it off until I get to our apartment two weeks later. She has sold off everything of mine on eBay, loaded me into the car, and dropped me off at Ashland Rehabilitation Center. You see, in today’s health care system, you are only as good as long as you have insurance. Which had no longer covered me because I needed long-term care and was only covered short-term. I had to worry about drugs, doctors, and physical therapy. Needless to say, I was soon out of money, and she (the girlfriend) knew it. I had also not planned my future, just my present, and I paid for it.
Ashburn Rehabilitation Center is for the elderly and victims of accidents with head trauma. Also, people who are on dialysis or are just wheelchair-bound have become wards of the state. It was a very scary place that I had to endure until I could get a transfer. The good news is that My Battle with Weight Loss is going great. I’m down to 245 lbs. Two weeks later, my transfer comes through to the Veterans Rehabilitation Clinic, which I applied to but just don’t remember.
Veterans Rehabilitation Clinic
The Veterans Rehabilitation Clinic, which is in Richmond, VA, was incredible. The people who work there are incredible, all the way from the front desk to the doctors and nurses. I was walking by now, and I walked everywhere. If it was sunny, I was walking around the grounds, always enjoying the sun. I went to rehab every other day, and I did a lot of the planned activities. It has been a couple of months, and I am now down to 235 lbs., then COVID-19 hits.
So, I don’t feel much because I have this Brain Fog that has dulled my senses, but I don’t know it. The feeling of loss is not there, and I lose some friends there, but it doesn’t register. When I get early Social Security and get an apartment in the town of Henrico, VA, it doesn’t register. So three years later, in October 2022, I wake up out of this Brain Fog, and I now weigh 230 LBS.
Life Post Brain Fog:
Since I have been away from the influences of this debilitating brain fog, I have within me a purpose and an understanding of where I’ve gone. I have a whole new set of guidelines for how I should lead my life moving forward with a purpose in mind. To continue on, get better with no stress and shoot for a weight of 200 lbs.
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Power of Positive Affirmations
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