Post #1- Dingoboy goes on a diet

OK, so I started a serious diet last night. A medically supervised diet, complete with blood work, EKG, supplements, etc. So I thought to myself that if I am taking a major step like that, it might be both interesting and motivating for me if I kept a record of it. And then I thought that if I kept a public record, like say- this blog, that it might be even more motivating, since my friends and family would be able to see my progress in potentially minute detail.

Let's start with some background. If this bores you, feel free to skip to the next entry, where I will actually start logging the diet in great detail.

This is a big step for me because I am very conscious of my weight problem. I'm embarrassed about it- severely. As a kid, I was never thin, but I was never fat, either. Always a few pounds heavy, but healthy. I was active as all heck, too. I played any sport I had a chance to play- Little League Baseball, even in the casual winter league. I bowled in leagues. I went to the Rec Center to play basketball & street hockey, and I rode my bicycle everywhere, all over town.

Not to make excuses about my weight gain, but it all did start when I got severely ill at the age of 13. I spent my entire 8th grade school year fighting first unbearable knee pain, then rapid weight loss & constant intestinal unrest. I'll let you use your imagination on that one. Eventual diagnosis was Crohn's Disease, with a bonus of arthritis. I had begun that school year at 5'8"+ and about 160-165 lbs. By the time it was over, and after 2 weeks at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C., my weight had dropped to under 90 lbs. My Dad had to get me new jeans with a 26" waist, smallest they had in a 32" inseam, and I needed a belt to hold them up.

So it's understandable that the doctors wanted me to put on weight. I did, too. With the help of prednisone and a 4,000+ calorie diet regimen, including the wonderfully disgusting "supplement" called Ensure, the weight quickly began piling on. And the arthritis disappeared, so I felt great by the end of that Summer.

But as Summer faded & Fall came on fast, my weight was rising above the original 160-165. As I approached 200 lbs, I begged my parents & doctors to let me STOP, but the doctors were convinced that I could lose 100 pounds any given night of the week, and would need to keep extra weight on as a sort of safety net against future "flare-ups" of Crohn's, which is incurable, but varies greatly in severity from patient to patient.

I should have put my foot down & refused to drink the damned Ensure. I should have cut back on portions, authority figures be damned. But I was far too timid, far too obedient, so I did as the doctors & parents ordered & kept at it.

Until I hit about 230, at which point I told my Dad I was done. At that point, I told my Dad I was done. I felt like a beached whale. None of my old clothes had fit for months, and I was embarrassed every time we had to go shopping for another larger size of pants. And I think Dad had seen that I was internally in a great deal of emotional pain, so he let me quit the ridiculous weight-gain diet.

But as much as I tried, I really never could get back much below 200 lbs. My arthritis came back as they weaned me off the prednisone, and I could not return to the active lifestyle I had once led. From my high school years until my late 20's, I lingered around 190-210 lbs. On a number of occasions I tried dieting, but diet changes never seemed to work.

In my early 30's, I tried the Atkins diet plan. You know the one- low carbs, all the meat & cheese you can eat. And it actually worked well. Before Atkins, my weight had risen to around 240-250 lbs. After 3 months on Atkins, I was down under 220 for the first time in several years, but I also hit a wall. The weight loss stopped, even though I was sticking to the plan. Why? I have no clue.

Over the last 5 years or so since I tried the Atkins plan, my weight has continued to rise. I topped out above 310, which makes me want to barf or shoot myself in the head, just thinking about it. I am disgusting, no 2 ways about it. Worse than the blob-like appearance, as I age, I have become more acutely aware of all of the health problems that affect my family members. Most of my family is overweight. Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a family rite of passage. Diabetes is common. Arthritis is common. And being built like Jabba the Hut can not only exacerbate conditions like arthritis, from which I already suffer, but it can directly lead to hypertension (got it) and diabetes (not yet, knock wood).

In recent years, my voluminous posterior lost the ability to fit in roller coaster seats. I love roller coasters. I nearly had to get off a plane flight to Vegas to visit my sister because I didn't fit in the seat. I sucked it up, dealt with the discomfort, and after getting off the plane in Vegas, the outsides of my thighs were painful & red. Thankfully the return flight had slightly wider seats. Still not comfy, but not painful. I have not flown in years, for this very reason. Vacations to Dallas and New York have involved thousand mile road trips instead. I test drove a VW GTI last year & I just didn't fit in the seat. (I bought a Mazdaspeed3 instead, and am probably better off anyhow, but still)

All of that ignominy was enough to really kick the crap out of me mentally, and I could very well have been diagnosed as medically depressed on more than one occasion. And I gotta tell ya- it's frustrating when people shy away from telling jokes based on race, creed, handicap, gender, but fat people are fair game.

It was time to make a change. Not a diet, but a complete lifestyle change, for my health, my appearance, my self-esteem.

About 6 weeks ago, I swore off fast food, except for salads & the occasional Wendy's chili. (Working graveyard shift, fast food is a horrible habit I had fallen into) I all but swore off soft drinks, having maybe 4-5 Coca Colas in said 6 weeks. I drank a lot more water and cranberry juice. But the cranberry juice was still high in sugar, so that didn't help too much. I made a concerted effort to reduce my portion sizes & eat healthier in an overall sense.

I don't know how much weight I lost, but the 48" waist pants I had recently bought became too loose. To be honest, they were somewhat loose when I bought them, but now I was having to put my hands in the pockets to keep them from falling down when I walked. So I switched back to my old 46's. Not where I want to be, but progress nonetheless.

A few months ago, I saw a good friend of mine lose the equivalent weight of a baby polar bear while under medical supervision, and I decided to follow his lead. He said that he & his wife had both had fantastic results, along with some friends of theirs. He even said that his wife & friends hadn't followed the exercise regimen, but still succeeded in losing significant weight.

I gave in & made an appointment, had my first visit yesterday, and started the diet last night. (I work graveyard shift, 11pm-7am, so that was the logical time to start.) I'll get into the diet details in my next entry.